AT&T Buys Time Warner For $85B. Is The Mass Media Consolidating? (reuters.com) 132
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."
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."
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Believe it or not, Comcast was a MAJOR upgrade from AT&T for me.
I used to have the @Home cable modem service and was quite pleased with it. This is before the days of Doxis and there was no throttling. My cable modem was capable of 10Mbps up and 10Mbps down. Later, @Home reduced it to 10Mbps down and 1Mbps up. Times were still good since that was an insane amount of bandwidth.
Then AT&T bought out @Home and switched it to AT&T Broadband Internet (ATTBI). They decided to reduce the upstream bandwi
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Media isn't consolidating - it's monopolizing. First they grow to a few big corporations then they specialize in a certain field of media and customers will have no choice.
Cartel socialism (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
FINALLY! (Score:2)
Re: FINALLY! (Score:1)
What, it's not Assholes, Terriorists, & Trannys?
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AT&T means American Telephone and Telegraph. Now they can change it to mean American Telephone and Television. Finally AT&T can stand for something that isn't ridiculously out of date.
Well, traditional telephone (landline) and television are going to be obsolete too quite soon. If they want a future-proof name then they should change it to American mobile Telephone & InTernet :-P
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The only thing AT&T stands for is fucking over their customers.
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AT&T is really Southwestern Bell. When SWB acquired AT&T they chose that moniker because it had better name recognition.
Bigger is never better for the consumer. Take a look at consolidated airlines, banks, grocery chains. It means fewer choices and less price competition.
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AT&T is really SBC + BellSouth + (SBC + BellSouth == Cingular) + PacTel + (Michigan Bell + Indiana Bell + Illinois Bell + Ohio Bell + Wisconsin Bell == Ameritech) + ATT [imgur.com].
Isn't it great we take our anti-trust and monopoly laws so seriously?
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We had a pretty good 20 years in the phone industry since Ma Bell was broken up. Lots of competition, new services, better prices.
I used to use PacBell DSL Internet and it was pretty good! (for the time)
Then they got bought by SBC and they were not.. quite as good, but still ok.
Then SBC bought AT&T, but apparently AT&T absorbed and corrupted them from within, becoming the AT&T behemoth once again, and their DSL service went to shit. As did their billing department.
Indeed (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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Good things? Like what? Phone bills quadrupled almost over night. As far as media consolidation... kodi is making inroads so they have a lot to be worried about.
Re:Indeed (Score:5, Informative)
Phone bills quadrupled almost over night.
Well, for starters how about stuff that actually happened. Here's a story [wsj.com] 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.
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USA phone bills started increasing drastically some timer after the breakup, when PUCs started allowing local monopolies and mergers in exchange for promises to roll out sorely needed infrastructure upgrades.
Thiose infrastructure upgrades were never completed (in many cases never started), but having paid the Danegeld, the PUCs allowed more mergers and continuing monopolies when the telcos went back for more concessions.
The end result is that LECs are almost entirely gone, AT&T has been reassembled into
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USA phone bills started increasing drastically some timer after the breakup, when PUCs started allowing local monopolies and mergers in exchange for promises to roll out sorely needed infrastructure upgrades.
Still doesn't fit the narrative of rates quadrupling overnight and it's not a consequence of the AT&T breakup.
If you want to know why your phone service is so bad, don't look at AT&T, look at the corrupt public servants and politicians in your state chambers who took bribes to allow AT&T to regain its monopoly. The USA political system is corrupt from top to bottom and the the problem is FAR worse at state and local levels than federal. Overall you're generally only a couple of steps better than the funnay asian countries you like to poke fun at and only a step further from being like the Philippines (Which is your former colony and its politicians are applying lessons learned under American colonial rule)
So somehow this corruption would be better under an AT&T monopoly? I don't buy it.
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Is that why Europe was always about a decade ahead of the USA in terms of cell phone tech?
I think it's due to two factors, the usual one of higher population density of Europe and the poorer quality of land lines in large parts of that region encourage adoption of cell phones.
Also, if European cell phone providers are so much better, then they should be able to make inroads in the US market. But the top five [wikipedia.org] are all US providers though two are majority owned by Japanese or German interests.
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What the hell does any of this have to do (Score:1)
Re: Cartel socialism (Score:5, Funny)
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.
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Imagine if the ignorant and deplorable people were allowed to take over the government. It would be the end.
