14 DAY TRIAL // The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to extend the window for accepting comments regarding the merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, mainly because of a hefty document filed by Comcast.
The commission says that the document isn’t your regular file, but actually something the size of an R.R. Martin novel with 850 pages. Furthermore, the FCC says the document contains information that is critical to the review of the proposed transaction, the same one that has been opposed by countless voices so far because competition among Internet providers in the United States would lower even more.
Due to the lengthy material, the FCC needs more time to go through it, and will therefore keep the door open to more comments, welcoming even more opinions from those interested enough in the future of the American internet to file one.
Therefore, instead of October 8, Comcast-TWC merger comments can be sent until October 29, a full three weeks later.
Furthermore, the commission has also decided to pause the transaction clock set at 180 days, which is the timeline the FCC imposed for itself to offer an official opinion regarding the merger between the two communications giants. Until October 29, the “clock” will be paused, after which time it will resume and give the FCC roughly another three months to deliver a final decision.
There’s a precedent
“It is routine for the FCC to pause the review of significant transactions as it works to create a full record (this happened in our prior transactions as well),” said Sena Fitzmaurice, Comcast government communications exec. She is referring to the acquisition of NBC Universal, which was announced in December 2009.
“We will work with the staff to determine the additional information the FCC is seeking (including the document production that the FCC had asked us to delay filing) and will submit supplemental answers and documents quickly thereafter so that the FCC can complete its review early in 2015,” she continued.
There has been quite a bit of criticism regarding the merger between the two companies that have already divided their territories between them. The Comcast boss was saying a few months back that the merger wouldn’t cause any competition issues because the two of them didn’t operate in the same cities, which is, of course, the main issue to start with.
Allowing the two companies to merge into one would give birth to a cable giant with some 30 million subscribers who already have few legitimate alternatives for their high speed Internet needs.
While Comcast cites the fear of Google and Netflix as the reason for the merger, it should be noted that Google Fiber is only available in three cities, while Hulu, the only main competitor to Netflix is actually owned by Comcast.