[mythtv-users] Comcast 'flees $45bn monster-merger with Time Warner Cable'

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Fri, Apr 24, 2015 at 1:04 PM, Eric Sharkey <eric at lisaneric.org> wrote:
.....
> Not entirely, at least for MythTV users.  Time Warner is one of the
> most MythTV hostile providers out there.  Being acquired by Comcast,
> which is much friendlier by comparison, could have been a good thing
> for many people on this list.

While I agree that it *may* have gone down that way (and I was
hoping that it would be one of the potential results for some friends
in a TWC franchise), the other possibility was always that Comcast
moved to the TWC way (there is nothing that currently forces
Comcast to mark content copy-freely, they have just chosen to
do so).

What I was hoping was that the FCC/DoJ added and extended
the consumer protections as part of the merger.  Many of the
restrictions and corporate giveaways that Comcast agreed to
when they acquired NBCU will expire in a few years (and I
assure you that date is circled in red on Comcast's corporate
calendar).  And (to your point) I think requiring content to be
copy-freely could have been one part of the consumer protections.
And for more than the 7 years that Comcast has agreed to in
the past.  It seems to me that if there are no negotiations, we
have lost an opportunity to see exactly where we could have
ended up.