Politicians agree upon little in the Age of Obama, but bipartisan concerns greeted the proposed $45 billion merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
The matter should intensify in the coming weeks as hearings flesh out the details behind the plan.
Sen. Al Franken, the MN Democratic who once toiled on behalf of Saturday Night Live, fears the plan will result in higher cable bills and worse service.
“There’s not enough competition in this space, and what we need is more competition, not less,” Franken said in a statement to The Hill.
Franken’s concerns may reflect his true beliefs, but one Beltway insider says such statements rarely carry mush impact in the end.
This is the same merger theater that takes place every single time there’s a merger,” said Berin Szoka, president of the technology policy think tank TechFreedom….The final decision rests with regulators at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which will oversee the consumer interest aspect of the potential deal, and either the Department of Justice (DOJ) or the Federal Trade Commission, which will probe the antitrust side.