AT&T and Dish have problems with Charter-TWC merger – surprised?

The merger between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable will significantly damage competitive development of over-the-top (OTT) video and limit consumer access to online video programming, said DISH Network.

DISH noted that the proposed transaction would be no better for the public interest than the one proposed between Comcast and Time Warner Cable. It also says that the merger will create a “suffocating duopoly”, as two broadband providers (Comcast and New Charter) would control about 90 percent of the nation’s high-speed broadband homes between them.

Wireless company AT&T, which acquired satellite-TV provider DirecTV in July for $48.5 billion, said in its letter on Tuesday that the $55 billion Charter-TWC deal warranted “careful scrutiny”.

Though Dish said it “does not believe that any conduct conditions would be sufficient to mitigate, let alone cure, this transaction’s substantial anticompetitive effects”, it proposed four conditions that should be applied to the merger if it does go through. Including debt, the deal valued Time Warner Cable at $78.7 billion. Dish also said that New Charter would “have an acute incentive to thwart the quality of Sling TV”, which is Dish’s new online video service.

Advocacy organizations including Public Knowledge, Common Cause and Open MIC all wrote jointly to the FCC warning that the combined company would be able to strangle streaming online video services such as Dish’s SlingTV or HBO Now. “Ultimately, the Commission cannot grant this merger unless it can be assured that a post-merger Charter cannot detrimentally affect the programming market, or use its clout as a video distributor to impose contractual prohibitions that would inhibit online video’s access to programming in ways that are less visible than the blunt instrument of data caps, Open Internet violations, and congested interconnection points”, they argue.

Charter has previously said that it think its merger is in the public interest and has sought to distance itself from Comcast’s failed attempt to acquire TWC, noting that Charter’s new subscriber total will still be less than that of Comcast’s today if its deals get approved. “The proposed merger represents retrenchment – not competition – and would serve as a significant new barrier to expanded future broadband competition”, Comptel said.

Charter has said that allowing it to merge with Time Warner Cable would make it a stronger competitor.