Consumer advocates, industry analysts and cable customers wasted
little time Thursday in airing concerns about the blockbuster deal to
combine Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the nation's two largest cable
companies.
The $45 billion deal, if approved by federal regulators, would result in a total customer base of 30 million subscribers and could bring technological advances to the world of cable TV and high-speed internet.
But the proposed merger comes at a time when customer satisfaction with the cable TV industry — and the two companies in particular — is low. Last year, Comcast and Time Warner Cable came in dead last in an industry consumer satisfaction survey performed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Time Warner Cable has had numerous customer service and operational issues that have hampered its reputation, exacerbated last year by its high-profile fight with and decision to drop CBS over retransmission fees. This ire was seen across social-media sites such as Twitter and Facebook Thursday, as users voiced concern about the megamerger.
The merger would give Comcast the leverage to demand higher fees from programmers, such as HBO and AMC, and would also likely result in higher fees for consumers, he said. The new megacompany could more readily drop smaller programmers, such as IFC, who don't agree to new payment schemes, leading to fewer channel choices for viewers.
Note EU-Digest: as we have seen with the airline industry mergers these mega-mergers do not lead to competitive pricing but rather to increased pricing and bad customer service
Read more: Consumers wary of Comcast, Time Warner Cable merger
The $45 billion deal, if approved by federal regulators, would result in a total customer base of 30 million subscribers and could bring technological advances to the world of cable TV and high-speed internet.
But the proposed merger comes at a time when customer satisfaction with the cable TV industry — and the two companies in particular — is low. Last year, Comcast and Time Warner Cable came in dead last in an industry consumer satisfaction survey performed by the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
Time Warner Cable has had numerous customer service and operational issues that have hampered its reputation, exacerbated last year by its high-profile fight with and decision to drop CBS over retransmission fees. This ire was seen across social-media sites such as Twitter and Facebook Thursday, as users voiced concern about the megamerger.
The merger would give Comcast the leverage to demand higher fees from programmers, such as HBO and AMC, and would also likely result in higher fees for consumers, he said. The new megacompany could more readily drop smaller programmers, such as IFC, who don't agree to new payment schemes, leading to fewer channel choices for viewers.
Note EU-Digest: as we have seen with the airline industry mergers these mega-mergers do not lead to competitive pricing but rather to increased pricing and bad customer service
Read more: Consumers wary of Comcast, Time Warner Cable merger
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