Charter's Sling TV Attitude Shows True Feelings Toward OTT Competition, Dish Says

Charter Communication's attitude toward the Sling TV over-the-top service of Dish Network shows the cable company cares more about protecting its video subscriber numbers than providing a better broadband offering, Dish said in an ex parte filing posted Tuesday in docket 15-149. "Charter's laser-like focus on Sling TV shows that it views Sling TV as a serious competitive threat rather than a benign interest," Dish said. In a highly redacted filing, Dish said Charter internal filings on Dish's procurement of Disney and Scripps Networks OTT rights point to the cable company's attempt to undermine Sling TV "by many means, including anticompetitive methods," and that Charter buying Bright House Networks and Time Warner Cable "will dramatically increase its ability to do so." In a statement Wednesday, Charter said, "There is no more friendly broadband provider to OVDs, including Sling, than Charter. Charter’s slowest speed is 60 Mbps, we have no data caps, no usage based billing, no contracts and no modem fees.”