By Shalini Ramachandran, Gautham Nagesh and Brody Mullins 

WASHINGTON--When Comcast Corp. heard rumors that President Barack Obama was preparing to call for tough new Internet regulations, the cable giant's influence machine swung into action.

Chief Executive Brian Roberts telephoned Valerie Jarrett, Mr. Obama's senior adviser. He pressed her for information and stressed that Comcast opposed such a move, according to people familiar with the call.

But Ms. Jarrett told him nothing and the last-ditch lobbying fell flat. A few days later, on Nov. 10, Mr. Obama called for the "strongest possible rules" to make sure broadband providers treat all Web traffic equally--a change that would regulate Internet service like a public utility.

The news took Comcast by surprise. The company believes the president's strong "net-neutrality" proposal, if enacted, could threaten future investment in its fast-growing Internet business and cast doubt on the logic of its proposed $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable Inc.--a deal currently being chewed over by antitrust regulators.

Comcast boasts one of the biggest corporate lobbying operations in Washington, spending $17 million in 2014, second only to Google Inc. That presence is being tested now like never before. In addition to the threat of new Internet restrictions, Comcast is facing intense scrutiny from regulators on its merger.

The head of the Senate's antitrust panel has called for regulators to look closely at whether the proposed tie-up would inhibit competition. And the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission has voiced concerns that the overall market for high-speed Internet service lacks competition.

At stake is Comcast's huge bet on Time Warner Cable, which would combine the country's two largest cable and broadband providers and cement Comcast's status as America's largest media and cable conglomerate. The combined entity would control nearly 40% of the U.S. market for broadband Internet service.

The deal could well be approved despite concerns, especially if Comcast is willing to accept conditions that regulators might stipulate. But the challenges that telecommunications companies like Comcast are facing in Washington aren't likely to ease in the near term. Technology companies such as Google and Netflix Inc. have emerged as sizable lobbying forces and have different views on issues including net neutrality.

"Silicon Valley's influence in Washington has skyrocketed in the past couple of years," says Robert McDowell, a former Republican FCC commissioner who served until 2013.

Comcast has told regulators the Time Warner Cable deal isn't anticompetitive and is vital if Comcast is to compete with large technology companies in the rapidly changing landscape for pay-TV and streaming services.

Comcast Executive Vice President David Cohen, who is in charge of the company's lobbying, acknowledged in an interview there have been bumps in the road, but said it is too early to draw conclusions about which way regulators are leaning. He said Comcast remains confident it will receive approval for the deal early this year. He said he was disappointed about Mr. Obama's proposed Internet rules.

The cable-TV and phone industries, among the most regulated business sectors, have long spent heavily on Washington lobbying. Of the 10 leading corporate spenders on lobbying, three are phone or cable companies--Comcast, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.--according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

In 2001, Philadelphia-based Comcast was a midsize cable firm with a lightweight Washington operation employing just two lobbyists. It spent one-tenth as much on lobbying as AT&T, the powerhouse of corporate lobbying for decades, lobbying disclosure forms show. That year, Comcast announced a deal to buy AT&T Broadband, a move that helped catapult it to the No. 1 cable company by subscribers.

As Comcast pursued other big-ticket deals over the years, its lobbying operation ballooned and it enjoyed success in Washington. Its lobbying efforts were considered "among the very few best...in any industry from a standpoint of effectiveness," says Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner. Regulators approved its acquisition of a chunk of Adelphia Communications Corp. and its purchase of NBCUniversal from General Electric Co.

Over the past two years, no other U.S. company has spent more on lobbying and political donations from its employee pool than Comcast, according to an analysis of data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

One beneficiary has been Mr. Obama, who has golfed with Comcast's CEO and has called Mr. Cohen and his wife "great friends." Comcast employees donated $337,000 to Mr. Obama's re-election campaign, making the company No. 7 among corporate sources of money, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Of the roughly 750 "bundlers" who raised money for Mr. Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, Mr. Cohen and his wife ranked No. 15, tallying nearly $1 million.

In November 2013, Mr. Obama joined Mr. Cohen for a fundraising event at the executive's home. Mr. Cohen gave Ms. Jarrett, the White House aide, birthday greetings and introduced Mr. Obama by performing a riff on the Passover Seder song "dayenu."

Mr. Cohen and Comcast's CEO, Mr. Roberts, have been visitors to the White House, according to visitor logs. Several former White House aides have landed on-air jobs with Comcast affiliates, including former advisers David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs.

Earlier this year, before the Time Warner Cable deal was unveiled, Comcast invited members of Congress and other government officials to a large Washington party for the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, which was televised on NBC. Among those invited: Renata Hesse, a senior antitrust official at the Justice Department.

"It sounds like a really fun event," Ms. Hesse wrote in a Jan. 15 email to Kathryn Zachem, Comcast's senior vice president for regulatory and state legislative affairs. "Unfortunately, though, the rules folks over here tell me that I can't do this."

Ms. Zachem, the Comcast lobbyist, replied on Jan. 21 that she thought the invitation "would be OK as we have nothing formally before you all." Ms. Hesse didn't attend.

Less than a month later, Ms. Zachem emailed Ms. Hesse to alert her that Comcast would announce the following day its plans to acquire Time Warner Cable.

