Cox Again Calls for AT&T/DirecTV Conditions
Cox Communications is repeating its push for substantial conditions on AT&T's planned buy of DirecTV. The cable company said a combined company would mean "substantial dangers ... to competition for bundled video, voice, and data services." In an ex parte…
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notice posted Friday in docket 14-90, Cox repeated and elaborated on several objections to the proposed deal and proposed regulatory steps to fix them, including that all video services offered by AT&T/DirecTV should be subject to Communications Act Section 628 rules, and requiring that AT&T/DirecTV use its own wiring -- not another provider's -- in any multidwelling unit it serves, or that it take steps to ensure it doesn't somehow interfere with a competitor's broadband service on that wiring infrastructure. AT&T/DirecTV will mean higher programming costs for smaller operators like Cox, as programmers raise prices on them to make up for the volume discounts a larger player like AT&T/DirecTV will be able to command, Cox said, repeating its request the FCC to limit those volume discounts as well to limit any exclusive programming contracts of AT&T/DirecTV. AT&T and DirecTV previously called some of the proposed conditions being put forward by deal critics “self-serving demands ... designed only to advance unrelated business interests" (see 1505270049">1505270049).