rkolsen 1675 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 This really reminds me of Fin-Syn( big rabbit hole)...and even worse, the regulations that prohibit movie studios from owning the theaters where those movies are shown. This won't be approved as it is, but just wait for the giant PR butt-kissing machine to get revved up, because you are gonna see all kinds of promises about improved this...and diversity that...and helping the poor...feeding the elves...bla bla. There's probably going to be the conditions similar to the Comcast - NBCU Merger (some places say merger other say acquisition - what is it?). Maybe the regulations will be tougher as the company controls two different delivery methods (DirecTV and uverse) and a cell phone company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eat News 4738 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 There's probably going to be the conditions similar to the Comcast - NBCU Merger (some places say merger other say acquisition - what is it?). Maybe the regulations will be tougher as the company controls two different delivery methods (DirecTV and uverse) and a cell phone company. I'm just at a loss because we have been through this already over the last 80 years of "content creation". The idiots at KGTV this morning said the "AT&T deal was official"... ...(Numbskulls) Does anyone else here feel like this is some kind of variation of "Whack a Mole"? Let's just flood the DOJ with merger request, in the hope one sneaks past everyone. Remember when it starts becoming routine...then we stop paying attention and one rat sneaks in.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 What is interesting is what will happen to WPCH if the deal is approved. If AT&T keeps the station, it would be their first foray in terrestrial broadcasting since they sold WEAF (AM) to RCA in 1926. Time Warner has owned WPCH (WTBS) since it acquired Turner Broadcasting in 1996, but Meredith (and by extension, WGCL) has operated the station under an LMA since 2011. I definitely see WPCH being sold to Meredith if AT&T sells off the station as part of the concessions they would have to make to get the deal approved; since WPCH is already operated by WGCL, might as well make the connection official and make WPCH a sister station, giving Atlanta its second duopoly. Also, I wonder what will happen to WPCH's Canadian cable carriage in the event of a selloff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickp 293 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 What is interesting is what will happen to WPCH if the deal is approved. If AT&T keeps the station, it would be their first foray in terrestrial broadcasting since they sold WEAF (AM) to RCA in 1926. Time Warner has owned WPCH (WTBS) since it acquired Turner Broadcasting in 1996, but Meredith (and by extension, WGCL) has operated the station under an LMA since 2011. I definitely see WPCH being sold to Meredith if AT&T sells off the station as part of the concessions they would have to make to get the deal approved; since WPCH is already operated by WGCL, might as well make the connection official and make WPCH a sister station, giving Atlanta its second duopoly. Also, I wonder what will happen to WPCH's Canadian cable carriage in the event of a selloff. "Peachtree TV" is the (local) successor of TBS, former WTBS on UHF in Atlanta. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1338 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 He has a fifty-fifty chance of being president... Which is different from actually being president. You can't call either candidate president until they actually win, which is why I corrected you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry 718 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 People who were around here in 2008 probably remember how politically charged this place got for a while before that election. I would hope we could try to remain somewhat civil about it this time around. I am of a different breed. Although I support Trump, I don't mind if you rip him a new one provided that you are also spreading around the bashing equally. Because the media is not doing that and it is so obviously slanted against Trump, that is the reason you have situations like the mini-riot featured in the video above that I shared with you. The media is effectively acting as cheerleaders for Hillary and the establishment and the globalists, and there is nothing I and most people hate more than cheerleaders. I suggest everybody check out the movie with Gary Cooper, "Meet John Doe". That is exactly what is going on here. I think it might even be a Time Warner owned movie. That is why this merger is not going to happen if President Trump wins, which I am betting will be the likely result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eat News 4738 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 People who were around here in 2008 probably remember how politically charged this place got for a while before that election. I would hope we could try to remain somewhat civil about it this time around. In 2008 i was not here...in fact I remember I was so pissed that I swam in circles around Australia for 2 years afterwards. I think it would be funny if you just let it be a political free for all on TVNT for the last 48 hours leading up to the election.On the 9th everything political has to cease...because we have to all concentrate on theThe Revolution beginning. A little blood on the forum floor is kinda a "turn-on" for lil 'ole Sharky... Yum Yum! