Comcast takeover of Time Warner Cable to reshape U.S. pay TV

[WoodysGirl]

By Liana B. Baker

(Reuters) - Comcast Corp's proposed $45.2 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable Inc could face close scrutiny from U.S. antitrust regulators because of the deal's potential to reshape the country's pay TV and broadband markets.

The company resulting from the merger of the top two U.S. cable service providers would boast a footprint spanning from New York to Los Angeles, with a near 30 percent share of the pay TV market as well as a strong position in providing broadband Internet services.

The all-stock deal, announced on Thursday, would put Comcast in 19 of the 20 largest U.S. TV markets, and could give it unprecedented leverage in negotiations with content providers and advertisers.

The friendly takeover came as a surprise after months of public pursuit of Time Warner Cable by smaller rival Charter Communications Inc, and immediately raised questions as to whether it would be blocked by the Department of Justice or the Federal Communications Commission.


Read the rest: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/comcast-plans-acquire-time-warner-031440334.html

 

[big dog cowboy]

I fail to see how this is good news for the average consumer.

 

[Nomad]

This, combined with the recent net neutrality decision, is really bad for the consumer. It has more to do with the availability of high speed Internet than cable tv. Apparently Comcast already has a few cities set up where you are limited to say 300 GB per month and pay overages, that would be awful. And they see companies like Netflix and Hulu as competition to their own streaming service so they might lessen the download quality of those.

I don't use Comcast anyway but I worry about how this will effect everything.

 

[Nirvana]

It's not good news for the consumer, nor companies like HBO, Showtime, ESPN, etc. Let's hope they fight a good fight and use their their lobbying powers in Washington.

 

[Tabascocat]

They are all crooks. I had Comcast in L.A. and they blacked out CBS along with their internet sites for a while. It is only going to get worse for us and for those who can't get satellite....we are stuck with them.

I can't stand Comcast or Time-Warner but have to use them, we move around too much ATM to get a dish

ATT U-Verse isn't much better..............................

 

[Leadbelly]

The best comment I've seen on this…

"Like two dinosaurs copulating* in the hopes of making an even bigger dinosaur."

*A slightly more colorful word was used for copulating. No, not that word.

It doesn't really limit consumer choice... we never had any to begin with (other than not having cable). It would make them very strong in content negotiations vs Apple/Google/Amazon/Netflix. Or maybe there's already a back room deal in place with one or more and that's spurring this all-in move.

There's so much happening in the industry just barely into 2014…

• breakdown of net neutrality
• pressure from the upcoming Aereo Supreme Court case
• wrangling over peering agreements with CDNs getting the FCC's attention
• quality original content from pure internet sources like Netflix and Amazon
• approval of gigabit wifi in January
• upcoming government buyouts of broadcasters to free up bandwidth for more wireless
• Google building out a competing fiber network
• rumblings of Apple and TWC partnership the day before Comcast jumped in
• strange rumor of 2-stage AppleTV update
• rumor of upcoming Amazon set top box
• Google opening up developer access to Chromecast
• Amazon floating a cost increase of Amazon Prime to fund more content development

 

[BigStar]

This, combined with the recent net neutrality decision, is really bad for the consumer. It has more to do with the availability of high speed Internet than cable tv. Apparently Comcast already has a few cities set up where you are limited to say 300 GB per month and pay overages, that would be awful. And they see companies like Netflix and Hulu as competition to their own streaming service so they might lessen the download quality of those.

I don't use Comcast anyway but I worry about how this will effect everything.

This is already occuring and much more frequently in the last few weeks related to Netflix specifically. I looked into it after hearing of re-buffering issues related to the internet service provider. Evidently I am getting slower service because I am with Verizon.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...s-claim-service-unusable-sites-work-fine.html

 

[jimmy40]

I don't understand all of this or have any idea how it would affect anything, I just know I have the Hopper and love it.

 

[Teren_Kanan]

/shrug just one more step towards Corporation domination. It's inevitable at this point. They are already mostly in control of everything including government.
Ah well what can ya do? Money is too powerful.

Won't be too long before Nestle's CEO gets what he wants, and all water is owned by corporations as well.

 

[arglebargle]

Content providers and internet service providers should be completely seperated. There's a tremendous, obvious conflict of interest.

Not a good thing at all. There's a reason we have such lackluster internet. And two of them are trying to gain an even greater monopoly position.

 

[Hoofbite]

Content providers and internet service providers should be completely seperated. There's a tremendous, obvious conflict of interest.

Not a good thing at all. There's a reason we have such lackluster internet. And two of them are trying to gain an even greater monopoly position.

I would have no problem with content providers being service providers if I had any sort of faith that they wouldn't manipulate the service to harm other content providers.

Of course, I have no reason to believe they won't do it.

Wired had an article on the net neutrality ruling that was interesting.

What just happened? Well, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) found in 2008 that Comcast had violated the agency’s net neutrality policy statement by allegedly slowing BitTorrent traffic. The D.C. Circuit then found the FCC lacked statutory authority. The FCC responded with the 2010 Open Internet Order, which re-interpreted Section 706 of the Communications Act as a broad grant of authority. So Verizon sued. Two days ago, the court accepted that re-interpretation, which means the FCC can regulate net neutrality even though the court struck down the two key provisions of the Open Internet Order.

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2014/01/one-talking-comes-net-neutrality/

 

[RastaRocket]

At least cable is becoming more worthless by the year.

 

[BigStar]

This Is What The Comcast-Time Warner Deal Does To Cable TV (It's Appalling)
The Huffington Post | by Kevin Short
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/14/comcast-time-warner-deal_n_4789373.html

Pre Buy-Out:

After Buyout:

The bigger, long term issues are that internet content, speed, and costs will be "monopolized" in the modern sense.

 

[RastaRocket]

The bigger, long term issues are that internet content, speed, and costs will be "monopolized" in the modern sense.

Google will have something to say about that! Fiber just upped their network speed to 10Gbps!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/0..._fiber_network_to_give_10gbps_home_broadband/

I'm not concerned about cable, it's a dying concept anyway with the amount of streaming software available that saves money.

 

[BigStar]

Google will have something to say about that! Fiber just upped their network speed to 10Gbps!

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/0..._fiber_network_to_give_10gbps_home_broadband/

I'm not concerned about cable, it's a dying concept anyway with the amount of streaming software available that saves money.

I agree on the cable aspect, I only really watch it for Cowboys/NFL, but all the shows I like are streamed from cable shows (Fx, Comedy Central, Fox/CBS/ESPN for games). I'm more concerned with costs and content down the road with these types of mergers/buy-outs. That article is encouraging though in seeing Google upping their internet speed capabilities. I wonder how they could compete down the road in terms of access to the NFL or cable content similar to Amazon, Netflix, etc.? Would this also dilute the cable quality shows (albeit only a handful) or change it to a pay to play/watch scenario?

 

[RastaRocket]

I agree on the cable aspect, I only really watch it for Cowboys/NFL, but all the shows I like are streamed from cable shows (Fx, Comedy Central, Fox/CBS/ESPN for games). I'm more concerned with costs and content down the road with these types of mergers/buy-outs. That article is encouraging though in seeing Google upping their internet speed capabilities. I wonder how they could compete down the road in terms of access to the NFL or cable content similar to Amazon, Netflix, etc.? Would this also dilute the cable quality shows (albeit only a handful) or change it to a pay to play/watch scenario?

I can only imagine streaming will become more and more accessible and competitive with cable as internet speeds become faster; but that could also lead to increased costs for these services that rival cable. Hell, that's probably what will happen in the long run.