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US Justice Dept Approves Charter's Time Warner Cable Purchase With Conditions (reuters.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The U.S. Justice Department has approved Charter Communications Inc's proposed purchase of Time Warner Cable Inc and Bright House networks, which would create the second-largest broadband provider and third largest video-provider. The Justice Department valued the purchase of Time Warner Cable at $78 billion and Bright House at $10.4 billion. Under terms, New Charter has agreed to refrain from telling its content providers that they cannot also sell shows online. The deal must also be approved by the Federal Communications Commission. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said Monday he circulated an order seeking approval of the merger with conditions that "will directly benefit consumers by bringing and protecting competition to the video marketplace and increasing broadband deployment."
Townsfolk: There's a dragon attacking the city!
Dragon Patrol: That is troubling, if true.
Townfolk: You can see it flying from here! And burning! He's going to destroy everything!
Dragon Patrol: I know it seems that way on the face of it, but as yet we have no hard evidence that that's the case.
Townsfolk: Please do something, it's your job!
Dragon Patrol: Very well, we'll schedule an investigation for next week.
Townsfolk: AAAAAGH!! OH GOD WE'RE BURNING AAAAGH!
[Six months later...]
City Watch: After a thorough investigation, we have concluded that this dragon attack is really an actionable issue. Everything and everyone that could be burned already has been. And it's a good thing, in a lot of ways. For example, the dragon has given us, the Dragon Patrol, a portion of the proceeds from burning down the city down and looting its riches. We consider this case closed.
Prices will go up. Quality will go down. How else can they pay the banks and investors who are underwriting this merger? Subscriptions per capita appear to be declining for both cable TV and cable internet. Together this indicates a possible death spiral. A good reason for the banks and the investors to try to get their pay out UP FRONT.
227-3517
So, how long till the current head of the DoJ announces he is resigning his current position to join the Board of Directors of Time Warner?
The terms are the person who approved the merger then "retires" and takes a new high paid executive job at TW/Charters.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
No caps = higher base price / forced hardware rent
My price went down with the plan change that got rid of caps at Charter, and my speed went up from 30 to 100mb/s. They require you use their modem but they don't charge a fee for it. Charter hasn't been all that bad, at least by comparison to other cable companies. Hope TWC doesn't rub off on them.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
Comcast has a government-granted monopoly over most of Seattle,
No, they don't. They have a non-exclusive franchise agreement. From the actual franchise itself, paragraph 1.4(A) on page 5:
And in paragraph 20.6:
Pretty explicit. Not a government-granted monopoly. If someone else wants to come along and meet all the requirements for the franchise, they can get one, too.
but they don't offer service to a lot of Capitol Hill or many poor or mostly minority areas.
Then your city council was remiss in not including a mandatory coverage clause in the franchise.