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry 718 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 Wikileaks is hinting via this email that there is media collusion with regard to the polling. This, if true, is another reason that Trump would be justified in blocking the merger. But I am personally more amused by the revenge angle. Aren't you? _____________________________________________________ ----- Original Message ----- From: [email protected] <[email protected]> To: [email protected] <[email protected]>; Andy Meyer Sent: Thu Jan 10 21:21:07 2008 Subject: Meet and polling design Hey, when can we meet? I also want to get your Atlas folks to recommend oversamples for our polling before we start in February. By market, regions, etc. I want to get this all compiled into one set of recommendations so we can maximize what we get out of our media polling. -Tom _____________________________________________________ EDIT: If anybody is interested in an article picking apart the poll numbers, here it is. We'll see how this all turns out, but it makes a lot of good points. https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/10/23/timely-wikileaks-email-highlights-deception-within-media-polling/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgie56 3059 Posted October 23, 2016 Author Share Posted October 23, 2016 What is interesting is what will happen to WPCH if the deal is approved. If AT&T keeps the station, it would be their first foray in terrestrial broadcasting since they sold WEAF (AM) to RCA in 1926. Time Warner has owned WPCH (WTBS) since it acquired Turner Broadcasting in 1996, but Meredith (and by extension, WGCL) has operated the station under an LMA since 2011. I definitely see WPCH being sold to Meredith if AT&T sells off the station as part of the concessions they would have to make to get the deal approved; since WPCH is already operated by WGCL, might as well make the connection official and make WPCH a sister station, giving Atlanta its second duopoly. Also, I wonder what will happen to WPCH's Canadian cable carriage in the event of a selloff. I think Peachtree TV will end up being a sister station to WGCL. Channel 17 has become Turner's bastard station in recent years anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TexasTVNews 1366 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 What are the odds if WPCH becomes CBS station if 'GCL drops The Tiffany Network? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyrannical bastard 3442 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 IF...this deal goes through, hopefully AT&T will FINALLY leverage all of the content that Time Warner has been sitting on all of these years. Of all of the conglomerates, it's been Time Warner dragging their feet in making their content available OTT....well, they bury SOME of it in their "Warner Archive" service. Even then, it makes the Disney Vault look like someone stuffing their life savings in a mattress. It wouldn't surprise me to see a newly-merged Viacom and Disney joining forces eventually. And if that happens, either ABC or CBS would be getting their walking papers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundershock MN 169 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 AT&T has already stated that they plan to take DirecTV (in full) to streaming-only in the future, and that's after they migrate their Uverse TV subscribers (and new potential customers) over to the DirecTV platform. These media companies, especially as streaming media grows, know that the game is changing...they have to adapt to stay alive. I've never seen anything of the sort directly from AT&T. There have been articles quoting analysts and/or "unnamed sources" that the streaming platform would likely be the primary method of delivery at some point in the future. But, there has be zero indication they plan to totally abandon satellite delivery. Everything that has been publicly stated by AT&T is that the streaming platform is meant to be an entry level product(s). DirecTV Now will only support two simultaneous streams at one time. The streaming platform will pretty much be a non-starter for commercial accounts and rural customers. They are not going just abandon all those customers especially the commercial accounts. And, this isn't even taking into account data caps that ISPs are instituting. Quickplay which was acquired by AT&T recently as well is providing the platform for the new DirecTV branded streaming services. So, if the end game was to do away with satellite delivery they could have just done without the DirecTV acquisition. Satellite will stick around for some time. It might be in a lesser capacity but, I don't see it totally vanishing in the near future. This kind of reminds me of similar articles that predicted the demise of the DirecTV brand (based on a couple internal memos) as well. By all accounts the DirecTV brand will be around for the foreseeable future. I mean they are branding their 3 new streaming services under the DirecTV brand after all. What makes AT&T think they're going to buy Time Warner, despite the fact that AT&T tried to buy Deutsche Telekom (corporate parent of T-Mobile here in the U.S.) five years ago? And why is Time Warner getting back in the telecommunications