Feudal Lords should never underestimate a mass uprising of peasants. In that situation, everyone loses.
Except for the peasants. (Score:2)
They win.
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They win.
You consider mass death a win? You may have a screw loose.
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The interesting thing in the American Colonies is that it was mostly wealthy land holders that rebelled. Those guys that signed the Declaration of Independence actually had a lot to lose besides their heads.
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The ruling elite should avoid fucking with the people at a point they go after em.
Either you give the population a decentish life, or you lose your head.
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The trick is to milk the people and keep them where they'll never get ahead but they don't starve and they have a few comforts. Once people actually have no hope they become dangerous. Eventually the fuckers in charge get so arrogant and greedy that they take it all. That's when it comes apart like with the French Revolution and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
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CNN has done a good job of fighting for Hillary.
Sure, because media companies are part of the Democrat Party coalition. But ISPs are part of the Republican Party coalition. So I expect this new entity to be politically schizophrenic.
Media made candidate Trump .. (Score:5, Insightful)
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 .. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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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.
And the media gleefully accepted the bait and focused on him to the detriment of other candidates. Are you seriously going to say the left leaning media was not gleeful at the mess on the Republican side?
That worked fine for the primaries where Trump's intentional outrageousness played to the Alt-Right and then the Republican base.
No, it did not work fine. The other candidates were quite starved of media coverage and that had an effect. The media were not innocent bystanders, they contributed to the circus.
Trump got more media coverage the all of the other Republican candidates combined. He wanted it that way.
Yes, the point is so did the media.
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.
Or it could have been revealed during the primary season and we may have had a different repub
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Don't blame the wooden horse, it wasn't self-propelled. Ask who dragged it in through the gate.
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Don't blame the wooden horse, it wasn't self-propelled. Ask who dragged it in through the gate.
The oracles who said it was safe and that it would offend the gods if left outside share the blame. :-)
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Thank to all the media blunders, Trump is more powerful now than he ever was as a simple business man.
Trump is done. He won't be President, but worse than that (for him), it destroys his credibility as a businessman. He's now a "toxic figure." Other businesses won't be willing to book conferences at Trump hotels since he's too partisan a figure now. He needed to be non-partisan as a businessman, since you can't afford to piss off a large proportion of the country without getting anything for it.
Who will want to do business with Donald Trump now when there are so many other successful businessmen without the
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Is this a joke? After the private consolidation is complete, the next phase is transfer to the biggest monopoly of all: the state.
Re:Cartel socialism (Score:4, Informative)
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Trump and Clinton (Score:2, Funny)
Trump has already said he will oppose the merger and even wants too undo the Comcast Universal merger, though I doubt he can.
Hillary OTOH is waiting to see how much AT&T will cough up.
Re:Trump and Clinton (Score:5, Funny)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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Humor works best when there is truth behind it.
That is true and funny.
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The pivoted-to-paranoia Trump is quick to forget that it was the media who made him a thing to begin with. Now that it's obvious that he can't compete he's adding them to his list of everyone else that he wants to blame for his shortcomings.
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Paranoia? He straight up called out all the 1% types there who had turned on him because they only care about team colors, not any sort of values at all.
Hillary's team does hate Catholics, making it doubly ironic for her to be at a Catholic charity event. You can read all about it in the Podesta emails. At least, assuming you don't believe the CNN lie that only the media is allowed to look.
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I hope you haven't been reading those e-mails. Those are stolen and that makes you an accessory after the fact. Don't wait for the FBI to batter your door down, go turn yourself in.
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Here you go
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2016/10/12/wikileaks-emails-show-clinton-spokeswoman-joking-about-catholics-and-evangelicals/?0p19G=c
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So, two Catholics joking about Catholics. aka most of Catholic literature and media.
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I know, right? Reporting the things he says and does. It's like they are /trying/ to destroy him.
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While not reporting the things she's said [downtrend.com]. Both are terrible candidates. The only chance Hillary had was for the DNC to help her beat Sanders, the media willing to act as shills, and a general election opponent as repugnant as Trump.
captcha: tampers
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It does appear that way. I get the feeling that when it's all over Trump is going back to TV bigger than ever.
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Hillary on the other hand will not come out against it, as she wants as many powerful friends in high places as she can get.
