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Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

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Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sort of. I stream from Apple TV so this doesn't work for me and it shouldn't be required :P

You might have to install dd-wrt on a router beefy enough to run a VPN client. That way your ATV doesn't need to understand VPN.

This would be a really interesting experiment. Measure downlink speeds over a fully VPNd connection.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#123
post #95
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you appreciate it if one supermarket bought all the food and then price gouged you 100 dollars for meat? I don't see how a monopoly helps anyone but the corporation, and even then just in dollars today. Strangling the entire market doesn't help anyone in the long run.

I'm not denying the antitrust concern of the union. I'm pointing out the hipocrisy of certain generally anti-regulation Silicon Valley companies trying to use antitrust law to preserve the viability of their role as middlemen. At the end of the day, Netflix's business model is inherently fragile. Amazon is somewhat better positioned, because they at least provide the upstream infrastructure. I think they know they ne…

I wonder if torrent/p2p would be a viable business model for Netflix. Think about it : they have a massive install base inside comcast where they can run programs and on most such programs they can run code, and store data.

Solution seems obvious.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To play devil's advocate, what it means is that Comcast has the better business model. After all, that's why Apple and Samsung dominate the cellular industry. That is devil's idiot. I can choose between 4 different cell carriers and dozens of smartphone makers. Many people only have one option if they want >10Mbps internet. Fortunately I get to choose between Optimum and FiOS. Optimum gives me 60/25 for the basic r…

I was addressing chimeracoder's point about vertical integration. There might be tons of Android manufactures peddling phones, but Apple and Samsung are eating up all the profits because they are verticicaly integrated. That's the major play Comcast is making. I wouldn't be surprised to see this coming soon to wireless. Imagine movie caching servers integrated into the backhaul network instead of going over the publi…

He wasn't making a point about vertical integration, but rather about monopoly power. Perdue and Tyson are vertically integrated. They own feed mills, hatcheries, grow farms, packing plants, and distribution. No one cares because you can always just pick the package of chicken that costs $3.29 instead of $3.59.

I also don't see how Samsung is vertically integrated. They don't make the OS, the App store, or have content/DRM. They have in-house manufacturing, but Apple doesn't. The two companies are vertically integrated in totally different ways, thus vertical integration is a weak argument for their success.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#125
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or cable is just a natural monopoly.

The physical network is absolutely a natural monopoly - the cost to run copper out to every house in a region is fixed, and any player in the market would need to do just that in order to compete effectively. From a cost efficiency perspective, the ideal number of such networks is one, just as it is for electricity and water. What's different is that electricity tends to be heavily regulated, and water is generally a…

Cable TV also seems like a natural monopoly for the same reason as cable Internet — the cost of running the cable itself. Even before cable modems, most places only had one cable company. And my understanding is that cable franchise agreements were written with that assumption. Maybe I don't understand your argument, though.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#126

If this merger goes thru, (and the AnitTrust people would have to be really asleep at the wheel for that) two things are certain: 1) Americans can expect some of the worst Cable price gouging they have ever seen 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner"

Show me how Comcast and Time Warner Compete? They have 100% non-overlapping service areas.

If anything, I'd expect prices to stay the same, because they have far greater leverage over the other media companies.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#128
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, they wouldn't arbitrarily price their products that way. Companies engage in a little thing called price discrimination. The only difference in a monopoly is that you are the sole price leader. That doesn't mean you can arbitrarily set the price high. Most cable companies have monopolies thru license in municipalities.

>That doesn't mean you can arbitrarily set the price high. You can if you corner the market and the good is required like food is.

You'll get your stores raided if you control and gouge something like food and water though, possibly ending with a head in a grocery cart. Police might even help.

Cable has a bit more leeway with the crowd I'd imagine, though there'd still definitely be consequences. Just not as dramatic consequences. I'd hope people protest gouged cable prices peacefully.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#129
post #95
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you appreciate it if one supermarket bought all the food and then price gouged you 100 dollars for meat? I don't see how a monopoly helps anyone but the corporation, and even then just in dollars today. Strangling the entire market doesn't help anyone in the long run.

I'm not denying the antitrust concern of the union. I'm pointing out the hipocrisy of certain generally anti-regulation Silicon Valley companies trying to use antitrust law to preserve the viability of their role as middlemen. At the end of the day, Netflix's business model is inherently fragile. Amazon is somewhat better positioned, because they at least provide the upstream infrastructure. I think they know they ne…

note that Netflix runs on Amazon

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#130
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a bit different in this situation. Comcast and Time Warner do not currently compete with each other.

Isn't that simply because they have a "gentlemans agreement" not to have overlapping coverage, so that (to an individual customer) they are essentially a monopoly?

If that's true then they're already violating anti-trust
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