Collapse of Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger shows limits of lobbying

Comcast and Time Warner Cable spent more than $32 million influencing Washington over the past year, in large part to sell its $45 billion mega-merger. In the end, they’re left with a dead deal, a sharp rebuke from regulators, and a harsh lesson that lobbying dollars only go so far. Comcast and its Washington chief, David Cohen, followed the company’s tried-and-true playbook, hoping free-flowing campaign donations and a ground assault could quiet congressional critics and win over the Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department -- much as it had in 2011, when it bought NBCUniversal. Instead, opponents are hailing Comcast’s failed strategy as a welcome sign that money can’t buy everything in Washington.

“Comcast tried to follow the same playbook it used in [NBC], which was the same playbook that AT&T tried to use with T-Mobile, which is just to flood the zone politically,” said Arik Ben-Zvi, a managing director for Glover Park Group, which represented critics of the deal. “And I think what we’re learning more and more is that model of campaigning has real diminishing returns,” he continued. “It’s transparent, it’s easy to expose.”