If you follow news of the media and telecommunications industries, you know that the FCC and Department of Justice recently approved the merger of Comcast and NBCU. This deal marries together the nation’s largest cable provider and one of the major broadcasters. During this past year, several hearings were held by Congress as they sought to understand the potential impacts of the proposed merger upon consumers and competition. WOW! CEO, Colleen Abdoulah, testified before Congress representing the interests of smaller cable operators throughout the country. The Q&A below gives you some of her perspective on the process and why it was important to advocate on behalf of WOW!’s customers and employees.
Q: You spent a lot of time in D.C. in 2010, advocating that the Comcast-NBCU deal needed to have conditions attached to its approval. What kind of conditions were you looking for and were you successful?
I testified in Washington three times before Congress, once before the FCC at a field hearing in Chicago, and attended numerous meetings on the Hill in DC and at the FCC for one reason – fairness. I knew that the Comcast-NBCU merger could create many harms and possibly hurt our company’s competitiveness, and that’s why I testified to ask the FCC and Washington to ensure that our company could continue to compete effectively in our markets. I didn’t ask for special treatment, but just limited conditions that would prevent Comcast-NBCU from taking anti-competitive action against us. Working with our Washington trade association, the American Cable Association (ACA), we sought conditions that would strengthen our company’s ability in the arbitration process to hold Comcast-NBCU accountable for its actions and that would help to keep programming prices down for regional sports, retransmission consent and national cable programming. And after 13 months of effort, the FCC provided conditions that we believe will do just that.
Q: Were there any significant conditions we wanted but were unable to get?
There were many things that we and the ACA would have liked to obtain, but in reviewing a merger like Comcast-NBCU, the FCC does a very thorough job of ensuring that conditions address only those harms that specifically are caused by the merger. No broad conditions were implemented that address industry-wide problems dealing with programming or retransmission consent. For the most part, however, the FCC provided conditions that were on target with the merger-specific harms we and the ACA proved. The FCC extended relief for the first time to cover national cable programming, as well as improved arbitration relief for regional sports and retransmission consent matters. The FCC also increased the size limit for the definition of a smaller cable operator that fully covers WOW! and gives us access to special FCC relief if and when we have a irreconcilable issue.
Q: How will this merger impact WOW!? Will Comcast put WOW! out of business?
We are not at risk of Comcast putting WOW! out of business because of this merger. Yes, it gives them unprecedented size and market power for sure. But we will continue to apply our own, clear and focused strategies, conducting business as we have prior to the merger. Comcast has always invested in the future and now their resources to innovate just expanded. This is something we have always faced being the smaller operator. Yet with the resources we have and the consumer focus we are grounded in, WOW! has smart innovative ideas and plans for the near and long term that will allow us to continue to be competitive. Therefore, the direct and immediate impact this merger has will be fairly transparent until we have to negotiate for services they own/control. Then we shall see if they choose to negotiate in good faith or if we will need to resort to the improved arbitration relief granted.
Q: Now that you have a view of the inside, what do you think about our system of government? Was there anything that really took you by surprise?
Our system has a lot of flaws and can be horribly frustrating and discouraging to navigate through. That said, it is democracy at its best. We do have a voice. We have freedom of speech. We can work hard to try and make things better if we don’t like what we see and experience and that in itself is a gift. Our elected officials can get isolated from the ‘real world’ and it is important that constituents take an active role in their local, state and national issues. The politicians listen to their constituents because they want to be re-elected, in most cases. The surprises – well, it is the power of money and big industry. I always knew that money mattered and corporations have a huge impact on Washington. I guess I just didn’t realize how much. Along with money though a common denominator still exists which allows for small guys like us and the ACA to have a voice: relationships. After all, Washington is made up of people. People who know one another, respect and trust each other and build bonds with one another. The ACA and the agencies that support the ACA have built great relationships on the Hill and have earned the trust and respect of many influential people. It reinforces that money isn’t everything. Relationships and working with integrity matter as well. So I was pleasantly surprised that by being willing to testify and invest in the time to meet with various stakeholders, we were able to further develop relationships and in the end, be heard and taken seriously.
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Cathy Kuo's Recent Comments
Hey Sherry. So I didn’t make it to Michigan this time, so I love seeing the picture. How great is that?!
Thanks for your comments, jdfuss. You’re correct, I neglected to mention competition. We do consider what other folks are distributing, and I didn’t call them out specifically as we tend to see that effect come through from our customer requests and feedback from our service representatives and other employees.
Specific to MLB Network, we did meet with them and I recognize they are building a following. There are a couple of reasons why we have chosen not to carry them at this time. As with lots of the sports networks that are out there, we might be willing to distribute them if we could carry them in a separate package. That would allow customers who are willing to pay to watch the channel to do so, without having to force the higher cost of sports programming onto a larger customer base that’s not interested. Unfortunately, at this time, that is not an option available to us from MLB Network. Additionally, MLB offers MLB.tv over an Internet connection so there are options for fans to access a lot of the content and games they may want. I recognize that’s not the same as having the channel available, but it is a viable option for many folks.
There are definitely a lot of baseball fans out there, and we do carry a lot of baseball games and shows across the various sports networks and local broadcast channels that are available on our line-up today. As you say, we accept that we won’t be able to make everyone happy. But I assure you we do our best to carefully weigh the various factors in the decisions that we make.
I do appreciate your feedback on how we respond to customers who make channel requests. When I receive an email directly from a customer, I do my best to answer it personally or find someone who can provide the right answer. However, I don’t always see the standard online forms and so maybe there’s a better way for us to help customers understand our intentions around carriage of a specific channel. I’ll work on that and hopefully your suggestion will benefit others in the future.
Ugh. I hate to lose you as a customer because of a channel. I empathize with what you’re going through (I’m here in Colorado with a dog named Fenway…); but, for the reasons I stated above, we do not have plans to launch MLB Network. Maybe MLB.tv is an option for you?
Regardless, thanks for asking the question and giving me an opportunity to respond.
I realize that can be frustrating to see channels that are available in the Chicago suburbs but not in the city. One of the primary reasons why that occurs comes back to the issue of available bandwidth or capacity. We are obligated and required to carry several channels in the city that don’t apply to the suburbs. As a result, they consume some of our shelf space that we might otherwise use to deliver channels that customers have requested. There are other reasons too. For example, we typically don’t carry all of the regional sports networks in each of our markets — just the ones that make the most sense regarding local teams. And sometimes for whatever reason, we hear from a lot of customers in one market about a certain channel that doesn’t come up in others. Those are some of the things we balance when we make our decisions. Hope that helps in some way to answer your question.
BK — Happy Anniversary!
Thanks, Deanna and Bill. Last month when I was in Naperville I had a chance to sit in with Dispatch and monitor some calls. As always, it was great to see teamwork in action. I have such respect for the work that you all do given the amount of multitasking and systems work that has to take place in order to ensure that our customers are being taken care of well. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Bill, words can’t express our thanks to you and everyone else who has or is serving in the military.
Kelley, thanks so much for your comment. I’m so sorry we can’t go with you to Bloomfield Twp. But the nicer school, house and pool sounds like a great move — WOW! aside — for your family. Best wishes to all of you in your new home and hometown.
Regards,
Cathy