The opposition that led to Comcast’s withdrawal Friday of its proposed buy of Time Warner Cable is a sign of a tough regulatory environment for transactions, yet the dissolution is likely to lead to a flurry of smaller deals, cable analysts, brokers and industry officials said in interviews. Analysts see a second Charter Communications bid for TWC as the next logical step. Despite FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s denunciation of the Comcast /TWC transaction on Friday as “an unacceptable risk to competition and innovation,” deals between lesser companies aren’t expected to arouse FCC opposition, the analysts said.
Comcast is planning Friday to pull out of its proposed buy of Time Warner Cable, an industry official involved with the transaction told us Thursday. The unraveling of the deal comes in the wake of meetings between Comcast and the FCC Wednesday that indicated an unfavorable view of the deal at the commission, several individuals familiar with the proceedings told us.
FCC eighth-floor staffers were briefed Wednesday on Comcast's planned buy of Time Warner Cable by the agency’s transaction review team, agency officials said. The briefing took place on the same day as a Comcast meeting with the Department of Justice, and several industry officials have said the transaction review is seen as winding down (see 1504200049).
The FCC needs to better define the goal of the Downloadable Technical Advisory Committee, several DSTAC members said at Tuesday’s meeting. They echoed a letter sent by several multichannel video programming distributors to DSTAC Chairwoman Cheryl Tritt earlier this month (see 1504160051).
The Department of Justice has deposed officials at Comcast, Time Warner Cable and third-party companies in connection with Comcast's planned buy of TWC, said industry officials involved in the proceeding. Some DOJ officials are leaning toward recommending the deal be blocked, Bloomberg News reported Friday. The DOJ procedure for blocking the transaction would be to file a lawsuit against it, and the depositions would provide evidence for that proceeding. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said in a blog on Tech Crunch that the report on DOJ’s leanings showed the “tide is turning” against the deal.
The work of the Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee is being derailed by members determined to base aspects of the committee’s downloadable security solution on CableCARD and the AllVid proceeding, pay-TV companies and associations said in an April 10 letter to DSTAC Chair Cheryl Tritt. The committee is in danger of exceeding its congressionally defined mandate, and Tritt should “ensure that the DSTAC does not squander its limited time and resources on such extraneous matters,” said the letter signed by eight DSTAC members including Comcast and Cablevision, and nonmembers such as DirecTV and the American Cable Association.
LAS VEGAS -- Relaxed rules for broadcasters on channel sharing and foreign ownership and hints that the incentive auction may end up with a more broadcaster-friendly pricing scheme were the principal takeaways from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler’s speech Wednesday at NAB Show, numerous broadcast industry officials told us. Shortly before his speech, Wheeler circulated draft rules designed to make it easy for broadcasters to channel share, and he’s exploring with Commissioner Michael O’Rielly an initiative to relax rules against foreign ownership, he told the NAB crowd.
LAS VEGAS -- Industry perception that the FCC Enforcement Bureau has become more active and more willing to slap offenders with heavy fines is an outgrowth of process reforms within the bureau, Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said during an NAB Show Q&A session Tuesday hosted by former Enforcement Bureau Chief David Solomon. The bureau no longer treats every complaint as a potential case, but focuses on larger matters where it can make the most impact and act quickly, LeBlanc said. “We are thinking beyond just ‘is this a rule violation?’” The bureau’s older methods led to backlog and inaction, he said.
LAS VEGAS -- Despite its large outlay in the AWS-3 auction, AT&T will participate in the 600 MHz auction, said AT&T Vice President Federal Regulatory Joan Marsh at a panel on the TV incentive auction at the NAB Show Monday. “AT&T has never sat out a major auction, we won’t sit out this one,” Marsh said. That affirms predictions by Expanding Opportunities for Broadcasters Coalition Executive Director Preston Padden, who also spoke on the auction at multiple panels Monday.
LAS VEGAS -- The FCC may not prioritize low-power television or TV translators in the post-auction repacking process, Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake said during an LPTV panel at NAB Show. The commission can’t prioritize everything, and “maybe the best answer is not to prioritize any of them,” Lake said. The panel dealt with several plans for helping soften the impact of the incentive auction on LPTV and translators. The FCC very clearly recognizes the value of LPTV and translators,” Lake said, but the commission is bound to consider them secondary services. One LPTV broadcaster summed up the FCC’s view as “tough luck.”