Comcast defends against Netflix over Time Warner merger

Netflix has emerged as one of the biggest foes of Comcast’s proposed merger with Time Warner Cable. Despite a recent agreement in which the digital programmer agreed to pay the cable and broadband giant for a direct connection to its 20 million high-speed Internet customers to improve the speeds and quality of its video streams, the two companies are publicly trading shots at each other. On Monday, Netflix said it was opposed to Comcast acquiring Time Warner Cable, a deal that would give Comcast an estimated 40% share of the U.S. broadband market.

Gee, do you think that Netflix publicly coming out against the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger has struck a nerve with Comcast? Within hours of Netflix declaring its opposition to the proposed $45 billion merger, Comcast came out with a statement that accused Netflix of relying on “inaccurate claims and arguments” to make its case. In particular, Comcast accused Netflix of conflating net neutrality issues with the kinds of peering agreements that Comcast recently reached with Netflix to ensure higher streaming quality over Comcast’s network. The cable giant then went on to tout its own commitment to the “open Internet” by declaring that “there has been no company that has had a stronger commitment to openness of the Internet than Comcast and we are the only ISP in the country that is currently legally bound by the FCC’s vacated Net Neutrality rules.”