Comcast is accusing Netflix and Discovery Communications, among others, of using extortion to oppose its proposed $45 billion dollar merger with Time Warner Cable.
In an FCC filing released this morning, Comcast alleges that companies made offers to trade political support for the merger in exchange for “self interested requests” from the cable giant. Comcast specifically names Netflix, Discovery and DISH Network as having engaged in these negotiations.
“The significance of this extortion lies in not just the sheer audacity of the demands, but also the fact that each of the entities making the ‘ask’ has all but conceded that if its individual business interest are met, then it has no concern whatsoever about the state of the industry, supposed market power going forward, or harm to consumer, competitors or new entrants,” an attorney for Comcast wrote.
Among the alleged requests outlined in the filing were free backbone services, Comcast advertising technology and wholesale arrangements. Comcast also says it received demands to carry networks that “do not even exist yet.”
Netflix and Discovery were quick to deny charges of extortion. In a statement on the subject Netflix commented, “It is not extortion to demand that Comcast provide its own customers the broadband speeds they’ve paid for so they can enjoy Netflix.”
The proposed marriage between two of America’s largest cable providers has raised fears among net neutrality activists that Comcast’s growing power will jeopardize the freedom of the Internet. Netflix has been especially supportive of net neutrality, from which it would benefit financially, and even protested alongside activists in staging a faux Internet slowdown earlier this month.
