Comcast, in its filing with the Federal Communications Commission, admitted that Google and Apple are a major threat in the increasingly competitive video industry.
The $45.2 billion merger between the two dominant cable operators in the U.S. will assist Comcast to avoid threats from Apple and Google.
Comcast is facing stiff competition from Internet video services and phone companies, with Verizon Communications poised to launch online and wireless video products.
“An array of sophisticated companies with national or even global footprints offer stiff competition for all or key components of Comcast’s and TWC’s businesses,” said Comcast in a 175-page filing with the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday.
Comcast focused on the improving share of its telecom rivals as well.
Since 2009, the two nationwide satellite providers — DirecTV Group and Dish Network — have added another 1.7 million subscribers and the telecom video providers — AT&T and Verizon — have added 6.2 million subscribers, while traditional cable operators have lost 7.3 million video subscribers.
Reuters reported that Comcast told U.S. regulators that its merger with Time Warner Cable would not take away any TV or broadband choices for consumers.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is slated to hold a hearing on the proposed Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger on Wednesday.
Philadelphia-based Comcast announced its all-stock $45 billion offer for Time Warner Cable on 14 February, derailing Charter Communications’ hostile bid to acquire TWC.
Comcast said that because the geographical areas served by it and Time Warner Cable don’t overlap, pay-TV competition would not be reduced by the merger. Public interest groups say that the merger would create a dominant pay-TV and broadband provider.
Comcast said Netflix now has over 33 million customers in the United States alone, with another 11 million international customers. Google’s video websites attract over 157 million unique viewers each month who watch nearly 13 billion videos. Apple iTunes viewers purchase over 800,000 TV episodes and over 350,000 movies per day.
Apple launched Apple TV. Amazon currently offers a streaming video service and just announced the planned release of Amazon Fire TV, an advanced video set-top device.
Comcast has 21.7 million video subscribers. TWC, which lost some 830,000 video subscribers in 2013, has 11.2 million.
Comcast says it plans to divest 3 million TWC subscribers in order to keep its share of the overall pay-TV market below 30 percent, which could ease regulatory approval.
If the deal is approved, the combined firm will be the country’s dominant provider of television and Internet connections, reaching roughly one in three American homes. The new company would have a nearly 40 percent share of the high-speed broadband Internet market, according to the Consumer Federation of America.
