For Immediate Release
Contact: Hillary Crowder Smith, 703-351-2086, [email protected]
Arlington, Va. (May 9, 2016)—NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association issued the following statement from Chief Executive Officer Shirley Bloomfield in response to the FCC’s decision to approve—with conditions—the application to merge filed by Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable (TWC) and Bright House Networks:
“NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association is disappointed that the FCC has approved yet another mega merger in the video distribution space. Many of the financial and economic benefits that the merged company will experience will ultimately come at the expense of consumers, particularly as content providers turn to smaller competitors to make up the slack in reduced revenues from the newly merged larger provider. As the nation’s third largest multichannel video programming distributor, New Charter will wield substantial power, obtaining favorable content pricing and contract terms that its smaller competitors cannot. This dynamic has ramifications across the industry both for those small entities that compete directly with New Charter and those that do not—and more importantly, for the consumers in rural areas served by these small business.
“While NTCA pressed for merger conditions to address such concerns, the conditions ultimately adopted appear to be aimed largely at either advancing specific and narrow priorities related to broadband regulation or addressing concerns raised by the edge providers that seem to be the focus of regulatory activity these days. In the end, the conditions ignore the very real and concerning effects of the transaction on consumers and competition in the broader video distribution marketplace and actually make worse the potential harm of this transaction to consumers in the form of decreased competition.”
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NTCA–The Rural Broadband Association is the premier association representing nearly 900 independent, community-based telecommunications companies that are leading innovation in rural and small-town America. NTCA advocates on behalf of its members in the legislative and regulatory arenas, and it provides training and development; publications and industry events; and an array of employee benefit programs. In an era of exploding technology, deregulation and marketplace competition, NTCA’s members are leading the IP evolution for rural consumers, delivering technologies that make rural communities vibrant places in which to live and do business. Because of their efforts, rural America is fertile ground for innovation in economic development and commerce, education, health care, government services, security and smart energy use. Visit us at www.ntca.org.