With the FCC and Justice Department entering the last third of their review of Comcast's proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is back on offense.
On Monday, the No. cable and broadband supplier used its corporate blog to tout the expansion of its VOD and multiscreen platforms if the deal were to go through.
"One of the most exciting consumer benefits of our pending transaction with Time Warner Cable will be the extension of Comcast's industry leading on demand content and TV Everywhere offerings to new markets like New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Charlotte," wrote Matt Strauss, newly promoted to the position of executive VP and GM of video services for Comcast, on the Comcast Voices blog.
The post is tied to Comcast's third annual "Watchathon Week," during which 215 shows are made available for free viewing on Xfinity On Demand. Strauss said that viewers spent nearly 50 million hours watching on demand content during 2014's Watchathon.
The post came simultaneously with another report, this one in the New York Times, that numerous charitable organizations, academic institutions, elected officials and others who have received donations from Comcast in the past have been called upon to endorse the TWC merger.
"It is a demonstration of how Comcast, the media conglomerate long known for its aggressive lobbying operation, has enlisted a vast network of allies to press federal regulators to approve the $45 billion transaction, much as it did in 2010 as it sought to acquire NBCUniversal," the paper wrote.
The article was immediately seized upon by merger opposition coalition Stop Mega Comcast, which sent a letter Monday to FCC Secretary Marlene Dortch, urging her to read the story.
For more:
- see this Comcast corporate blog post
- see this New York Times article
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