One fascinating reason cable companies won’t willingly compete against each other 

Rutledge’s justification for not competing with other cable firms appears to boil down to an anticipation of more mergers and acquisitions. What Charter really wants is the flexibility to buy up other cable companies in the future, and it’ll have a harder time selling those deals to government regulators if Charter has been competing with the target firms the whole time.

Source: One fascinating reason cable companies won’t willingly compete against each other – The Washington Post