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Comcast Can't Grab Time Warner Cable: American telco giants don't combine

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  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Ah, bottom of the ACSI list buddies. :P Enjoy sucking together!
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Congratulations: They've found the one way to make Time Warner Cable worse!
  • TreTre
    image
    If that happens I'm going to try as hard as I can to not be a subscriber to their services.

    Seriously, I'll take frakkin' AT&T over either of those two, and I don't even consider myself a big fan of them either...
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/13/5407932/comcast-and-time-warner-a-very-dark-cloud-with-a-tiny-silver-lining#215369585

    Did anyone tell this person that Comcast owns The Big Lebowski
  • criminalscumcriminalscum
    My ISP used to be Adelphia. Then that got bought out by Time Warner Cable. Then that's getting bought by Comcast.

    I can't wait until there's just one ISP. I'm sure that with the huge install base, Comcast can afford to keep its prices low, and that their control over NBC will have no implications for services like Netflix.
  • criminalscumcriminalscum
    edited 2014-02-13 22:28:18
    doublepost
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I'm a bit surprised that, Comcast aside, no media titan seemed interested in TWC. Time Warner itself wouldn't be in a position to buy it back, what with it paring itself down to just WB, Turner and HBO...

    But still, you'd think that Comcast's ownership of NBCUniversal would spook NBCU's competitors more than it seems to...
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    One of TWC's shareholders has sued to block the deal.

    Given that the shareholders of Fisher and Belo complained about Sinclair and Gannett respectively not offering enough money for those companies and the deals went through anyway, I don't know if this lawsuit will kill this deal.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    Probably not

    But I can always hope...
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    It wouldn't surprise me if a bidding war resumed in the wake of this. Time Warner Cable is too valuable for that not to happen.
  • Princess AlicePrincess Alice
    You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    True.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    A Washington Post op-ed weighs the pros and cons of the deal.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    New York delayed its deadline for approval/rejection of the deal from today to November 13. Old news, I know...
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-comcast-time-warner-cable-merger-opposition-20150127-story.html#page=1
  • CorvinaCorvina
    Vampire Lady of Corvidia

    (The other Jane)
    It's like dinosaurs mating.
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    I notice that Ovation is among the cable channels supporting the deal

    Why am I surprised, it's owned by the right-wing Hubbard family
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    Also why are little guys like them supporting the deal anyway? They're dead meat if this goes through. The big guys like Viacom are terrified that the newly enlarged Comcast would use its heft to kill off their small-fry channels like Spike...
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Their principles are overriding their brains...
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    And Ovation is an artsy channel whose ratings are probably not very high. In a merger like this, you know they're going to be first against the wall. Big mergers mean bland, crowd-pleasing channels win out over everything else.
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    Even more puzzling is that Starz is controlled by John Malone, who took a big stake in Charter Communications which he used to try to buy TWC...
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    lee4hmz said:

    And Ovation is an artsy channel whose ratings are probably not very high. In a merger like this, you know they're going to be first against the wall. Big mergers mean bland, crowd-pleasing channels win out over everything else.

    Indeed...
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    It wouldn't surprise me if television's general shift towards emphasizing the bland and crowd-pleasing was killing it...
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    I've been bewildered for years about the tendency of niche channels that had good starts (like SyFy) to magically transform into brainless rerun dumps, and consolidation just encourages that sort of behaviour. I used to call it "USA 1990 syndrome", but hell, even USA Network in 1990 had more to recommend it than does modern SyFy or even Discovery these days.


  • Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
    https://i.imgur.com/7Iil2JW.png
    idk

    people seem to think we're in some kind of TV Renaissance.

    I don't see it personally.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Well, a lot of the good shows are on streaming services you have to pay $$$ for, or on cable networks you also have to pay $$$ for. (Or you have to wait for the DVDs, and those cost money too.) 

    Free-to-air TV doesn't have much of a horse in this race at the moment.
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    Magic Jane said:

    idk


    people seem to think we're in some kind of TV Renaissance.