A Justice Department spokeswoman says Ms. Hesse's "politeness should not be confused with being subject to improper influence."

The job of winning regulatory approval for the deal falls to Mr. Cohen, a 59-year old lawyer and onetime chief of staff to former Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell.

During Comcast's bid to take over NBCUniversal, then-FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski wanted some important merger conditions to apply for a decade. Mr. Cohen indicated that would be a deal breaker--Comcast would agree to five. They compromised at seven.

Mr. Cohen has cultivated relationships with many members of Congress. At a Senate hearing in July related to the TV marketplace, Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) said he could speak to the Comcast executive later if time ran out. "I've got Mr. Cohen's cellphone number," he said.

Last year, Comcast began experiencing some turbulence in Washington.

Some congressional Hispanics said Comcast hasn't done a good job of promoting diversity on air and behind the scenes--a pledge the company made when it won approval to buy NBCUniversal.

Hispanic lawmakers pointed to a segment that aired last spring on MSNBC's "Way Too Early" about Cinco de Mayo, which featured a correspondent slugging tequila while a host talked about the Mexican holiday. "As you know, Cinco de Mayo is not a day of debauchery," Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, wrote to Mr. Cohen and the company.

Lawmakers said Mr. Cohen apologized to them. Not long after, MSNBC gave a prime spot to broadcaster José Díaz-Balart, brother to both a current congressman and a former one. Comcast says it has done a good job promoting diversity, and that many Hispanic-affiliated groups support the deal.

Members of Congress don't have the power to approve or reject mergers, but they can exert pressure on regulators. Last summer, some 50 House lawmakers sent a letter to Comcast and Time Warner Cable raising concerns about the merger and asking them to commit to carrying independent Latino program providers.

In a return letter, Mr. Cohen warned the lawmakers not to be swayed by "parochial business interests"--what he said was a desire by some content providers to get space in Comcast's cable lineup. Rep. Tony Cárdenas, a California Democrat, said he found the response from Mr. Cohen "insulting."

The proposed deal has drawn objections from Internet and media companies worried about being squeezed by the combination. After Netflix, Discovery Communications Inc. and other companies raised potential harms to regulators or asked them to deny the merger, Comcast accused them in a September regulatory filing of "extortion." Mr. Cohen said at the time he wanted to "expose the pretense" of opponents that were using the transaction to seek business concessions from Comcast. The companies said he was trying to divert attention from their legitimate concerns.

Some people involved in securing approval for the deal worried that Mr. Cohen would hurt Comcast's chances if he continued with such strident tactics. Mr. Cohen said the media blew his comments out of proportion.

In November, Mr. Obama called for stringent rules to prevent broadband providers such as Comcast, AT&T and Verizon from charging online video outlets and other content providers for faster access to their networks. The utility-style regulation proposed by the president could give the FCC authority over everything from prices to how broadband providers update their networks.

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How to regulate broadband providers has been a hot question since the FCC was forced by the courts to address the matter. Mr. Obama's intervention on one side of the debate surprised some of the combatants and delighted Silicon Valley firms looking to shackle Comcast and others.

Mr. Cohen says he realizes "that there are going to be frequent occasions when candidates you've supported do things, say things and take positions that I don't agree with."

In response to the Time Warner Cable proposal, Sens. Mike Lee (R., Utah) and Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate's antitrust panel, sent a letter in November asking regulators to carefully review the deal because it raises "important competition and public interest concerns."

A spokesman for Mr. Lee says the proposed Comcast merger is different from prior deals the antitrust panel has reviewed "because of what it would mean to the industry to put these two entities under one roof and because of the potentially negative consequences that could occur to the consumer if it's not done the right way."

The power to approve mergers lies with the Justice Department and FCC, where officials haven't yet made a decision.

Regulators at the Justice Department and FCC don't view regulatory approval as inevitable, according to people with knowledge of the reviews. The regulators are concerned that Comcast could gain too much leverage as a major buyer of TV programming and the dominant high-speed broadband provider in many big markets, these people say. That could give Comcast outsize power to squeeze programmers and newer online video entrants.

The Justice Department, however, may face difficulty challenging the deal because Comcast and Time Warner Cable don't currently compete directly against each other.

The FCC has a broader mandate to decide whether the merger would serve the public interest.

Over the last couple of months, regulatory officials have been asking Internet and media companies whether they can point to specific examples of Comcast using its market power to unfairly crimp their businesses, particularly in experimenting with new online video models, according to lawyers and executives who have discussed the deal with regulators.

As of mid-January, Comcast had yet to begin hashing out conditions with regulators, according to people involved in the deal review. When it announced the deal nearly a year ago, Comcast had said it expected the transaction to close by the end of 2014. Mr. Cohen says he doesn't believe the deal is running into greater static than the NBCUniversal acquisition.

On Dec. 15, Comcast's CEO Mr. Roberts met with Tom Wheeler, the FCC chairman. The two are longtime acquaintances, dating back to Mr. Wheeler's time running the cable industry's trade association.

Mr. Roberts lobbied for the merger, say people familiar with the meeting, but Mr. Wheeler was noncommittal.

Brent Kendall and Keach Hagey contributed to this article.

Write to Gautham Nagesh at gautham.nagesh@wsj.com and Brody Mullins at brody.mullins@wsj.com

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