Low-Income Kids Latest Comcast-TWC Battleground

Comcast fired back Wednesday at critics of its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable, who took aim at Comcast's Internet Essentials low-cost, low-income broadband initiative in yet another front in those critics' efforts to kill the deal.

In a blog post, Comcast executive VP David Cohen flew to the program's defense. He said those critics were recycling old claims, based on inaccurate information. "The reality is that Internet Essentials has been one of the most successful, if not the most successful, private sector initiatives to close the digital divide ever," he said.

Comcast has said the extension of that program to Time Warner Cable is one of the deal's benefits, but the Stop Mega Comcast Coalition, including deal opponents, took aim on Wednesday at that program, saying that it had only signed up a fraction (13.4%) of 2.6 million eligible households, meaning it was far from the success Comcast claimed.

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John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.