game. Even though Time Warner Cable was spun off in 2009 (which merged with Charter this year), will DirecTV become of the *new* AT&T/Time Warner empire? I just don't know what to make out of this.. AT&T was only trying to acquire the T-Mobile USA unit not Deutsche Telekom as a whole. Deutsche Telekom was looking to divest their US subsidiary at the time. And, I think they explored tie ups with Dish and Sprint as well. They finally settled on a reverse takeover with MetroPCS resulting in T-Mobile US becoming a separate publicly traded company (although Deutsche Telekom still owns upwards of 2/3 of the shares if memory serves me correct.) What is interesting is what will happen to WPCH if the deal is approved. I definitely see WPCH being sold to Meredith if AT&T sells off the station as part of the concessions they would have to make to get the deal approved; since WPCH is already operated by WGCL, might as well make the connection official and make WPCH a sister station, giving Atlanta its second duopoly. Also, I wonder what will happen to WPCH's Canadian cable carriage in the event of a selloff. I'd be shocked if they kept it. In fact there was some curious language in the AT&T press release: "The merger is subject to approval by Time Warner Inc. shareholders and review by the U.S. Department of Justice. AT&T and Time Warner are currently determining which FCC licenses, if any, will be transferred to AT&T in connection with the transaction. To the extent that one or more licenses are to be transferred, those transfers are subject to FCC review." Bolded for emphasis. To the best of my knowledge Time Warner only holds one license that's under FCC jurisdiction, that being WPCH-TV. The only other licenses I can think of are on the AT&T side and they would be a pro forma transfer of control.I'm pretty sure if they offload WPCH-TV to someone else (and not transfer to AT&T) they could keep the larger transaction out FCC review as a result. Odds that Stephen Lacy's phone is being burned up right now? As to Canada I don't see anything changing there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevCor 344 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 There's probably going to be the conditions similar to the Comcast - NBCU Merger (some places say merger other say acquisition - what is it?). Maybe the regulations will be tougher as the company controls two different delivery methods (DirecTV and uverse) and a cell phone company. I actually do see FCC/DOJ learning lessons from the Comcast - NBCU merger, and forcing some major concessions or spinoffs from the AT&T/TW... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darius22 120 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 I actually get it now. Remember when AOL was part of Time Warner? this is exactly the same thing with AT&T. this could mean that turner sports (which already used AT&T for March Madness) can be used also for their platform. another thing we may see is content using AT&T product placement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mre29 1338 Posted October 23, 2016 Share Posted October 23, 2016 I actually get it now. Remember when AOL was part of Time Warner? this is exactly the same thing with AT&T. Yup. In fact, AOL bought Time-Warner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnya2k6 171 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Yup. In fact, AOL bought Time-Warner. Yeah...for over $160 billion (the AT&T-Time Warner sale is only half of that)!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSSZNews 1046 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Yup. In fact, AOL bought Time-Warner. And then AOL cratered. Broadband took off, Internet users didn't need to have their content filtered through a cumbersome UI, and they (along with Prodigy and eventually AOL-acquired Compuserve) could not keep up. It didn't help that there was stubbornness and resentment among Time Warner bosses over the merger in the first place. I can't help but wonder whether some of that still exists ahead of this, too. On the surface, the optics with this deal and the AOL-TW one are the same: It's about the pipeline. AOL had the pipeline and the user base to distribute content and they wanted more premium content. I imagine it's no different here. The difference now is broadband and mobile--both of which AT&T have sizable footprints in, the latter of which is what sets it apart and, arguably, gives it an advantage over Comcast. But the liability this time around may be content, not distribution. And not the quality of, but rather the volume of content available for consumers in general. There's a lot of it, and it's fracturing the landscape. Even football, once the untouchable king of eyeballs, is noticeably down in ratings this fall. TW doesn't have football to worry about, but Turner's tied up in several sports contracts that will be even more expensive in the future, with the added risk of diminishing returns. Much of TW's media portfolio (again, Turner) is also dependent on cable subscriptions, and while AT&T has U-verse and DirecTV, I think we've hit the peak there. Where AT&T (and TW now) may be well sheltered is in mobile subscriptions and mobile distribution. That's probably what made this deal attractive to both sides. If this combined company does fail the way AOL-TW did, it'll be interesting to see which pillar falls first--the pipeline (I doubt it) or the