Charter/TWC/BHN Raises OTT Competition Concerns, Time Warner, HBO Say
Time Warner and HBO are raising red flags about how Charter Communications' buys of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable could hurt the over-the-top market. An ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-149 about a meeting earlier this…
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week that TW and HBO executives had with FCC staff -- at the invite of the agency -- said the programmers asked the FCC to keep in mind unspecified statements made by Charter representatives. Those comments seemed to indicate New Charter "would be inclined to take action directed at programmers" in response to development of OTT services. Dish Network, a leading opponent of the Charter deals, also has argued Charter is motivated to use its market power to slow OTT competition in order to benefit its own business (see 1512230017). Those at the meeting included Time Warner General Counsel Paul Cappuccio; HBO General Counsel Eve Konstan; FCC General Counsel Jonathan Sallet; Owen Kendler, who's heading the FCC working team overseeing the deals' review; and Media and Wireline bureau staffers. In a statement, Charter said: "There is no more friendly broadband provider to OVDs than Charter. Charter’s slowest speed is 60 Mbps, we have no data caps, no usage based billing, no contracts and no modem fees.