    I don't see it personally.
    a bunch of channels gravitating towards Critically-Acclaimed Scripted Programming about moral ambiguity
    lee4hmz said:

    I've been bewildered for years about the tendency of niche channels that had good starts (like SyFy) to magically transform into brainless rerun dumps, and consolidation just encourages that sort of behaviour. I used to call it "USA 1990 syndrome", but hell, even USA Network in 1990 had more to recommend it than does modern SyFy or even Discovery these days.



    and they never seem to succeed more as brainless rerun dumps, either

    Conversely, you see genreless channels finding niches so they don't die (e.g. TNT learning drama, TBS deciding it was very funny, USA welcoming character)
  • Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
    https://i.imgur.com/7Iil2JW.png
    I haven't had cable since 2010 and don't really miss it.

    I'd like to watch certain cartoons, that's about it.

    I have no idea what The History Channel is airing nowadays, they were deep in the Ice Road Trucker / Ancient Aliens / American Pickers phase when we dropped our subscription.
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    They've started running Original Scripted Programming like Vikings and Sons of Liberty
  • Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
    https://i.imgur.com/7Iil2JW.png
    oh yeah, Vikings. I heard that was alright.

    Still, that's at most two channels I want to watch.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    History may still be in its All Myths are True/Tnnt Sniens phase, I actually don't know for sure. Docusoaps and "scripted reality" are all the rage right now because they're cheap to make.
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    I'd want to have CN and Disney XD (if Disney chooses to keep the animation there)...Boomerang is off my want list because the Turner management nuked anything that made it special (hell, they are seemingly getting ready to evict The Flintstones now too)...
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Boomerang would be awesome if they still ran all the rarities that CN did in its pre-What A Cartoon days...
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    They'd be awesome if they didn't drop the Huck/Quick Draw/Yogi trifecta. WB would be awesome if they put anything that remained from those shows onto DVD, in full (so far there is only Huck's first season, both of Yogi's seasons, one Huck cartoon from after the first season, and four episodes of Quick Draw's show)
  • CorvinaCorvina
    Vampire Lady of Corvidia

    (The other Jane)
    Last time I checked, the History Channel was in All Nazis All the Time mode. Has it somehow gotten worse?
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    when was the last time you checked
  • Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
    https://i.imgur.com/7Iil2JW.png
    Corvidium said:

    Last time I checked, the History Channel was in All Nazis All the Time mode. Has it somehow gotten worse?

    You're talking about like the history channel of 2002 right there.
  • MissUtilisMissUtilis
    BEWARE OF GRRL!
    funny, I thought of 2002

    and I was never a big History Channel viewer
  • Salix BabylonikaSalix Babylonika
    https://i.imgur.com/7Iil2JW.png
    btw I wonder whatever happened to the Digging For The Truth guy.
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Yeah, all the WWII documentaries moved to the Military History Channel or whatever.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    nobody gets that channel, do they
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    We do, I think, but this is high-tier FiOS we're talking about. Generic shitty Comcast probably wouldn't have it.
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    ah yes, high-tier FiOS, home of channels us flyover plebeians aren't allowed
  • Obā-sanObā-san

    woe is us
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    woe is us
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    (Seriously, though, there's a lot of channels in this package we, like, never watch. I mainly bother because I hate seeing "sorry you can't get this channel", and because it enables all the sports channels.)
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Also, back when FiM was hot, The Hub was only available in the higher tiers. Of course, I'd record it and then never watch it :P
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    lee4hmz said:

    (Seriously, though, there's a lot of channels in this package we, like, never watch. I mainly bother because I hate seeing "sorry you can't get this channel", and because it enables all the sports channels.)

    what channels are they

    are they the Ooh! The Secret Hanna-Barbera Channel channel or anything
  • lee4hmzlee4hmz
    ⚠ THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS
    Sadly, no. It's stuff like...horse racing. Fishing. Golf. Stuff even my sports-fanatic stepfather won't watch. I'd have to look at the tier charts to know what else is in the high tier that's not in the two lower ones.
  • Obā-sanObā-san

    I remember when i was little we went to visit my grandmother she had cable and there was nothing else to do so i'd just watch shit (old cartoons and animal planet whatever) all day and when I got back home I felt like I had just utterly fucking wasted a chunk of my life and that's why i have a reflexive hatred of TV
  • AnonusAnonus
    I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    what old cartoons
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