Comcast Corp. accused companies criticizing its $45.2 billion bid for Time Warner Cable Inc. of "extortionate" demands and cited video streamer Netflix Inc. and program creator Discovery Communications Inc. as examples.
The comments by largest U.S. cable company Comcast, filed with U.S. regulators, were part of its defense of the deal to buy No. 2 Time Warner Cable. The proposed combination won't harm competition and the added scale will let the new company invest more in its networks, Comcast told the Federal Communications Commission in the comments filed Tuesday.
The FCC and Justice Department are vetting the acquisition, proposed in February, for harm to competition or consumers. Netflix has opposed the deal unless regulators prevent Comcast from charging for the video streamer's Web traffic. Discovery told the FCC the merger could result in fewer independent voices among programmers.
Comcast's announcement of a deal doesn't signal "open season" for reopening contracts, David Cohen, executive vice president of the Philadelphia-based company, said during a conference call Wednesday.
Discovery "is improperly using this proceeding," Comcast said in its filing. "Discovery demanded unwarranted business concessions from Comcast as a condition of Discovery's non-opposition to the transaction."
Discovery responded that Comcast is pursuing a strategy of intimidation, and Netflix said it wanted Comcast to supply its customers Internet speeds for which they had paid.
"We stand by our concerns that Comcast could use its enhanced leverage from the proposed merger to impose onerous terms," said David Leavy, a spokesman for Discovery, based in Silver Spring, Md., which provides Discovery Channel and 12 other U.S. networks.
Leavy said in a statement Comcast has a "strategy of intimidating voices that are not fully supportive of its position."
Dish Network Corp. also has opposed the merger. The satellite-TV operator, which offers its subscribers video over Internet lines that competes with some Comcast-owned programming, said the cable provider may degrade Internet traffic.
Comcast said it has pledged to abide by open-Internet -- or net neutrality -- rules aimed at preventing practices Dish identified.
Netflix is recycling claims that predate the merger announced in February, Comcast said.
Comcast in the filing offered what it called an excerpt from an email from Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings, sent after an agreement for his company to pay for traffic entering Comcast's system. "We found middle ground on our issues that worked well for both of us," Hastings said, according to the Comcast filing.
"It is not extortion to demand that Comcast provide its own customers the broadband speeds they've paid for so they can enjoy Netflix," Jonathan Friedland, a spokesman for the video provider based in Los Gatos, Calif., said in a statement. "It is extortion when Comcast fails to provide its own customers the broadband speed they've paid for unless Netflix also pays a ransom."
Companies that asked Comcast to strike deals with the understanding they'd not oppose the merger sought concessions worth $5 billion or more, according to the filing. Comcast rejected the offers, it said.
"Many of these disappointed programmers are before the commission, seeking often the very same windfalls," Comcast said. "The commission should forcefully reject these extortionate, anti-consumer efforts."
Information for this article was contributed by Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg News.
Business on 09/25/2014