How Time Warner Cable and Comcast might reassure the feds
If Comcast and Time Warner Cable go ahead with their planned merger, they’d control almost 30 percent of all the cable TV subscribers in the U.S., possibly raising fears that they’d own too much of the market. They will reportedly sit down with Justice Department officials this week.
So, how do you reassure the regulators that you’re not out to rule the cable world? For starters, sell some stuff, experts say. Get smaller.
“Cable properties, television properties, channels,” says David Klein, managing partner at Klein Moynihan Turco. “It could even be radio or print publications as well.”
Klein says Comcast and Time Warner could also start offering a la carte pricing, something cable customers have been clamoring for. Comcast could also throw in internet deals for libraries or schools.
“They might, for example, offer to provide higher speed services to some schools in their footprint,” says former Republican FCC commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth.
Or Comcast could agree to hand over some of its customers to a competitor.
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