Coalition of small cable operators calls for antitrust investigation into Comcast (Trump agrees)

[doctorow]

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/11/14/is-not-my-friend.html

…

[emo_pinata]

I bet this lasts for as long as a flight from Philly to DC takes

[Gutierrez]

@doctorow

However, Comcast only holds a minority share in Hulu, and it will have even less influence after a Disney-Fox merger gives Disney control over 60 percent of the service.

When Disney+ comes out and they have to decide where to stick their content and user base this is all going to come to a head. Disney, with stakes in Hulu, Marvel production invested in Netflix, ESPN, Fox and Disney/Buena Vista, will have a content reckoning. Next will be a fight over distribution costs with the internet providers. With as much lobbying as there is tied up between media and telecommunications I expect wildly contradictory tweets coming for a while.

[Brainspore]

@doctorow

a call that was supported by Donald Trump in a tweet.

WTF?

@doctorow

Comcast owns NBC, one of the many media companies that Trump has vocally denounced.

Ahhhhh there it is.

[kpkpkp]

Just because Trump’s interests happen to align with those of others means in no way that he gives a shit about others.

The positions of powerful interest groups are “not substantially correlated with the preferences of average citizens”, but the politics of average Americans and affluent Americans sometimes does overlap. This is merely a coincidence, the report says, with the the interests of the average American being served almost exclusively when it also serves those of the richest 10 per cent.

The US is an oligarchy, study concludes

[Papasan]

tRump cares about consumers? Today, for about five minutes, until his nap time…

[RickMycroft]

What Trump heard:

@doctorow

The ACA claims that Comcast’s market dominance gives it the potential to get preferential treatment for “must have” channels, and that its past conduct (including violations of its consent decree) put it at a high risk of these abuses (Trump claimed that the abuses were already “routine,” which is not what the ACA alleges).

Comcast owns NBC, one of the many media companies that Trump has vocally denounced.

[fredtal]

Yea I’m sure he turned off Hannity one time and saw what Rachel Maddow says and freaked out.

[HMSGoose]

Great that Trump agrees, but he’s so fucking capricious that he ends up being a case study in the abuse of anti-trust power in exactly the way that free marketeers howl about whenever they talk about their freedom being stifled and success being punished by government overreach. He really is the UR Republican, simultaneously demanding smaller government AND making sure to be a living example of the worst abuse and dysfunction of the government he does have control over.

[Boundegar]

Evan a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[weekendlites]

So what’s in it for the Donald then?

[sosumi]

In other Comcast news:

Comcast Agrees To Pay Refunds, Cancel Debts For 20,000 Massachusetts Customers

Comcast is settling a lawsuit that alleged the company “violated state consumer protection laws by using deceptive advertisements to promote its long-term cable contracts."