Free market watchdog Competitive Enterprise Institute has no idea of the Comcast/NBCU merger will succeed or fail, if it goes through. But it does believe that in going through, it will force competing companies to improve their own products, and that it is a strong reason for the Congress and regulatory agencies to get out of the way and let the merger go through.
CEI’s Wayne Crews said, “Any government intervention that shields Comcast-NBC’s competitors from critical market pressures — and thus of the need to respond to potentially superior new products and services — will hurt consumers. These seemingly endless proceedings and political delays all directly harm consumer interests and the broader communications marketplace. There is too much tolerance both for interference by Congress and the Federal Communications Commission in today’s media-saturated world, and for challenges from media competitors who should have no say whatsoever in whether or not mergers among rival firms go through.”
Crews concluded, “The prospect of new competitive alternatives on the media horizon will be damaged by the destruction of wealth entailed in halting a productive merger. The merger, if it goes through, may or may not prove successful for the companies themselves. Regardless, it is precisely the market’s task to respond to this deal and future ones competitively, not to leverage Washington’s influence to avoid having to engineer around and sweat over such a response.”
