The three-way Charter/Time Warner Cable/Bright House merger hit one of its major milestones this week, as the first deadline for filing comments with the FCC has come and gone. As one might expect, consumer advocates and competing businesses are less than thrilled with the major merger plan. [More]
megalomedia
Dish, Sinclair End Broadcast Network Blackout… For Now, At Least
By 8.27.15
Dish’s latest contract fight with the networks it airs has wrapped up much more quickly than usual: less than a day after nearly 130 Sinclair channels went dark on the satellite provider, the local channels are back on in 5 million subscribers’ homes. At least, for now. [More]
Hundreds Of Local Channels Go Dark For Millions Of Dish Subscribers In Latest TV Blackout Fight
By 8.26.15
Dish Network subscribers may have a hard time getting their local news and weather today along with some of their favorite network programming. A contract dispute between the satellite TV company and one of the biggest network owners in the country has resulted in one of the biggest TV blackouts to date, with 5 million viewers losing access to nearly 130 channels. [More]
Comcast Continues To Take Over Content World, Invests $200M in BuzzFeed
By 8.18.15
Comcast’s continued plans to spend mountains of money and to take over the world continue apace: as rumored, NBCUniversal has dropped $200 million this week into journalism and cat gif juggernaut BuzzFeed. [More]
Report: AT&T, DirecTV Merger Likely To Be Approved By Justice Dept. With No Conditions
By 7.1.15
It’s been over a year since AT&T and DirecTV publicly announced their intention to become one big happy mega-media company, and the two are clearly getting a little restless waiting for their approvals. However, it looks like they are about to get the green light they so badly want. [More]
Report: Dish And T-Mobile Mulling Merger (Again)
By 6.4.15
Last fall, rumors started swirling that satellite TV company Dish Networks and mobile carrier T-Mobile were eyeing a merger. And now, many months later, it looks like the two companies may indeed be close to a deal. [More]
Why Charter Thinks Their Plan To Buy TWC Is Different Enough To Succeed Where Comcast Failed
By 5.26.15
After months of rumors, this morning it became official: Charter plans to step in where Comcast failed, with a $55 billion plan to acquire Time Warner Cable. Regulators looked unfavorably on Comcast’s bid, finding it would have too many negative effects on consumers and on competition. But Charter clearly would not be trying its own takeover, with such a huge price tag, if they didn’t think they stood a good chance of success. So what makes the second offer so different from the first — and is it any more likely to succeed? [More]
FCC Chair: Relax, Cable Companies, Not All Mergers Are Necessarily Doomed Forever
By 5.22.15
The collapse of the much-discussed, absolutely enormous Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger earlier this year might have been an occasion for consumers and consumer advocates to cheer — but for businesses, it was much less good news. Cable companies that want to buy other cable companies are kind of freaked out: what if the FCC is hostile to their plans, too? [More]
Netflix To FCC: You Should Block The AT&T/DirecTV Merger Unless Conditions Are Added
By 5.5.15
AT&T and DirecTV announced their big corporate betrothal the better part of a year ago. The planned merger between the two companies has, comparatively speaking, flown under the radar as so much time and attention fell to the now-collapsed Comcast/TWC plans. But now that the 30-million ton elephant has left the merger room, all eyes are swiveling back to the other looming giant. [More]
Why Everyone Is Suddenly Dying To Buy A Cable Company You May Never Even Have Heard Of
By 5.1.15
Odds are (unless you live in central Florida) that you probably don’t know much about Bright House Networks. The cable company serves about 2 million TV and internet customers, mostly in Florida and also in Alabama, Indiana, Michigan, and California. But in the many eddies rippling through the cable world after the sinking of the Comcast/TWC merger, this one regional provider may be poised to make or break some pretty big deals. [More]
FCC Pauses Review Of Both Media Mega-Mergers Because Content Companies Won’t Share Confidential Info
By 10.22.14
The slowly-turning wheel of the approvals process for two big media mergers has temporarily ground to a halt, as the FCC today announced delays in their reviews of both AT&T’s planned acquisition of DirecTV and also the Comcast/Time Warner Cable union. The delays in both proceedings stem from the same core issue: media content companies who don’t want their rivals to learn their secrets. [More]
Why Isn’t America Freaking Out About AT&T/DirecTV Merger — And Should We Be?
By 9.5.14
While pretty much everyone is scrutinizing the pending mega-merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, not much attention is being paid to the possible marriage of the country’s second-largest wireless and pay-TV companies. And that leaves us with two big questions: What, if anything, makes these two mergers so different? And should we be more worried about a unified AT&T and DirecTV than we are? [More]
Will End Of Sprint’s Marriage To T-Mobile Make Things Easier For Comcast & TWC?
By 8.6.14
After months of will-they-won’t-they talks, this week Sprint finally gave up on trying to buy T-Mobile and wandered off to go try making money in other ways. But Sprint’s sad day could be good news for some other companies with mergers on their minds, it seems. [More]
