NY Governor May Seek Undoing of Comcast Merger

The New York Post reports today that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo wants to strengthen the hand of his state’s cable regulators — proposing new rules that would let them kill the Comcast-Time Warner merger.

In addition to giving New York state’s Public Service Commission (PSC) added bite, the rule change would put the onus on Comcast to prove that its mega-merger with TWC is in the public interest, the sources said.

This guilty-until-proven-innocent new rule is quite a change from the current rule, which requires the PSC to show why any acquisition fails the public interest test.

Cuomo is discussing giving the PSC much greater oversight of the proposed cable combo, making it almost impossible to finalize, the sources stated.

“This could essentially kill the deal,” one source said.

The new rule would be similar to state regulations for gas and oil companies, officials said.

New York isn’t the only state scrutinizing the merger involving the Philadelphia-based Comcast. Florida and other states are planning to join the Justice Department in its examination of the proposed merger; New York hasn’t said if it will join that group.