Comcast has a history of playing hardball with competitors, often at the expense of consumers. In Philadelphia, Comcast’s hometown, many sports fans are unable to watch broadcasts of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers, and Major League Baseball’s Philadelphia Phillies because Comcast owns these franchises and refuses to allow satellite providers to air them.

Comcast is also one of the nation’s largest Internet service providers, which could mean drawbacks for online customers, too. Comcast Disney could unfairly undermine competitors because it would have the power to provide optimal services for its own websites, such as ESPN.com, while delivering inferior service to competing websites. For example, the Disney-owned ESPN.com might load much faster than a website such as Viacom-owned cbs.sportsline.com, and customers would never know that the slow response was due to the service provider and not the site. That is not fair and real competition -- it is the recipe for monopoly being extended to the Internet.