AT&T Tries Scare Tactics As Comcast-Time Warner Cable Merger Moves Ahead

**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest communications mergers in Q1 2014.**

AT&T is trying some scare tactics on consumers as Comcast and Time Warner Cable press ahead with their $45 billion merger.

AT&T– which provisions the U-verse pay-TV service and plans to buy DirecTV – recently sent postcards to prospective customers, warning that “the two cable companies with some of the poorest overall customer satisfaction scores have announced they are merging,” Variety reported this week.

The mailer did not discuss AT&T’s $49 billion DirecTV purchase, instead pointing to the results of the American Customer Satisfaction Index for the Subscription TV and Internet Service Industries. That report, released last month, found that Time Warner Cable scored worst among pay-TV providers, while Comcast tied with Charter Communications for second-worst. DirecTV, on the other hand, topped the list in satisfaction, and was followed by U-verse.

An AT&T spokesman told Variety the mailer was “one way of informing customers they have a choice of TV providers, and when it comes to customer satisfaction, U-verse is a better choice.”