There are a number of people that feel that merging Comcast's crappy cable service with Time Warner's crappy cable service is a really bad idea.

You can add WeatherNation to that list.

WN feels that a Time Warner-Comcast merger would compromise the weather information competition. WeatherNation made the point in a petition to block the merger of the two cable giants. 

The Washington Post writes that the petition, which was filed August 25, is both WeatherNation’s scathing review of The Weather Channel’s efforts to stifle competition and its lens into the harm such a merger would cause, particularly with respect to its interests both in TV and online.

The Weather Channel is owned in part by NBCUniversal, which is a subsidiary of Comcast.

The petition states that with a potential audience of 99.9 million cable subscribers, The Weather Channel is WeatherNation’s chief competition in the TV and online space, in addition to being the industry leader in supplying data and video feeds, often to its own competition.

The petition argues that these weather wars would likely continue due to loopholes in regulations of cable TV and internet, and could lead to the demise of WeatherNation altogether, should the FCC approve the merging of Time Warner and Comcast, which would increase Comcast’s TV subscribers by nearly a third.

Despite FCC rules intended to prevent cable operators from favoring their own channels, WeatherNation president Michael Norton says companies like Comcast have always been able to make it appear as if they are treating programmers fairly.

The merger potentially imperils the quality and diversity of available weather information, Norton says. “The more competition, the better.  Allow one company to control all weather information, however, and you won’t have that competition. You won’t have the best possible dissemination of critical weather data.”

“People’s safety is at stake,” he says.

Ah yes...the old "people's safety" card....now we have seen both The Weather Channel and WeatherNation play this card. 

Stay tuned....