FCC pauses review of Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger

The Federal Communications Commission is delaying its review of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger to review documents that TWC did not make available upon original request.

As a result, the FCC is stopping the informal 180-day 'clock' on its review of the proposed merger and will restart it on Jan. 12, 2015. The two companies proposed the $45 billion merger in February.

The agency said that Time Warner Cable notified the FCC that it had improperly withheld more than 7,000 documents requested on an incorrect claim of attorney-client privilege. And the company would produce by Dec. 30 another 30,000 documents, misplaced because of vendor error.

"The magnitude of the errors ... and the delays in rectifying them were substantial so that the tardy productions have interfered with the Commission's ability to conduct a prompt and thorough review of the pending applications," said William Lake, chief of the FCC's media bureau in a letter to the companies.

In October, the FCC stopped the review 'clock' on the Comcast-Time Warner merger, and the AT&T-DirecTV merger to give it time to figure out how to handle potentially controversial documents made between pay-TV providers and media companies.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable filed comments Tuesday at the end of the public comment period asking the agency to approve the merger. "An exhaustive record has been compiled that shows that the benefits of this Transaction are real and substantial and that opponents' claims of harm are based on speculation and flawed analysis," they wrote.

A vast array of opponents including consumer advocacy groups and competitors such as Dish Network have voiced their opposition to the merger. "The volume and strength of the evidence stacked against this merger continues to grow," said Gene Kimmelman, president of consumer tech advocacy group public Knowledge.