Cable, satellite TV headed into the hands of a few firms

Time Warner turned down an $80 billion offer by 21^st Century Fox to buy TW.

Two blockbuster mergers are awaiting government approval: Comcast’s $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable, which is not part of Time Warner, and AT&T’s $48.5 billion acquisition of DirecTV.

Comcast will be controlling the costs for 30% of cable users in America.

AT&T will have 27% of the pay TV business.

What do mergers mean to cable customers? Thinner wallets. 

Cable charges have more than doubled in 20 years. Mega mergers will accelerate that. 

If cable and satellite TV giants ever merger, your choices will be to pay the price, no matter how burdensome, or settle for rabbit ears.

Rupert Murdoch is rubbing his hands gleefully.

To read the entire New York Times article, click on http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/opinion/sunday/the-media-merger-arms-race.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0

What does Comcast purchase mean

for Time Warner Cable customers?

What would Comcast's purchase of Time Warner Cable mean for TWC customers, including those in Northeast Ohio?

1. Comcast's wider menu of channels and services, such as 50,000 video on-demand choices on television, 300,000 plus streaming choices on XfinityTV.com, Xfinity TV mobile apps that offer 35 live streaming channels plus the ability to download to watch offline later, and X1 cloud DVR.

2. Hiccups in merging customer database -- double billing or accounts getting lost.

Comcast says that if the merger is approved by federal regulators, they would become one with Time Warner Cable by the end of this year. 

"An enlarged Comcast would be the bully in the schoolyard, able to dictate terms to content creators, Internet companies, other communications networks that must interconnect with it, and distributors who must access its content," said John Bergmayer,  senior staff attorney for online consumer activist group Public Knowledge.

In a MoneyRates.com survey: 25% called cable companies the worst for customer service; 15% named credit card companies, 14% listed insurance companies at 14% and 12% cited phone companies.

Comcast and Time Warner Cable are largely in different U.S. markets.

If you're dissatisfied with the Comcast takeover, there's always satellite dish companies and AT&T's U-verse.

To read the entire article, go to http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/13/tech/web/comcast-time-warner-consumer-impact/index.html?hpt=hp_c2