Charter pursues Time Warner Cable merger in wake of abandoned Comcast deal
Following Comcast's unsuccessful takeover bid, high-level talks have reportedly taken place between Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable over a possible merger, in spite of the bad blood between the two companies.
Liberty Media chairman John Malone has personally reached out to Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus, according to the Wall Street Journal. Liberty Media is a media and communications conglomerate and major shareholder in Time Warner Cable.
Marcus will reportedly meet with Charter CEO Tom Rutledge this week at the annual National Cable and Telecommunications Association convention in Chicago, which began on Monday. It could prove to be a somewhat awkward conversation after Charter's attempted hostile takeover of Time Warner Cable last year.
Charter's prospects this time around are uncertain. Comcast abandoned its attempt at acquiring Time Warner Cable last month after regulators signaled that they would block the deal.
Combined, the two companies would have become the biggest cable operator in the U.S., controlling much of the country's Internet and television infrastructure despite many public complaints about low speeds, high bills, and poor customer service on the part of both firms. Charter is smaller than Comcast, but regulators may still want to discourage any further reduction in competition.
The television industry is rapidly shifting, with a growing number of viewers dropping conventional television packages in favor of streaming video services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and HBO Now. Apple is believed to be entering the fray with its own subscription service, which could be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 and launch later this year.
Liberty Media chairman John Malone has personally reached out to Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus, according to the Wall Street Journal. Liberty Media is a media and communications conglomerate and major shareholder in Time Warner Cable.
Marcus will reportedly meet with Charter CEO Tom Rutledge this week at the annual National Cable and Telecommunications Association convention in Chicago, which began on Monday. It could prove to be a somewhat awkward conversation after Charter's attempted hostile takeover of Time Warner Cable last year.
Charter's prospects this time around are uncertain. Comcast abandoned its attempt at acquiring Time Warner Cable last month after regulators signaled that they would block the deal.
Combined, the two companies would have become the biggest cable operator in the U.S., controlling much of the country's Internet and television infrastructure despite many public complaints about low speeds, high bills, and poor customer service on the part of both firms. Charter is smaller than Comcast, but regulators may still want to discourage any further reduction in competition.
The television industry is rapidly shifting, with a growing number of viewers dropping conventional television packages in favor of streaming video services like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, and HBO Now. Apple is believed to be entering the fray with its own subscription service, which could be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference on June 8 and launch later this year.
Comments
Apple should buy TWC. $60B should do it.
Apple should buy TWC. $60B should do it.
and what... Why get directly into battle with NBC Universal /Comcast? US terrestrial Internet is not in Apple's wheelhouse. world wide Wireless is.
and what... Why get directly into battle with NBC Universal /Comcast? US terrestrial Internet is not in Apple's wheelhouse. world wide Wireless is.
Yeah it is not ideal but anything Apple does in the video streaming area is going to put them in competition with the cable providers. It is difficult to see how Apple's streaming business is going to play out, but he cable providers are not going to willingly become a dumb pipe service. To get decent speed you need to be closer than 50m or so to the hotspot. It always comes down to the last mile.
We need more competition and choice.. Not less....
Having just purchased Brighthouse I don't know if Charter will have any better luck absorbing TW than Comcast did.
I thought I read that the BH deal with Charter was contingent on the TW/Comcast deal going thorough.
Yeah it is not ideal but anything Apple does in the video streaming area is going to put them in competition with the cable providers. It is difficult to see how Apple's streaming business is going to play out, but he cable providers are not going to willingly become a dumb pipe service. To get decent speed you need to be closer than 50m or so to the hotspot. It always comes down to the last mile.
I don't see the competition. Your statement' analogue is saying Amazon selling stuff in containers puts you in direct competition with the trucking industry. When I say, make the containers generic enough that trains, planes and bicycles can be deployed, obviating the need [and the profit margins] of trucking firms.
[I do see the 'adversarial' view of net neutrality vs 'bandwidth enhanced partners'.... but that's not competition, that's an outcome of monopolistic legislation that allows for locking in consumers. Even if Apple bought TW, it would be only available in TW geographies, and Comcast wouldn't feel any pressure to change, as their client base geography wouldn't have changed.]
Apple needs to bypass cable completely, as the regionality (both within the US and external) makes it balkanized. Pushing hard for LTE technology improvements (you can get cell coverage whereever you can get cable) will get cord cutting to happen, not buying into the model.
You are correct that Cable won't become a dumb pipe willingly. Wireless[2G at the time, now LTE et al, not wifi] was the same. While not perfect, I'm getting 6GB of ATT bandwidth now for the 30% less cost than before, and my performance has jumped from 5mb/sec to pretty much 25mb/sec. And as far as I can tell, ATT just sells me roaming/international minutes when i need it (I'd love cable to be the same model).
No, to beat cable, Apple needs to continue to drive content delivery OPTIONS, making 'cutting the cord' more and more realistic. If I can get HBOnow on my cable internet, and I drop to basic cable because all I wanted was game of thrones for 4 months, That's a win for me. Oh, I an also get it on my municipal wireless network? heck, I can drop basic cable too. Pretty soon Cable will need to reprice and repackage, and get away from their addiction to bundling, and back to a dumb pipe (back in the day, that's what it was), and allow the 'containers' to be bought directly from the producers.