Alliances and acquisitions can sometimes lead to less access or higher prices for consumers. Comcast bought NBC Universal (from GE).

When one content provider and the Internet access provider are the same, will this lead to some content being favored over others on the Internet?

For example, will Comcast want to send Universal movies (which it owns) with faster download capabilities than it sends, say, a Harry Potter movie from Warner Brothers (which it doesn’t own)?

If you were a Comcast executive, would you want to favor the speed of your own content delivery versus other content providers, including Netflix?