Mistake May Mar Major Merger - FCC says AT&T/TW merger was errored

[rcmaehl]

Source:

Ars Technica

 

TL;DR:
An error by the US District Court for the District of Columbia may invalidate the AT&T and Time Warner Merger.

 

Media:

 

Quotes/Excerpts:

Quote

The Department of Justice's attempt to reverse the AT&T/Time Warner merger received some help yesterday from an unexpected source: the Federal Communications Commission. The DOJ fought the merger alone, ultimately losing a court ruling.... But the DOJ appealed that court ruling last month, and yesterday the FCC gave the DOJ's case a small boost. The commission's filing points out an error made by the US District Court... said that he was "hesitant to assign any significant evidentiary value" to previous statements that AT&T... made to the FCC... support[ing] the DOJ's case that a merged entity could raise the price of programming. Statements were made as part of the FCC's 2010 review of the Comcast/NBCUniversal merger and in other FCC proceedings. Leon wrote that AT&T's previous statements to the FCC had little if any relevance. This was an incorrect conclusion, the FCC said in its court brief. AT&T's filings with the FCC are required to be truthful... Thus, there was no reason for the district court to treat those comments as less credible. Although AT&T completed its acquisition of Time Warner, a court could theoretically force AT&T and Time Warner to reverse the merger. 

 

My Thoughts:

A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one. With AT&T and Time Warner being the only major providers in some regions I'm glad to see a possible reversion of the merger. Both AT&T and Time Warner are large companies with a large amount of control. I will be glad to see this, potentially, reversed.

[Taf the Ghost]

Need the Clapping Joker gif for this.

[rcmaehl]

7 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Need the Clapping Joker gif for this.

 

We live in a SOCIETY

[brwainer]

22 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

With AT&T and Time Warner being the only major providers in some regions I'm glad to see a possible reversion of the merger.

Time Warner entertainment and Time Warner Cable are separate entities. Time Warner Cable was purchased by Charter/Spectrum in 2016. What AT&T bought was just the entertainment, like CBS, WB, and others (as shown in the image you included)

[JCBiggs]

I dont have a problem with the merger. At the end of the day, there is still a good amount of competition in the TV Relm.   What  I do have a problem with, is the data deals that companies are making if you buy their TV packages.   Whats going to happen when Comcast decides to charge directv more to send its stream down its pipes?      

 

I think bandwidth is ultimately the bigger issue here.  It needs to be regulated like the power industry to force rates down. 

[PlayStation 2]

2 minutes ago, brwainer said:

Time Warner entertainment and Time Warner Cable are separate entities. Time Warner Cable was purchased by Charter/Spectrum in 2016. What AT&T bought was just the entertainment, like CBS, WB, and others (as shown in the image you included)

Not to mention TWC hasn't existed as a brand for over a year.

Time Warner (actually, I believe they're now WarnerMedia) is a wholly separate entity from what is now Charter and has been for a decade.

[rcmaehl]

4 minutes ago, brwainer said:

Time Warner entertainment and Time Warner Cable are separate entities. Time Warner Cable was purchased by Charter/Spectrum in 2016. What AT&T bought was just the entertainment, like CBS, WB, and others (as shown in the image you included)

Corrected

[handymanshandle]

5 minutes ago, brwainer said:

Time Warner entertainment and Time Warner Cable are separate entities. Time Warner Cable was purchased by Charter/Spectrum in 2016. What AT&T bought was just the entertainment, like CBS, WB, and others (as shown in the image you included)

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH you'll trigger people on this forum if you tell them that this merger has nothing to do with anti-consumerism.

[TVwazhere]

I'm just here for the well done alliteration

[DrMacintosh]

Break up Big Disney! 

[Beskamir]

Alright this is getting weird... who forgot give Ajit his well deserved and earned duffel bags of cash?

[Stefan Payne]

I really didn't understand why the FTC let this shit happen.

 

Because the FTC already had an anti trust thingy going for AT&T in the past and already split the original company.

 

And now they let the split company become the monopolist they once were again? Ähm....

[Jito463]

8 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

And now they let the split company become the monopolist they once were again?

How is it a monopoly by buying a cable TV provider?  That's expanding their market, not monopolizing it.

[brwainer]

9 hours ago, Stefan Payne said:

I really didn't understand why the FTC let this shit happen.

 

Because the FTC already had an anti trust thingy going for AT&T in the past and already split the original company.

 

And now they let the split company become the monopolist they once were again? Ähm....

 

1 hour ago, Jito463 said:

How is it a monopoly by buying a cable TV provider?  That's expanding their market, not monopolizing it.

The “Time Warner” that AT&T bought is not the same as the cable company that used to be called Time Warner. Time Warner Cable was bought in 2016 by Charter/Spectrum. What AT&T bought was purely the entertainment parts like HBO, CBS, the WB, etc. This doesn’t create a monopoly in the entertainment space, but when you look at what entertainment properties AT&T already owned it becomes clear they are trying to become a larger company in this area like Disney. The main issue or complaint with the AT&T/Time Warner merger is that they become both a content creation company and a content distribution company, and some fear they may do things like slow down content from other companies and other tricks to take advantage of their new position. By the way they also own Dish Networks.