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Home Front: Culture Wars
Comcast to acquire Time-Warner for $45 billion
2014-02-13

Comcast is expected to announce on Thursday an agreement to acquire Time Warner Cable for more than $45 billion in stock, a deal that would combine the biggest and second-biggest cable television operators in the country.

For Comcast, which completed its acquisition of NBC Universal, the television and movie powerhouse, from General Electric less than a year ago, the latest deal would be its second big act to radically reshape the media landscape in the United States. And the merger is almost certain to bring to an end a protracted takeover battle that Charter Communications has been waging for Time Warner Cable.
Posted by:badanov

#4  It still is 'free' - Digital broadcasts can be picked up for free. Well in most urban areas.

The problem there is the selection.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2014-02-13 11:49  

#3  I remember when tv was free.
Posted by: Whusoger Spomoth6829   2014-02-13 10:45  

#2  One of the most glaring situations of antitrust in the US today is the bundling policy of cable providers. This is naked rent-seeking to force people to purchase a product/service they do not want so that the employees and owners of hundreds of channels (which would fail overnight if the market were freed up and a la carte offerings were the case) can have a guaranteed income. Also, it disguises the actual costs of sports networks like ESPN.


Even Canada now has a la carte cable. This move by comcast to acquire Warner will of course strengthen the ability of the industry to lobby Congress to keep the current awful system of bundling.

The reason that the entertainment industry thinks that all businesses are lobbying fat cats which use government to interrupt the market and line their own pockets is that that is how THEIR industry works. Simple projection.

I'll buy cable again when it is a la carte.
Posted by: no mo uro   2014-02-13 05:03  

#1  Do we still even have antitrust laws? If there's one "industry" that could stand some trust-busting it's Big Media.
Posted by: PBMcL   2014-02-13 00:34  

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