Dish Takes Aim at Bright House Deal Benefits

Satellite-TV provider Dish Network -- which is no fan of the proposed merger of Charter Communications, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks -- took aim at the Bright House portion of the deal in an Federal Communications Commission filing, using information gleaned from highly confidential deal material the regulator made available to third parties.

Dish said in the filing that the benefits from the merger across all three companies are "either illusory" or not specific to the transaction. The Bright House connection is the most tenuous between the deal and its purported benefits, Dish, the No 2 US satellite-TV provider and operator of the Sling TV over-the-top subscription service, said. Stephanie Roy, counsel for Dish, said in a Nov 30 letter to the FCC that Bright House, through its existing partnership with Time Warner Cable, is already in a position to complete its deployment of next-generation services. Dish also challenged the claim that Bright House's plan to convert to all-digital months within 30 days is a deal benefit. It argued that the 30-month window appears to be slower than the plans Bright House already had, though those plans are also redacted.