as a condition for approval of the comcast nbc universal transaction, the fcc and the justice department require comcast nbc to take affirmative steps to foster competition, including volatile compliance with net neutrality as well as steps to get the public interest. comcast has indicated it would extend the same commitments to its proposed acquisition of time warner cable. additionally, comcast has entered into an agreement to sell 1.4 million subscribers and to invest another 1.2 9 million subscribers to form a new rival cable company. nevertheless, some observers are concerned that behavioral remedies were ineffective and unenforceable to the extent comcast might not abide by them. we should consider whether such commitments should be strengthened and made enforceable to better protect the public interest with respect to comcast proposed acquisition of time warner cable. i look forward to the testimony. thank you for your time. >> i recognize the vice-chairman of the subcommittee for his statements. >> i will be brief. as a free-market conservative, i am on the record as stating i do

as the condition approval for the comcast nbc universal transaction, the fcc and the justice departmentative steps to foster competition. including voluntary compliance with net neutrality protections as well as steps to benefit the public interest. comcast has indicated that it will extend the same commitments through its proposed acquisition on time warner cable. additionally comcast entered into an agreement with charter communications to sell 1.4 million subscribers and another 2.9 million subscribers to form the new rival cable company. nevertheless they are concerned that the behavioral remedies imposed in the comcast nbc-u transactions were unenforceable to the extent comcast didn't abide by and accordingly, we should consider whether such tm commitments should be strengthened and made enforceable to protect the public interest with respect to comcast proposed acquisition of time warner cable. i look forward to your testimony. thank you, chairman. >> thank you mr. conyers. i recognize the vice chairman of the subcommittee for his opening statement. >> thank you mr. chairman. as a

imposing behavioral .evenues would be sufficient as a condition for approval of the comcast nbc universal transaction, the fcc and the justice department require comcast nbc to take affirmative competition,er including volatile compliance with net neutrality as well as steps to get the public has indicatedast it would extend the same commitments to its proposed of time warner cable. additionally, comcast has toered into an agreement sell 1.4 million subscribers and to invest another 1.2 9 million subscribers to form a new rival cable company. nevertheless, some observers are concerned that behavioral anddies were ineffective unenforceable to the extent comcast might not abide by them. we should consider whether such commitments should be strengthened and made enforceable to better protect the public interest with respect to comcast proposed acquisition of time warner cable. to the testimony. thank you for your time. >> i recognize the vice-chairman hishe subcommittee for statements. >> i will be brief. as a free-market conservative, i am on the record as stating i don't think government should theyfe

comcast cable advertising business if the merger is approved? thank you for the question. i will start by saying in the the nbc universal comcast transaction, advertising markets were not as important for those broadcasting. this one is different. there are a variety of ways that advertisers can get onto cable at this point. my understanding, it is a $5 billion market. wouldmbined company dominate two of the three ways advertisers can get on. in myedictable result, view, is that smaller going to getre not access to local cable. that time will be sold elsewhere. >> a negative impact. mr. polka, you said it would have a better mental effect for competitor such as netflix and amazon. i think there's an interesting argument that can be made. situations, it is a shortcut to grow instead of competing. in youre union -- opinion, does this merger remove the competitive dynamics from the market? because, really, things that doj consumers lose sight of -- i'm looking at the competitive marketplace. your comment? >> yes sir. when at of the matter is company like a comcast or a time the ourable -- which compete, there is an incentive to be anti-compet

, this is why we are asking for fcc and department of justice review, that comcast-nbc universal as part of a larger transaction will seek to recover its programming in sports rights costs. one way that they can do that is how it charges itself as nbc universal charges comcast for programming. well, it sort of one and the other but if nbc universal charges comcast a higher price, and that price is then transferred down to the smaller providers of the national cable television cooperative, our members, who by programming, our prices as member companies and as competitors to both comcast and time warner will rise which will ultimately lead to rising prices for the consumers. so we are not convinced that this merger will lead to lower prices for consumers. in fact, to your point about choice, there really is no choice today because of how programming from companies like comcast universal and others, how programming is sold in bundles. where once a programming must be purchased or no programming can be purchased at all. ultimately, unless those bundles are broken up, all they will see is higher prices. >> thank you

transaction and there was no job loss to be expected. i'm proud to report to you that if you look at the combined nbc comcast and universal we are somewhere between 3000 and 5000 time wes than at the did the transaction. >> i'm happy we had that discussion back then. it is still an important question. in your view, how effective in the comcast, nbc, universal issue been and should similar remedies apply in this case? >> thank you for the question. generally speaking, behavioral remedies are like medication. often time it does not work. there has been a rich respective , the most comprehensive looking at price increases. it looks at all the fact there's that go into the success of behavioral remedies. there are problems with them and even asian byde the parties being regulated. i will not get into an argument with comcast about whether it invaded certain of those remedies. as a problem with unforeseen circumstances. we have heard about that in the defense of the remedies that appeared to cover the fcc open internet order. comcast went outside of that and made issues out there. my view is behavioral remedies are to be avoided. i'm quite sur