FCC Green Lights 'Crushing' Charter Cable Mega-Merger

[Ferd Berfel]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/26/fcc-green-lights-crushing-charter-cable-mega-merger

When the deal is complete, two-thirds of the nation's high-speed Internet subscribers will be under the control of just two corporations, Charter and Comcast.

The Obama administration has given the green light for Charter Communications to complete its $90 billion takeover of two other major cable providers, a move which critics warn will grant the Internet giant "crushing monopoly power" to drive up prices and control bandwidth, with almost no accountability or competition.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler on Monday circulated an order to approve Charter's acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.

The merger will combine the nation’s second-, third-, and sixth-largest cable-TV and Internet service providers (ISPs) and effectively place two-thirds of the nation's high-speed Internet subscribers under the authority of just two corporations, Charter and Comcast.


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By the 2020 Presidential election, it will be impossible to get information that is not approved by the fascist oligarchy - unless Bernie is President. Neither Clinton or any republican will even attempt to change this.

[metroins]

1. Awful, just awful.

It costs so much to build infrastructure, it's almost impossible to get competition.

[Ferd Berfel]

14. This shit will continue and get worse

regardless of Clinton or any other republican in the WH

file under: Be careful what you wish for.

[My Good Babushka]

2. Another bad idea. nt.

[highprincipleswork]

3. I'm seeking political refugee status.

[My Good Babushka]

4. Look at how this post dropped

like a motherfucking stone. Instead of rah-rah-rah-ing your political sports team, why aren't we talking about issues like this?
Is this great because Obama is approving it now? Are we still allowed to have views on issues or do we ask the DNC how they feel before we weigh in on an issue?

[Katashi_itto]

7. They are to busy celebrating the soon victory of someone who will do nothing for us.

[pintobean]

8. Who's stopping you from discussing it?

[My Good Babushka]

12. Are you in favor of media consolidation?

If so, why? If not, why didn't you have a counter argument? Do you agree with the administration's decision?
What is stopping the discussion is a giant wall of indifference. I can't have a discussion by myself.

I find your answer to be evasive and snarky.

[AxionExcel]

5. "All your internet are belong to us." - Corporate Citizens, Inc.

[Katashi_itto]

6. K&R!!

[Octafish]

9. Worked like a charm for broadcasters.

Thank you for a very important OP, Ferd Berfel! Here's the background for those who give a damn about Democracy:

The New Communications Cartel

from the

Preface to the Fifth Edition (1997)

of the book

The Media Monopoly

by Ben H. Bagdikian

published by Beacon Press, 1997

In the last 5 years, a small number of the country's largest industrial corporations has acquired more public communications power-including ownership of the news-than any private businesses have ever before possessed in world history.

Nothing in earlier history matches this corporate group's power to penetrate the social landscape. Using both old and new technology, by owning each other's shares, engaging in joint ventures as partners, and other forms of cooperation, this handful of giants has created what is, in effect, a new communications cartel within the United States.

At issue is not just a financial statistic, like production numbers or ordinary industrial products like refrigerators or clothing. At issue is the possession of power to surround almost every man, woman, and child in the country with controlled images and words, to socialize each new generation of Americans, to alter the political agenda of the country. And with that power comes the ability to exert influence that in many ways is greater than that of schools, religion, parents, and even government itself.

Aided by the digital revolution and the acquisition of subsidiaries that operate at every step in the mass communications process, from the creation of content to its delivery into the home, the communications cartel has exercised stunning influence over national legislation and government agencies, an influence whose scope and power would have been considered scandalous or illegal twenty years ago.

The new communications cartel has been made possible by the withdrawal of earlier government intervention that once aspired to protect consumers and move toward the ideal of diversity of content and ownership in the mass media. Government's passivity has emboldened the new giants to boast openly of monopoly and their ability to project news, commercial messages, and graphic images into the consciousness and subconscious of almost every American.

Strict control of public information is not new in the world, but historical dictatorships lacked the late twentieth century's digital multimedia and distribution technology. As the country approaches the millennium, the new cartel exercises a more complex and subtle kind of control.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/CommunCartel_Bagdikian.html

Third World Traveler has an excellent resource on it: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/MediaMonopoly_Bagdikian.html

[1939]

10. Really an "end-to-end" merger

There is no competition between cable providers. You can't say that you will go with A or B because you can only get A or B where your home or business is located. Two cable companies merging does not eliminate competition and any new company cannot compete. Your choices for an ISP are cable TV line, phone line, or satellite. You cannot choose between cable systems even if there were fifty cable systems because only one of them has a line to your home.

[KelleyKramer]

16. Sorry, but you are very wrong. ..

For over 20 years my city has had 2 cable companies, and because of the competition for many of those years we had some of the lowest rates in the country.

And even though I'm not using either of them right now, there are 2 cable lines hooked to my house


.

[surrealAmerican]

11. k & r

We need to start seeing monopolies as a bad thing again.

[roamer65]

13. If allowed to merge, then they should fall under public utility regulations.

They should have to go in front of a public service commission to ask for rate increases, like our utilities do in MI.

[Ferd Berfel]

15. THey shold fully become regulated public Utililties

[Samantha]

17. Where does that leave Verizon?

I cannot stand Comcast.

Sam