The U.S. Department of Justice is reportedly poised to block the proposed merger of cable giants Comcast and Time Warner.
U.S. antitrust lawyers are said to be leaning against the proposed Comcast-Time Warner deal, according to sources who spoke with Bloomberg. Reacting to the news, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken penned an op-ed reiterating his own opposition to the potential merger, which he believes would be bad for consumers.
Comcast has made a $45.2 billion bid for Time Warner Cable, which would make the country’s largest television and Internet provider larger still. If the deal was approved, it could carry major implications for content providers and services, such as Apple’s iTunes and Apple TV.
Sen. Franken also opposed Comcast in the net neutrality debate, helping to convince the Federal Communications Commission to regulate Internet providers under the Communications Act.
Franken’s op-ed piece calls Comcast “greedy and dishonest,”making note of how the cable provider already prioritizes its own content over that of rivals. Franken hopes public opposition to the Comcast-Time Warner deal will help convince the DOJ to block it.
“No company should be entrusted with the kind of dominant market position Comcast is seeking in this deal, especially when the company in question has proven that they simply can’t be trusted,” Franken said.
Approval of the deal could affect Apple’s reported plans to create a subscription television service, offering a number of cable channels at somewhere between $20 and $40 per month.
