Free Press Tells CNN, NPR and Others That the Comcast Deal Is Terrible, Horrible, No Good and Very Bad
If you’ve been too busy shoveling snow and cursing Punxsutawney Phil to keep up with the news about the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal, never fear: Free Press has been making the media rounds and has all the details you need on why this merger spells disaster.
On CNN’s Reliable Sources, Free Press President and CEO Craig Aaron told host Brian Stelter that the deal “would make Comcast a gatekeeper … over all our forms of media and communication, giving them a lot of power to dictate the terms of the business, to decide what goes on the Internet and what doesn’t, certainly what goes on your cable system and what doesn’t. ... That’s too much power in the hands of one company.”
The basic math for this deal isn’t pretty. Comcast is the country’s #1 cable and Internet company and Time Warner Cable is #2. If the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department sign off on this deal, Comcast will control more than a third of the U.S. pay-TV market and more than half of the nation’s triple-play market for video, voice and Internet service.
The scenario becomes even more alarming when you consider that Comcast routinely ranks at the bottom of the barrel in customer-satisfaction surveys.
“This is a very dangerous deal for consumers,” Aaron told NPR’s On Point. “They’re going to end up paying a lot more and having a lot fewer choices.”
Free Press’ critique of the deal has popped up in outlets nationwide, including Al Jazeera America, Bloomberg TV, Good Morning America, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and NPR’s All Tech Considered.
Check out the videos below to watch Craig Aaron skewer the merger — and take action to stop this monster deal.