28 Feb AT&T + Time Warner Merger Official
Will this AT&T and Time Warner merger change the media industry?
During the federal trial, both AT&T and Time Warner argued that they have no reason to trigger a blackout because they make their money from advertisements and subscriber fees. If a blackout occurred, it would not allow other distributors to show their content. By dropping a distributor, a loss in their financials would occur. “They also claimed that they need the merger to compete with the likes of Netflix (NFLX), Google (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB), and to bring cost savings and new innovations to their customers.”
The Justice Department believed that AT&T would have bargaining leverage over rival TV distributors. This is because the Turner networks have valuable live content, sports from TNT and CNN’s news coverage that many distributors would like to use. In addition, the Justice Department brought up how AT&T could raise the prices for their content to competitors. After the ruling was upheld Jeremy Edwards, a department spokesperson said, “We are grateful that the Court of Appeals considered our objections to the District Court opinion. The Department has no plans to seek further review.”
GeoTel is the leading provider of telecommunications infrastructure data. For over sixteen years, GeoTel’s products have been providing companies and government entities with the leverage and insight necessary to make intelligent, location-based business decisions. For more information or a demo, please contact our experts at (407) 788-8888.