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I subscribe to DirecTV and have for years. I opposed the buyout from AT&T going so far as to write the FCC and my congressman. I have to say though that so far at least it hasn't been bad. I have an AT&T cell phone as that is the only major carrier that works in my area and now I can watch anything on DirecTV on my phone with no data charges. I can program my DVR from the app on my phone anywhere which is handy. I'm still leery of big conglomerates becoming monopolies but with proper oversight
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I can't deny it. As I said, even though now I benefit I feel that eventually it will still end badly.
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Shouldn't you have written to the FTC, not FCC? Not that that would have made the slightest bit of difference...
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Actually, it was the FTC. But as you say it hardly mattered, it could just as well been the FBI, NSA or EPA for all the fucking difference it made. They donate millions of dollars to get what they need done.
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There is probably no reason to block this merger as it would create what is clearly a massive market monopoly. AT&T and Time Warner own pretty much all the cables suitable for communication into people's houses in many areas.
Time Warner [timewarner.com], which is what AT&T want to buy, own no cables. Time Warner Cable [timewarnercable.com], which is now a separate company from Time Warner, own cables; they have already been bought by Charter Communications, who also own cables.
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Master/lord/eminence.
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Has this newly merged corporation-person declared a gender yet? What is this entity's preferred pronoun?
We started with the generic He/She/It. Then we thought it would be easier as (S)he/It. Eventually we shortened that to Shit. Everyone seems comfortable with the appellation.
Consolidating? (Score:3)
War==peace, freedom==slavery, consolidation==compe (Score:2)
Future (Score:4, Funny)
In 10 years : WalmartGoogleExxonAppleGoldman buys AT&TimeWarnerGeneralElectricsVerizon for $85T
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In 10 years : WalmartGoogleExxonAppleGoldman buys AT&TimeWarnerGeneralElectricsVerizon for $85T
In 10 years : WalmartGoogleExxonAppleGoldman buys AT&TimeWarnerGeneralElectricsVerizon for $85T
In 10 years : WalmartGoogleExxonAppleGoldman buys AT&TimeWarnerGeneralElectricsVerizon for $85T
That should be called: WalmartExxonGoogleAppleGoldman, or WEGAG.
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That should be called: WalmartExxonGoogleAppleGoldman, or WEGAG.
Oh, for mod points...
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Buy n' Large [youtube.com]
BnL will take care of all your sociopolitical needs as well as the material ones.
This is the logical conclusion of today's course -- the overt, out-of-the-closet marriage between Industry and Government.
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Now all Restaurants are Taco Bell [youtube.com].
Everything's consolidating (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Everything's consolidating (Score:5, Interesting)
The world wars were only a thing (Score:3)
Root cause is still tech changes happening too fast for society to adjust. Least as far as I can tell.
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Notice also that there is no desirable level of wealth inequality. Isn't it kind of odd to have a control system without a set point?
Finally, why do you think wealth inequality is out of control? The US has been suf
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I don't see how his statement requires one to assume wealth inequality (WI) is an important metric. He's just saying one consequence of WI is what we're seeing.
And the consequences of aren't important? Let us recall he claimed a pretty big thing:
When you let the rich have all the money they've got very little left to spend it on besides conquest.
He also claimed that things were different for the last century due to a "rapid onset of technology".
What's so odd about it? If something is seen as bad, there is no such thing as a "desirable" level it. Do you have a "desirable" level of turd in your sandwich?
Everyone who eats sandwiches implicitly has a desirable level of turd in their sandwich. Small enough that they never know it's there by taste, smell, illness, etc.
But wealth inequality doesn't even come close to the disagreeability of the turd-free sandwich. Virtually everyone agrees that someone who tries should have b
Amazing (Score:2)
Amusing (Score:2)
When asked about cleaning the facilities where employees work ( the same garbage sits on the floor for years ) or if their workforce will ever get any training for the equipment they maintain, the answer is always the same:
" It's not in the budget. "
So they axe the budgets year after year, then complain when no one has any work to do. Oblivious to the fact that a budget is a prequisite for getting anything done when adding or replacing ageing hardware.
Yet when there are companies to be bought, stadium nami
Comment removed (Score:3)
what's worse? (Score:2)
The world's two worst customer service organizations will merge creating something truly evil. Just say no.
Prediction (courtesy of Capt. Obvious) (Score:2)
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AT&T to Comcast: "We'll carry NBC content if you carry Time Warner content."
AT&T and Comcast to Netflix: "I guess you are just fucked, buddy."