Broadband Will Be Centerpiece of Charter/BHN/TWC Review, Say Experts

Broadband Internet issues -- not cable -- will be the focus of federal regulators reviewing the proposed Charter Communications buy of Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable, said former FCC Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth and Public Knowledge President Gene Kimmelman on the latest segment of C-SPAN's The Communicators. "It's going to get very serious review," Kimmelman said. "What happens to my cable bill? What happens to my broadband prices? Do I get better speeds? Will the Netflix, the Amazon [streaming video] products ... be more available or will this combined entity try to cut off my options? That'll be the big [regulatory] question. The cable company has an incentive to favor its own product." Furchtgott-Roth said much of the FCC and Justice Department analyses likely will involve local individual markets. "These are geographically distinct companies," Furchtgott-Roth said. "I'm not convinced they have greater market power collectively than they do individually. At least initially from the outside, it's very difficult to see that there will be substantial antitrust problems." The episode was to have been televised Saturday on C-SPAN and is scheduled for 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday on C-SPAN-2.