• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, December 3, 2014

A group of unlikely allies are banding together in a new initiative opposing Comcast's proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable.

The Stop Mega Comcast Coalition includes Dish Network, Glenn Beck's "The Blaze" and advocacy groups Public Knowledge and Consumer Action.

“The Comcast-TWC merger threatens competition, runs counter to our antitrust and communications laws and should be rejected by federal regulators,” the group says on its new site. “This much power concentrated in the hands of one company would be frightening even for the most trustworthy of companies.”

The move comes the same day that the Federal Communications Commission officially ended its suspension of the merger review.

One of the opponents' major concerns centers on Comcast's broadband footprint. Already, Comcast is the largest provider of home broadband in the country. But if the deal goes through, the company's power over the Web could increase dramatically: A combined Comcast-Time Warner would control the highest-speed broadband offering available to four out of every 10 homes, according to opponents.

"Those who want their content to flow quickly and freely will have to submit to Mega Comcast’s terms,” the anti-merger coalition says. “Those that compete with Mega Comcast or refuse its demands could be slowed down or shut out.”

For its part, Comcast was dismissive of the new initiative. “There's no real news here -- a group of existing opponents making the same arguments they have already made and leveling essentially the same criticisms that have been leveled in the past,” the company said today in a blog post.

Comcast also repeats the talking point that it doesn't currently compete with Time Warner for U.S. customers. “That means that if the proposed transaction goes through, consumers will not lose a choice of cable companies. Consumers will not lose a choice of broadband providers,” Comcast writes. “And not a single market will see a reduction in competition.”Earlier today, however, the company inadvertently posted a caveat to that paragraph -- one that obviously was meant for internal review, and not public consumption.

The passage, noticed by Consumerist, reads: “We are still working with a vendor to analyze the FCC spreadsheet but in case it shows that there are any consumers in census blocks that may lose a broadband choice, want to make sure these sentences are more nuanced.”

That sentence is no longer online, and it's not clear what the company's analysis of FCC data revealed. Regardless, it's undisputed that the proposed deal will leave Comcast with unprecedented power over Internet access in America.