As Netflix Resists, Most Firms Just Try to Befriend Comcast

Virtually every media and tech company -- content providers like CBS and Disney, video streaming services like Amazon, Netflix and YouTube, and social media and e-commerce sites -- has a major stake in the outcome of the government’s review of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. The question these companies now face is whether their interests are better served by speaking out about it, or by keeping any possible complaints to themselves as they try to negotiate the best deals they can with Comcast.

For the time being, almost none are publicly speaking out, partly because they are wary of antagonizing a company with which they do business. Privately, though, media executives are eager to echo Netflix’s concern about the deal, and to cast themselves as victims of the potential megamerger. They use words like “omnivorous” and “rapacious” to describe Comcast, while expressing skepticism on the prospect of the largest cable company buying the second-largest. “Every company, including ours, knows how we feel about the merger, but the question is, Are we going to do anything about it?” said one senior media executive, who like others, insisted on anonymity to discuss a sensitive business relationship. “Who’s going to be the first to kick sand in the bully’s face?”