Why Your Community Should Oppose the Sale and Transfer of Adelphia Franchises to Comcast and Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable (TWC) is the second largest cable operator in America. While TWC serves fewer cable homes than Comcast, it is controlled by Time Warner, one of the world's largest media content creators, an owner of a broadcast network (WB) and multiple cable channels (CNN, TBS, TNT, HBO, etc).
By virtue of their joint control over the nation's cable television homes, Comcast and TWC each possess unacceptable "gatekeeper" power to dictate which television channels Americans receive, as well as the content on those channels, whether they are Comcast and Time Warner Cable subscribers or not. Says cable tycoon John Malone: "I don't believe that an independent programmer has any chance whatsoever… There's no way on earth that you can be successful in the U.S. distributing a channel that Brian Roberts (CEO of Comcast) doesn't carry, particularly if he has one that competes with it."
Comcast and TWC's monthly fees increase annually far in excess of the increase in inflation. A 2004 study by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) found that Comcast's rates have increased by 50 percent – almost three times the pace of inflation – since the Telecommunications Act of 1996. To increase its profits, Comcast forces customers to pay for channels they don't want. Despite the fact that the CFA found that nearly 80 percent of Comcast's customers wouldn't pay for ESPN if they didn't have to, the company refuses to allow customers the option to choose the channels they wish to have in their home and keep out the channels they don't want.
Comcast is the nation's largest broadband Internet service provider. It refuses to allow competing national and local Internet service providers, such as Earthlink, to use its broadband cable to provide Internet access, a practice ruled illegal by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in the Brand X case, presently on appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Comcast's refusal to allow competitors to access its broadband cable gives it power to dictate which sites its consumers can access and to divert customers to sites that Comcast has an economic interest in. Regardless of the outcome of its appeal, the sheer number of Americans who have little or no alternative to Comcast for broadband Internet service gives it an unacceptable power over the American public's Internet and media choices.
TWC, through its AOL and Road Runner units, is the nation's largest Internet service provider. While it presently allows other broadband Internet service providers to access its broadband cable, it does so only because the Federal Trade Commission requires it to – a public interest condition of the approval of the 2001 AOL/Time Warner merger. Time Warner Cable is now appealing that condition of open access – a telling commentary on that company's commitment to the public interest.
Comcast has the worst customer satisfaction rating of any company or government agency in the country, including the Internal Revenue Service, according to a 2004 American Customer Satisfaction Index survey. According to a recent article in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, searching Google using the keywords "Comcast" and "hate" generated 339,000 hits.
The city of Philadelphia, Comcast's corporate headquarters, is building its own wireless broadband network to provide better broadband Internet access to its citizens at a reasonable cost. This speaks volumes.Comcast is the "Wal-Mart of the telecommunications industry" in terms of its labor relations. A recent study by American Rights at Work, titled "No Bargain: Comcast and the Future of Workers' Rights in Telecommunications," is highly critical of the company's labor relations, citing poor pay and union-busting tactics. According to the report, pay is "approximately one-third lower than the unionized telephone companies" while employee "turnover and the use of temporary workers ... are twice as high as the telephone industry average.... Only one in four locations where a union exists have been able to obtain a collective bargaining agreement."
Comcast has taken an extremely confrontational and difficult stance with local communities in franchise-renewal negotiations. In 2003, Comcast sued the city of San Jose during negotiations over its local franchise agreement, arguing the process violated the company's First Amendment rights. Comcast lost this dubious argument in the lower courts, but is now appealing the decision. Meanwhile, San Jose has been without a franchise agreement with Comcast for seven years.
Given these facts, are Comcast and Time Warner Cable truly the best companies to take control of your local Adelphia cable franchise?
No comments:
Post a Comment