Netflix reported it's first quarter earnings that exceeded analyst expectations. But the bigger news is that they've announced they have plans to raise the subscription fee and opposes Comcast's impending $45.2 billion merger with Time Warner Cable. Regulators are in the midst of reviewing the merger with an initial hearing held before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 9.

Netflix has issued a statement saying, “If the Comcast and Time Warner Cable merger is approved, the combined company’s footprint will pass over 60 percent of U.S. broadband households, after the proposed divestiture, with most of those homes having Comcast as the only option for truly high-speed broadband,” Netflix CEO Reed Hastings wrote in his first-quarter letter to shareholders. “Comcast could control high-speed broadband to the majority of American homes … The combined company would possess even more anti-competitive leverage to charge arbitrary interconnection tolls for access to their customers. For this reason, Netflix opposes this merger.”

After the comments became public, Comcast responded by saying it was actually approached by Netflix for the direct ISP connection, at the expense of wholesalers with whom Netflix had traditionally contracted. A statement released Monday by a Comcast corporate communications executive further alleged that Netflix’s opposition “is based on inaccurate claims and arguments,” and stated that if Netflix does not like Comcast’s potential merger with Time Warner Cable, Netflix is free to use any other ISP on the market.

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