AT&T's $85B Plan To Acquire Time Warner Could Threaten Free Media And Privacy

[Guest]

AT&T announced its plan to acquire Time Warner for $85.4 billion in cash and stock. The deal is supposed to give consumers more choices, but it's more likely to harm both the media and consumer privacy.

AT&T's $85B Plan To Acquire Time Warner Could Threaten Free Media And Privacy : Read more

 

[redgarl]

I am more afraid they are going to track people and torrents more intensively and even go after their own customers since they already know who they are. This will get messy with stuff like the RIAA and others.

 

[stevo777]

This is terrible. AT&T already owns DirectTV and Time-Warner owns many cable companies. This would be anti-competitive practices. I guess it's hard for the gov't to get involved when they make deals with this scum bag company to spy on the American people.

 

[ssdpro]

It is customers and constituents that allow these companies to merge. Everyone likes to blame the government but the government, at least in the USA, is elected by the people. No senator, representative, president, or appointee takes a position without either election by the people or appointment or confirmation of someone elected by the people. Don't cry at Gov, cry at your neighbors.

That said, they allowed Comcast and NBC Universal to merge so I don't see how they can apply a different standard to ATT and Time Warner.

 

[bwohl]

The worst part of this article? That people believe this: "CNN is an American symbol of independent journalism".
Everybody, and I mean everybody, knows CNN is liberal Democratic and Fox News is conservative Republican. To know the truth, you need to watch both and the truth is somewhere in the middle.

 

[ssdpro]

The worst part of this article? That people believe this: "CNN is an American symbol of independent journalism".
Everybody, and I mean everybody, knows CNN is liberal Democratic and Fox News is conservative Republican.

In this context independent refers to independence from the government, meaning reports do not get screened by a government agency prior to air or publishing. Media has never been independent with regards to conservative or liberal bias because it is people that supply the news and often partisans that do the supplying. Even Fox News has moments where they stray from the conservative message just as CNN has times that stray from liberal messages. Interpretation of bias even has bias, as some feel even reporting what "person A" said is inherently negative.

 

[problematiq]

This is terrible. AT&T already owns DirectTV and Time-Warner owns many cable companies. This would be anti-competitive practices. I guess it's hard for the gov't to get involved when they make deals with this scum bag company to spy on the American people.

I thought this too but re-reading the article it mentioned "Time Warner Cable" was split off from "Time Warner" so AT&T is not buying the ISP portion.

So from the ISP viewpoint we are in the same boat as we were. Thought I still feel like there is some monopoly going on here.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Globalization.

 

[ThisIsMe]

First, it's odd that this is what pushes Tom's to post an opinion piece on matters like this. But, it's all fun and games whenever a company like Sony does the same thing. Repeatedly. Honestly, this is probably just an attempt to "keep up with the Jones's" and stay relevant. Back when Microsoft tried to set it up so that people could choose from streaming services on their up coming XBox One console, they ended up abandoning the idea because media companies priced them out of the idea. Suddenly here we are with Sony now offering the very thing that MS couldn't but at affordable prices. And that's just the movie/television/music side of things. The game studio purchasing by Sony has been out of hand for over a decade now as well.

Second, Time Warner Cable, which is a separate entity, has already merged into Charter Communications along with Bright House Networks. So that isn't even a valid concern at this point.

 

[10tacle]

Second, Time Warner Cable, which is a separate entity, has already merged into Charter Communications along with Bright House Networks. So that isn't even a valid concern at this point.

You can't be serious. So are you saying let's just not put a stop to all these corporate conglomerate orgy parties going on these days? At what point should we say ENOUGH is ENOUGH? Already most Americans HATE their providers as it is due to mergers and getting too big for their britches with regional monopolies.

Do you honestly think an AT&T-WTC merger would be a positive thing for subscribers? Because if you honestly do and you are an American, then about all I can say is that I hope you do not vote.

 

[stevo777]

@SSDPRO. The real problem is that no matter who you elect to a federal position, they all are allowed to own stocks (thus partial ownership) in the very companies they are supposed to regulate. The system needs reform. I would suggest making them put their money (and all of them have a lot) into a fund that grows based upon the GDP and divisible by 1 at no debt. Every dollar of dept adds 1/trillionth of a number to the divisor, such that 19 trillion dollars would be a divisor of 20. Anything in the surplus range would then turn it into a multiplication where they would get a 2 times multiplier if they had us with a 1 trillion dollar surplus etc... Let them get rich off running our country properly.

 

[Lolo_Bond]

Time Warner the ISP portion I think is on the regulation because Comcast is buying it

 

[Rexer]

I thought the merger happened yesterday. Something to the tune of 85 billion. Talk about a merger. What ever happen to monopoly laws.

 

[ThisIsMe]

Second, Time Warner Cable, which is a separate entity, has already merged into Charter Communications along with Bright House Networks. So that isn't even a valid concern at this point.

You can't be serious. So are you saying let's just not put a stop to all these corporate conglomerate orgy parties going on these days? At what point should we say ENOUGH is ENOUGH? Already most Americans HATE their providers as it is due to mergers and getting too big for their britches with regional monopolies.

Do you honestly think an AT&T-WTC merger would be a positive thing for subscribers? Because if you honestly do and you are an American, then about all I can say is that I hope you do not vote.

Okay let's try this again, since it obviously went over your head the first time.

There is no AT&T-TWC merger happening. TimeWarner Cable (TWC) has already merged into Charter Communications, Inc. a while ago, is now called Charter Spectrum, is not the same company as TimeWarner Inc., and is completely owned by Charter Communications Holding Company LLC.
See here:
https://www.timewarnercable.com/

The merger this article is referring to has nothing to do with TWC. It is between two other companies, AT&T and TimeWarner Inc.
See here:
http://www.timewarner.com/company
http://www.timewarner.com/investors/-w66%269%23$Gf2%2525wUvPC_8QRY3*PKFFYd$p

Also, I'm not really sure where you got the idea that I did not want to stop these massive mergers. I was actually complaining about past mergers and other companies that, in my opinion, have abused this tactic to a great extent. I only thought it worth mentioning the fact that people ignore, or even praise, some companies doing it while condemning others.

 

[redgarl]

The problem here is that these companies now fall in conflict of interest about their customers. On one side they will sell internet, on the other side, they will need to regulate it concerning copyrights. What happens when one of your customer download something he should not? Also, let's not lie to ourselves, over 75% of the people on internet are doing it. Is a Lady GAGA song really worth 25000$ in punishment? Are we going to see more prosecutions? I am concerned about this.

 

[BillTheMiser]

Capitalist is wonderful. A soon day ONE company will hold all the World. Sure this company will hide behind thousands of other.
Capitalist is the Paradise for miser and rich!
They pay nothing and the People pay for them.
Lovely!

 

[problematiq]

Capitalist is wonderful. A soon day ONE company will hold all the World. Sure this company will hide behind thousands of other.
Capitalist is the Paradise for miser and rich!
They pay nothing and the People pay for them.
Lovely!

I'm starting to have a hard time seeing a difference between a "Monopoly" and a "Monarchy"

 

[captaincharisma]

and i thought Canada was bad when it come to this stuff. it's starting to look like in a few years the US will have only 2 telecommunication companies running everything

 

[svan71]

I'm happy at least one of our choices for president has spoken out against this merger, it's a bad idea along with universal healthcare.

 

[Kimonajane]

So Trump is right as I knew, this merger is wrong for America, monopolistic.