Consumers Could Pay $2.4 Billion for Comcast-NBCU Merger
The Comcast takeover of NBC Universal — currently under deliberation by the FCC and Justice Department — could cost consumers $2.4 billion in higher television bills over nine years, according to the American Cable Association.
The $30 billion merger is already unpopular with many leading consumer groups, and the ACA study, commissioned on behalf of a consortium of smaller cable providers, raises another red flag.
The threat to consumers comes from the unrestrained pricing power that Comcast will have over NBC content. Comcast-NBCU would be able to raise programming fees for subscribers that would be passed onto consumers in the form of higher subscription rates.
According to Dr. William Rogerson, the author of the study and former chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission:
"The quantifiable consumer harm of the transaction ($2.566 billion) is more than 10 times greater than the quantifiable consumer benefit ($204 million) claimed by Comcast-NBCU."
The FCC and Department of Justice should impose conditions on the merger to help protect competition by assuring access to NBC Universal's content and providing support for independent programming.
Comcast-NBCU Deal Critics Say Viewers Will Pay More (Reuters)
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