'Stop Mega Comcast' group aims to kill the Time Warner merger

Comcast just can't catch a break. Opponents of the company's $45 billion Time Warner Cable merger have gathered forces to create the "Stop Mega Comcast" coalition, just as the FCC has announced that it's restarting its regulatory review of the deal. The group, which includes Dish Network, the communications non-profit Public Knowledge and others, serves as a united front against the merger. Comcast is already the largest cable provider in the U.S., but the Time Warner deal would make it even more of a juggernaut with 11 million additional customers and control of 50% of the home broadband market. "This much power concentrated in the hands of one company would be frightening even for the most trustworthy of companies," Public Knowledge's CEO Gene Kimmelman said in a statement. "And Comcast is definitely not that."

Comcast, naturally, says it'll be able to offer faster internet speeds to more people by joining forces with Time Warner. And of course, it's in the interest of all of Comcast's competitors to kill the deal. "Hundreds of community organizations, programmers, lawmakers and diversity groups have praised the pro-consumer benefits of this transaction," a Comcast spokesperson told Recode. "It is no secret that some companies that want billions of dollars in higher fees for consumers are paying lobbying firms to organize against this transaction."

The Stop Mega Comcast website doesn't pull any punches: It mentions that Comcast is only one of two companies to be named the "Worst Company in the World" by Consumerist twice, and it features a damning list of "Bad Acts" by Comcast. It doesn't reveal anything we didn't already know about the deal, but it makes it easier for a casual observer (or perhaps a lazy regulator) to realize why it may not be great for consumers. That's ultimately the kind of influence the coalition is aiming for.

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