Consolidation Calls for Diversity Conditions, House Lawmakers Insist
Scores of House lawmakers joined in signing two letters scrutinizing media industry consolidation. They suggested that major acquisitions pending regulatory approval should include commitments and principles to ensure that certain groups not be excluded. Comcast in particular pushed back hard and fast against any assertion that its proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable would cause problems.
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Rep. Tony Cárdenas, D-Calif., led a letter released Sunday, signed by more than 50 lawmakers, to the CEOs of Comcast and Time Warner Cable to “express our strong support for independent television program providers that cater to the Latino community around the country, particularly Latino owned and controlled independent programmers.” The letter lamented what it called the “uneven playing field that threatens to limit the Latino community’s access to their important perspectives.” Comcast should “make a formal commitment to carriage of independent Latino program providers, including Latino owned and controlled independent programmers, and establish clear safeguards,” the lawmakers said. “For most of the Latinos in our nation, a merger between Comcast and Time Warner would mean one company controlling their window to the world of culture and entertainment,” Cárdenas said in a statement.
Other lawmakers pressed the FCC to embrace “principles and questions” of diversity, with “enforceable and meaningful commitments to the affected communities,” in any public interest acquisition review. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., led that Friday letter, signed by 51 lawmakers including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, which referred to Comcast/Time Warner Cable, AT&T’s proposed acquisition of DirecTV and Sprint’s rumored interest in acquiring T-Mobile. Cárdenas and Waters signed one another’s letters. A House Democratic staffer told us the two letters were not actively coordinated.
The Waters letter urged the FCC to require applicants for any deal to include the companies’ goals for diversity. “From junior staff to middle management to executive management, to the corporate boards, the applicants should outline the metrics in place to ensure the recruitment and retention of African Americans, women, and other underrepresented groups to executive-level management and boards,” the lawmakers said. They pointed to divestitures and spinoffs as another area of concern in which divestiture plans should “include ownership opportunities for smaller, minority and women-owned firms.” They urged conditions on how to establish and expand “contracting and consulting opportunities” for various types of minority financial-industry professionals and a similar focus on how the companies engage with legal services and any real estate opportunities.
As Comcast/Time Warner Cable “is first in a series of new mega-mergers before the FCC, it is incumbent to once again stress that a true commitment to diversity goes beyond philanthropic donations,” Waters said in a statement. “It begins with a firm commitment and ends with a measurable plan of action to ensure the expansion of economic opportunities for women and minority-owned businesses."
The letters “suggest some additional concessions are likely in Comcast-TWC even though Comcast made fairly extensive diversity concessions when it bought NBCU,” said analyst Paul Gallant of Guggenheim Partners. “But this is actually a good thing for Comcast because these type of commitments help build political support for the merger without being all that costly to the company."
Comcast defended its deal. The company’s “caveat is that the importance of independent and Hispanic programming, which we are excelling at delivering, should not be confused by parochial business interests seeking more money and distribution for themselves,” Executive Vice President David Cohen told Cárdenas and other lawmakers in a letter dated Saturday. He spent much of his three-page response detailing Comcast’s commitment to such programming and pledging that the Time Warner Cable acquisition reflected the company’s commitment “to bringing high-quality Hispanic content to millions of additional Americans.”
"No other media and technology company in America has been more aggressive and more supportive of driving diversity and inclusion than Comcast,” its spokeswoman said of the Waters letter. “Our goal has been to be a model for diversity and inclusion, and we are proud to have been recognized widely for that commitment. We have achieved significant accomplishments in driving diversity in Governance, Workforce, Procurement, Programming, and Community Investment. We look forward to extending our best in class diversity practices to the entire Time Warner Cable footprint.” The spokeswoman also pointed to Comcast’s most recent diversity report (http://bit.ly/UX71CW). (jhendel@warren-news.com)