AT&T Buys Time Warner For $85B. Is The Mass Media Consolidating? (reuters.com)

Though regulators may not agree, "Time Warner and AT&T reps claim this is necessary just to compete," warns Mr D from 63. Reuters reports: The tie-up of AT&T Inc and Time Warner Inc, bringing together one of the country's largest wireless and pay TV providers and cable networks like HBO, CNN and TBS, could kick off a new round of industry consolidation amid massive changes in how people watch TV... Media content companies are having an increasingly difficult time as standalone entities, creating an opportunity for telecom, satellite and cable providers to make acquisitions, analysts say. Media firms face pressure to access distribution as more younger viewers cut their cable cords and watch their favorite shows on mobile devices. Distribution companies, meanwhile, see acquiring content as a way to diversify revenue.
The deal reflects "big changes in consumption of video particularly among millennials," according to one former FCC commissioner, and the article also reports that the deal "will face serious opposition." Massachusetts Democrat Edward Markey warned "we need more competition, not more consolidation... Less competition has historically resulted in fewer choices and higher prices for consumers..." And in a Saturday speech, Donald Trump called it " an example of the power structure I'm fighting...too much concentration of power in the hands of too few."

Comments

Cartel socialism

[xtronics]

This is a good move by AT&Fee - makes it easier to bribe the correct political elite to keep smaller companies from competing.

Easier than providing better service if people have less options.

Re: Cartel socialism

[amiga3D]

Exactly. We should trust our betters that know what we need and make sure that bad things like populism never happen here. Imagine if the ignorant and deplorable people were allowed to take over the government. It would be the end.

Re:Trump and Clinton

[amiga3D]

I loved the dinner the other night where Trump and Clinton roasted each other. I thought the best line was the one where he said he enjoyed meeting the leaders of her campaign team Then he began pointing out the heads of ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN and the New York Times. Even the people that hated him laughed loudly.

Re:Trump and Clinton

[Mr D from 63]

Humor works best when there is truth behind it.

Indeed

[s.petry]

One of many issues to solve corruption in the country is to de-monopolize the media. When they started letting moguls buy out huge chunks of media about 30 years ago we were warned that this would happen. Now you have actors and actresses repeating talking points and the AP is the single source of most "news". Investigative journalism has become a dangerous vigilante action instead of "Press" as it was defined and discussed at the time of the founding of the USA.

Lots of problems to work on in this country, and the abuse of monopoly is one.

Re:Indeed

[khallow]

Phone bills quadrupled almost over night.

Well, for starters how about stuff that actually happened. Here's a story from 1984 a year after the AT&T break up. It notes a decline in long distance prices (around 5% decline) combined with somewhat sharper rises in local service costs (but 16% increases rather than your bullshit 300% increases). One could buy their own phones and telecom equipment.

And cell phones are a huge benefactor of the breakup. AT&T had been sitting on cell phone technology for years. Within the decade, its pieces had set up viable cell phone networks.

Media made candidate Trump ..

[drnb]

Thank to all the media blunders, Trump is more powerful now than he ever was as a simple business man.

The media made candidate Trump to f*ck with the Republican primary. Then the media destroys Trump in October to ensure Hillary wins. Much of the stuff they are using to destroy him has been around for a long time, the media could have made it public during the early days of the Republican primary but then Hillary might have had a viable opponent.

Re:Media made candidate Trump ..

[mschwanke97402]

Oh, please. Trump has been playing to the media since day one. Every time the media has finished one cycle Trump comes out with some new outrage and the spotlight is upon him once more. That worked fine for the primaries where Trump's intentional outrageousness played to the Alt-Right and then the Republican base.

Trump got more media coverage the all of the other Republican candidates combined. He wanted it that way. Now that it is general election time that outrageousness doesn't play as well to the Dems or Indies.

As far as the lewd remarks on that one video tape, he could have honestly apologized and let it go. We'd have mostly forgotten it already. He had to try and tell us he never did that kind of thing, though to too many people know better, he made sexual misconduct the story by trying to tell us Billy was worse.

We call this being hoisted by one's own petard.

Re:Everything's consolidating

[DMJC]

No the last 100 years were a fluke brought on by Two World Wars and a Great Depression which blew away all the wealth of the world and reset the system to a near 0 state. All the businesses and investments in Europe and Asia were toast. Australia was still an early society which hadn't matured/developed into a class structure system. The United States had been crippled by the Great Depression which wiped out most of the Elite's wealth leaving only a few wealthy people. The resulting economic boom from rebuilding from a 0 state was always going to be temporary without strong government intervention/market protections and the US completely dropped the ball on that. Most Western countries have completely lost the plot with wealth inequality and it's back to business as usual.