content (a bit more likely.) Or maybe it'll be internal politics again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DirtyHarry 718 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Yup. In fact, AOL bought Time-Warner. I think this was done this way for tax reasons but in reality it was Time-Warner buying AOL. Time-Warner and AOL merged, giving AOL half of the shares in a new company. Steve Case and his shareholders made off like bandits. Time Warner shareholders, such as Ted Turner, saw their investment cut in half. And then AOL cratered. Broadband took off, Internet users didn't need to have their content filtered through a cumbersome UI, and they (along with Prodigy and eventually AOL-acquired Compuserve) could not keep up. On the surface, the optics with this deal and the AOL-TW one are the same: It's about the pipeline. AOL had the pipeline and the user base to distribute content and they wanted more premium content. I imagine it's no different here. The difference now is broadband and mobile--both of which AT&T have sizable footprints in, the latter of which is what sets it apart and, arguably, gives it an advantage over Comcast. I think the idea was to migrate AOL to their own broadband platform as a value-added feature people would pay additional money for. But that was before the web became what it is today. It was probably a decent idea, but I don't see who would pay $15 more a month for broadband just so they could have AOL. Good point about the wireless user base. AT&T has wire, wireless and satellite. The only thing it doesn't have is competitive broadband speeds, but I'm sure they have a plan to tie that all together. They still have a "last mile" problem between their VRAD (the U-Verse network node; Video Ready Access Device) and your home since they use the existing copper telephone wire between the VRAD and your home. Verizon has proven that running fiber to homes is expensive and not profitable. I wonder AT&T could fix the last mile problem by running coaxial cable from the VRAD to the end user. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Breaking News 802 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Verizon-Viacom? CBS-Sprint? Mutual-Western Union? Amazon-Sprint? T-Mobile-Hulu..Yeah I know I'm grasping at straws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viper550 268 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 If this happens, I'd personally expect the Root Sports channels to be amalgamated into Turner Sports. It's a no-brainer: they could easily have some synergy with TNT and TBS's NBA and MLB rights, sharing of resources, and so forth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eat News 4738 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Why on Earth would the bozo's announce the proposed sale 20 days before the election? That makes NO sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Former Member 207 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 IF...this deal goes through, hopefully AT&T will FINALLY leverage all of the content that Time Warner has been sitting on all of these years. Of all of the conglomerates, it's been Time Warner dragging their feet in making their content available OTT....well, they bury SOME of it in their "Warner Archive" service. Even then, it makes the Disney Vault look like someone stuffing their life savings in a mattress. It wouldn't surprise me to see a newly-merged Viacom and Disney joining forces eventually. And if that happens, either ABC or CBS would be getting their walking papers! The Warners have finally made more of their TV and movie library available (mostly on Amazon Prime), and several of their old sitcoms are making their way to Antenna TV sometime next year. They were by far the biggest studio (film and/or TV) that didn't make their content readily available...contrast that to Sony, between Crackle, Sony Movie Channel, and the programming agreements with the various diginets (especially on Antenna and Bounce, and of course its own GetTV channel), that's one studio that's gotten far more use of its library than the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eat News 4738 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 I just want to see me some old Speedy Gonzales cartoons. "Arriba Arriba! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccSp0XnAGFU Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D Dwayne 5 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 If this happens, I'd personally expect the Root Sports channels to be amalgamated into Turner Sports. It's a no-brainer: they could easily have some synergy with TNT and TBS's NBA and MLB rights, sharing of resources, and so forth. Hopefully Root would expand their programming. I think they're are in the process of changing the name to At&t sportsnet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
east-tx-tv 105 Posted October 24, 2016 Share Posted October 24, 2016 Why on Earth would the bozo's announce the proposed sale 20 days before the election? That makes NO sense to me. From what I've read locally, AT&T felt that time was of the essence in making (and announcing?) a deal, before any other suitors could come along and scoop up TimeWarner. I don't know if the election, or its proximity to a merger deal date, was considered as a factor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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