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FCC Approves Horrible Merger, Hurting Consumers Nationwide
Bad news: According to several news reports, the FCC has voted to approve the Charter-Time Warner Cable merger.
May 06, 2016
With Chairman Tom Wheeler at the helm, the agency ignored hundreds of thousands of people who urged it to block this disastrous deal. Instead of standing with the people who use the Internet, he sided with the companies that want to control it.
Here's Where Things Stand:
Charter now rivals Comcast in size. Together the two companies will offer service to nearly 80 percent of U.S. households. In more than half of Charter's territory, customers will have no other real option for bundled broadband and pay-TV services. Without real competition, Charter can charge whatever it wants.
And Charter has to charge more: This deal is saddling it with nearly $27 billion in new debt. To repay that, Charter will have to raise its already steep prices. This merger will hit low-income communities and low-income people of color the hardest, forcing many offline.
Many working families already struggle each month to pay sky-high broadband bills. People will be forced to make hard choices about basic necessities, and getting online will be impossible for far too many.
The FCC attached various conditions to the merger. But know this: No conditions can make this deal OK.
What the Decision Means for Customers Nationwide:
If you're a Time Warner Cable customer, you can say hello to Charter's much higher prices, which currently start at $40/month for the first year of service and jump from there. While it isn't clear when Charter will implement the rate hikes, the company needs to pay off its debt. It will do that by charging customers more.
If you're breathing a sigh of relief because you're not in the Charter-Time Warner Cable orbit, well -- don't. Because this merger gives Charter so much market power, it will be able -- along with Comcast -- to influence what all providers charge for broadband and cable. This means you can expect your already high rates to get even higher. What's more, this deal will have grave impacts for the online video market -- hurting consumers seeking to cut the cord.
What's Next:
This deal may be done but Free Press isn't giving up. We won't stop fighting the cable industry until we've got fast, affordable Internet for everyone. That means:
- Pushing the FCC to close the digital divide and make broadband more affordable.
- Defending Net Neutrality to keep corporate gatekeepers from locking down the Internet.
- Fighting arbitrary data caps from companies like Comcast and AT&T.
- Lobbying the FCC to boost competition among cable giants.
- Supporting efforts to establish municipal broadband networks that connect people at fair prices.
- There's no one-size-fits-all solution that will get us all fast, affordable Internet, but we'll keep fighting until we get there.
Please chip in $10 today to fuel the fight.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Mary Alice Crim
Mary Alice Crim is the engagement and events director for the media reform group Free Press.
With Chairman Tom Wheeler at the helm, the agency ignored hundreds of thousands of people who urged it to block this disastrous deal. Instead of standing with the people who use the Internet, he sided with the companies that want to control it.
Here's Where Things Stand:
Charter now rivals Comcast in size. Together the two companies will offer service to nearly 80 percent of U.S. households. In more than half of Charter's territory, customers will have no other real option for bundled broadband and pay-TV services. Without real competition, Charter can charge whatever it wants.
And Charter has to charge more: This deal is saddling it with nearly $27 billion in new debt. To repay that, Charter will have to raise its already steep prices. This merger will hit low-income communities and low-income people of color the hardest, forcing many offline.
Many working families already struggle each month to pay sky-high broadband bills. People will be forced to make hard choices about basic necessities, and getting online will be impossible for far too many.
The FCC attached various conditions to the merger. But know this: No conditions can make this deal OK.
What the Decision Means for Customers Nationwide:
If you're a Time Warner Cable customer, you can say hello to Charter's much higher prices, which currently start at $40/month for the first year of service and jump from there. While it isn't clear when Charter will implement the rate hikes, the company needs to pay off its debt. It will do that by charging customers more.
If you're breathing a sigh of relief because you're not in the Charter-Time Warner Cable orbit, well -- don't. Because this merger gives Charter so much market power, it will be able -- along with Comcast -- to influence what all providers charge for broadband and cable. This means you can expect your already high rates to get even higher. What's more, this deal will have grave impacts for the online video market -- hurting consumers seeking to cut the cord.
What's Next:
This deal may be done but Free Press isn't giving up. We won't stop fighting the cable industry until we've got fast, affordable Internet for everyone. That means:
- Pushing the FCC to close the digital divide and make broadband more affordable.
- Defending Net Neutrality to keep corporate gatekeepers from locking down the Internet.
- Fighting arbitrary data caps from companies like Comcast and AT&T.
- Lobbying the FCC to boost competition among cable giants.
- Supporting efforts to establish municipal broadband networks that connect people at fair prices.
- There's no one-size-fits-all solution that will get us all fast, affordable Internet, but we'll keep fighting until we get there.
Please chip in $10 today to fuel the fight.
Mary Alice Crim
Mary Alice Crim is the engagement and events director for the media reform group Free Press.
With Chairman Tom Wheeler at the helm, the agency ignored hundreds of thousands of people who urged it to block this disastrous deal. Instead of standing with the people who use the Internet, he sided with the companies that want to control it.
Here's Where Things Stand:
Charter now rivals Comcast in size. Together the two companies will offer service to nearly 80 percent of U.S. households. In more than half of Charter's territory, customers will have no other real option for bundled broadband and pay-TV services. Without real competition, Charter can charge whatever it wants.
And Charter has to charge more: This deal is saddling it with nearly $27 billion in new debt. To repay that, Charter will have to raise its already steep prices. This merger will hit low-income communities and low-income people of color the hardest, forcing many offline.
Many working families already struggle each month to pay sky-high broadband bills. People will be forced to make hard choices about basic necessities, and getting online will be impossible for far too many.
The FCC attached various conditions to the merger. But know this: No conditions can make this deal OK.
What the Decision Means for Customers Nationwide:
If you're a Time Warner Cable customer, you can say hello to Charter's much higher prices, which currently start at $40/month for the first year of service and jump from there. While it isn't clear when Charter will implement the rate hikes, the company needs to pay off its debt. It will do that by charging customers more.
If you're breathing a sigh of relief because you're not in the Charter-Time Warner Cable orbit, well -- don't. Because this merger gives Charter so much market power, it will be able -- along with Comcast -- to influence what all providers charge for broadband and cable. This means you can expect your already high rates to get even higher. What's more, this deal will have grave impacts for the online video market -- hurting consumers seeking to cut the cord.
What's Next:
This deal may be done but Free Press isn't giving up. We won't stop fighting the cable industry until we've got fast, affordable Internet for everyone. That means:
- Pushing the FCC to close the digital divide and make broadband more affordable.
- Defending Net Neutrality to keep corporate gatekeepers from locking down the Internet.
- Fighting arbitrary data caps from companies like Comcast and AT&T.
- Lobbying the FCC to boost competition among cable giants.
- Supporting efforts to establish municipal broadband networks that connect people at fair prices.
- There's no one-size-fits-all solution that will get us all fast, affordable Internet, but we'll keep fighting until we get there.
Please chip in $10 today to fuel the fight.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.