The Justice Department lawyers have been contacting outside parties in the last few weeks to shore up evidence to support a potential case against the merger, one of the people said. Furthermore, officials at the antitrust division and the Federal Communications Commission, which is also reviewing the deal, aren’t negotiating with Comcast about conditions to the merger that would resolve concerns, such as selling parts of its business or changing practices, said two people familiar with the situation. Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, and Kim Hart, an FCC spokeswoman, declined to comment.
Among regulators’ concerns is whether such a deal could choke new ways of delivering programming, according to one of the people. They have been focused on three areas: whether the combined entity would have too much control over nationwide broadband internet delivery, whether a cable giant could use its financial influence to strike exclusive deals that could keep programming off of other platforms and whether it could limit how programming is delivered through video streaming services, the person said. Antitrust officials also have been looking at whether Comcast complied with regulatory terms under its previous merger with NBCUniversal, one of the people said.
Comcast and TWC will meet DoJ officials 22 April to discuss progress on the deal, the Wall Street Journal reported. Together the two operators would control around a third of US pay-TV and broadband customers.
