Comcast’s buying Time Warner Cable would have a...
Comcast’s buying Time Warner Cable would have a “direct and harmful effect” on the spot cable advertising market, said spot ad company Viamedia in an ex parte filing posted in docket 14-57 Thursday (http://bit.ly/1DlYITB): “Eliminating TWC and facilitating Comcast’s ability…
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to achieve significant growth and even greater scale will have a direct and harmful effect on competition within the $5.4 billion spot cable advertising market.” Comcast/TWC would have a 71 percent share of the spot cable ad market, and already owns 80 percent of cable ad company National Cable Communications (NCC) and controls 54 percent of the interconnects used for spot cable commercials, Viamedia said: “Holding the dominant share of cable homes, owning NCC, and controlling the Interconnects are the three bottlenecks that would allow Comcast absolute control of the distinct cable spot cable advertising market.” The FCC should address this through deal conditions, said Viamedia. “Comcast’s increased dominance means that any technological development in next-generation advertising technologies would be on Comcast’s terms."