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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

#251

Post by josefresco »

abvdasker wrote: post #242
chimeracoder wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner" I agree with your first point, but your second point doesn't follow. If anything, Comcast will price gouge Netflix out of business, and we'll be back to being stuck watching their awful "On Demand" instead. They can do this, because Comcast owns the content (NBC), the delivery mechanism for said cont…

> They can do this, because Comcast owns the content (NBC) You forgot Universal, which together still amounts to only a fraction of Netflix's content. There's a reason that Netflix doesn't carry many titles in their streaming service: it's already too costly to acquire the rights to stream them all. If Comcast were to raise the price on that content, Comcast could simply stop streaming those movies/shows. Given the s…

Netflix's original content only amounts to a fraction of the content available on Netflix. They do and will continue to be dependent on licensing this content.

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

#252

Post by bunderbunder »

wmf wrote: post #125
bunderbunder wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Different layers of the OSI model are different. Everything up to layer 3 on the local network is a natural monopoly. But above there it's not, and outside that local network it's not.

In the US, this fact was pretty clearly demonstrated when the regulatory overhaul of the telephone industry in the 1990s introduced competition by requiring owners of the local copper to share it, and also by how people are able to choose their long distance carrier. The latter would be analogous to being able to choose among any number of ISPs while still using the same copper to handle the last mile.

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

#253

Post by Istof »

suprgeek wrote: post #11

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"

I was thinking that they were already in a deep coma...

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

#254

Post by pdubs »

WaterSponge wrote: post #74
chimeracoder wrote: post #57

I can't wait until we finally get around to relegating broadband providers as common carriers. At the very least, we need a broadband version of Glass-Steagall, which forces ISPs, cable companies, and content providers to be separate entities. The current situation is laughably awful for consumers. I can't imagine a single informed customer actually supporting the status quo.

Not going to happen: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Cable_%26_Telecommunic... Just wait till Aereo gets screwed in their Supreme Court case. Then we really will be. In fact no matter which way they rule in Aereo's case we are screwed. If they rule in favor of Aereo the content companies (Comcast owns NBC) will just start taking content "cable only".

Unless I'm misreading this decision it merely upholds the FCC's right to classify ISPs as "information services" instead of "telecommunication services" because the Telecommunications Act is a bit fuzzy and leaves a lot up to the FCC. The FCC could decide to reclassify them as telecommunications services due to industry changes and I believe that this case would serve as precedent for them to legally do so.

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

#256

Post by officemonkey »

kdot wrote: post #245
officemonkey wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We control our government. If they fail to act in our best interest it is our fault.

You're being very naive, Comcast has more control and access to government then 'we'.

Currently.

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

#257

Post by dba7dba »

flavor8 wrote: post #213
dba7dba wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>the AnitTrust people would have to be really asleep at the wheel for that Call me a pessimist but I think this will go through. Why? The lobbyists already sounded out (lobbied/paid-off/promised-job-in-future) enough people in govt to feel that this will go through, or at least there is enough chance of it happening. I bet this will go through, especially using the point that they don't compete against each other (wh…

> The lobbyists already sounded out (lobbied/paid-off/promised-job-in-future) enough people in govt to feel that this will go through, or at least there is enough chance of it happening. I don't think that follows. AT&T / TMobile gave it a shot a couple years ago, and that was shot down.

In the end ATT ended up paying hundreds of millions of dollars as a fine to TMobile. I doubt Comcast would repeat the same mistake. This will largely go through with the ironic claim that they don't compete against each other, when they were NOT designed to compete in the first place.

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

#258

Post by Florin_Andrei »

officemonkey wrote: post #241
rjbwork wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless/until the state or local governments pass laws that make that illegal and grant even stronger de facto monopolies to the cable companies.

We control our government. If they fail to act in our best interest it is our fault.

One man, one vote.

One fat wallet, one million votes.

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

#259

Post by Florin_Andrei »

00rion wrote: post #220
ulfw wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how would this 'FU ComcastWarner' work in America? Anywhere you live you only have the choice of paying your cable provider, your telephone carrier or your wireless carrier for internet. - DSL infrastructure hasn't evolved in a decade or more. You're lucky to get mid-single digit megabits/sec. I had 0.7 mpbs offered to me in Mountain View by at&t. - Cable is the only speedy one, but they can price gouge you, limi…

We could all pressure our local governments to provide municipal internet. Many cities have already created services that are much faster too.

Internet providers need to quit playing these shenanigans all the time.

What they do is they build public roads. You wouldn't allow a company to build a public road, and then go:

"Safeway trucks get a free pass, cause we have a deal with them; everyone else, $5 per vehicle. Except for you, Best Buy, you pay $25 - except Saturday and Sunday, when you may not pass at all."

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

#260

Post by Phlarp »

canvia wrote: post #223
ulfw wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how would this 'FU ComcastWarner' work in America? Anywhere you live you only have the choice of paying your cable provider, your telephone carrier or your wireless carrier for internet. - DSL infrastructure hasn't evolved in a decade or more. You're lucky to get mid-single digit megabits/sec. I had 0.7 mpbs offered to me in Mountain View by at&t. - Cable is the only speedy one, but they can price gouge you, limi…

The latency on cellular internet makes it unusable for many applications like gaming.

I've played many games of Starcraft on a Verizon LTE connection. Many (most?) online games have 250ms of latency "built in" to even the playing field for users with ping times below 250ms. LTE latency is usually closer to 50ms
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