dont forget it may be at@t to get across the line with the merger with warners ,just thinking outside the box
AT&T makes an offer to get Time Warner deal done
AT&T today offered federal regulators a concession related to the parent company of CNN, in its ongoing attempt to get approval for its pending $85 billion takeover of Time Warner. The give: In its response to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, AT&T addressed concerns that it would increase prices on rival distributors for content produced by Time Warner subsidiary Turner — increases that then would be passed on to consumers. If the Time Warner deal closes, AT&T would agree to seven years of "baseball style" binding arbitration with distributors, and also that it would not pull Turner content from rival distributor systems while such arbitration is ongoing. The offer does not appear to include HBO, which also is a Time Warner property.
AT&T today offered federal regulators a concession related to the parent company of CNN, in its ongoing attempt to get approval for its pending $85 billion takeover of Time Warner. The give: In its response to a U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit, AT&T addressed concerns that it would increase prices on rival distributors for content produced by Time Warner subsidiary Turner — increases that then would be passed on to consumers. If the Time Warner deal closes, AT&T would agree to seven years of "baseball style" binding arbitration with distributors, and also that it would not pull Turner content from rival distributor systems while such arbitration is ongoing. The offer does not appear to include HBO, which also is a Time Warner property.
6.
For these reasons, this transaction presents absolutely no risk of harm to
competition or consumers. Rather, the transaction will allow the combined company to drive
innovation in video content and distribution; develop an over-the-top path for Time Warner
content to reach consumers directly; develop new ad-supported video models that shift more
costs to advertisers and off consumers; use AT&T’s consumer data to increase the value of
Turner’s substantial advertising inventory and create a platform for other programmers to do the
same; use the same data to improve Time Warner’s decisions as to content investment,
marketing and promotions, and scheduling of programming; enable numerous cross-promotional
