Comcast-NBCU Opponents Take It to State Attorneys General

In letter to six states, coalition including WGA, NOW call deal “a grave threat to both consumers and competition.”

A group set up by opponents of Comcast’s bid for NBC Universal including the Writers Guild of America Wednesday urged urging state attorneys general to oppose the deal, calling it "a grave threat to both consumers and competition.”

“This broad horizontal and vertical integration will give Comcast unprecedented means and incentive to engage in anti-competitive behaviors that would be fundamentally harmful to consumers, competitors and workers,” said the letter sent to six attorneys general, including the former president of the National Association of Attorneys General by the Coalition for Competition in Media.

The coalition combines 21 consumer groups like Common Cause, the National Organization for Women, the Media Access Project, the Writers Guild of America (East and West), and the Parents Television Council, along with some cable competitors of NBCU and Comcast, including Bloomberg and WealthTV.

The letters were directed to attorneys general in California, Washington State, Florida, New York and Oregon that initially examined the deal and at the association of attorneys general.

“There is simply no precedent in U.S. media history for a single company to combine so much control of both distribution and content,” said the letter.  It suggested the deal “would give Comcast the ability to control access to local sports, dominate the local ad market and make it harder for competitors to gain a foothold.”

The letter points especially to the impact on customers in the Boston, Chicago, Denver, Fresno, Hartford, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, the San Francisco Bay Area, Tucson and Washington, D.C. markets.

It says that in those areas, Comcast will be the dominant cable and broadband provider – in some markets controlling more than 70 percent or more of the pay-TV market – and also own one or more of the local NBC station, the local Telemundo station and the dominant regional sports network.

In a statement, Comcast cited the number of officials and groups that have endorsed its deal.

 “We’re proud of the over 1,000 elected officials and diverse organizations across the country that have expressed support for this transaction. We are confident reviews will find this deal to be pro-competitive and in the public interest,” said the Comcast statement.

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