8 ms·
Why not just let AT&T and Verizon get back together and lets get back the original AT&T. How is this good for the country? They own directv. They own all these
by samfisher83 10y ago
Why not just let AT&T and Verizon get back together and lets get back the original AT&T. How is this good for the country? They own directv. They own all these local sports networks. I hope the government regulators take a strong look at this.
Here is list of assets they own:
New Line Cinema, Home Box Office, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, Warner Bros., CNN, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Adult Swim, DC Comics, Warner Bros. Animation, Castle Rock Entertainment, Cartoon Network Studios, Esporte Interativo, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
That is a lot of content.
- eternalban 10y agoI am sure our public servants were paid handsomely to take a look at it. (sorry hn, was that snarky?)
- icebraining 10y agoThe public servants didn't have a say yet. And last year they did block Comcast's merger with Time Warner, as well as AT&T's purchase of T-mobile in 2011.
- eternalban 10y agoFair enough. And more seriously, we must revisit this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telecommunications_Act_of_1996
- jonwachob91 10y agoT-Mobil is an infrastructure company. Time Warner is a content company. You can't compare the regulators blocking an infrastructure company (AT&T) from purchasing another infrastructure company (T-Mobile) to a infrastructure company (AT&T) acquiring a content company (Time Warner).
- icebraining 10y agoI'm not saying they are comparable; I'm pointing out that regulators are willing to block mergers and purchases, unlike the implied claim that they'll rubber stamp anything as long as they've been paid off.
- jessedhillon 10y agoAs if the people who see bribes everywhere won't just claim them that the right people just weren't bribed, or that the competition's bribes were more convincing. Once bribery is assumed without evidence, it explains everything.
- vitus 10y agoHm. In investigating, I saw that Comcast's intended merger was with TWC, which makes a difference (as both are infrastructure companies).
- shmerl 10y agoThey approved NBC purchase by Comcast. A very bad decision, which AT&T will now use as a precedent to claim they aren't any worse.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- danm07 10y agoI don't think the regulators have approved it yet. I hope they don't.
- orbitur 10y agoComcast already bought NBC Universal. Train has left the station.
- flylib 10y agothey have incentives to not license it only to themselves or they will see huge drop in viewers across all assets, not that worried
- smokeyj 10y agoAt the same time.. Who cares? all these channels could disappear and many cord cutters wouldn't notice. I wouldn't. There's funny pictures online with text captions. That seems to be catching on just fine.
- appleflaxen 10y agobecause people who do watch those pictures would end up paying more than they should. i.e. - it's market-distorting
- justabystander 10y agoVertical integration like this is one of the major reasons for the promotion of bandwidth caps. Which certainly do affect cord cutters. It can also results in reduced network investments and higher traffic congestion. It can also cause digital licensing shenanigans, like excessively high licensing fees, and even more platform fragmentation.