Washington Post: Comcast makes hostile bid for AT&T Broadband
. Consumer advocates said the deal is troubling because it would shrink even further the number of major players in the cable TV market. Comcast is now the third largest cable company in the country with about 8.5 million subscribers. After the merger, it would have 22 million subscribers, or about 10 million more than AOL Time Warner, the second-largest owner of cable systems.
The utter failure of the 1996 telecommunications “reform” law has never been more clear. We’re being herded into the kind of mass-media concentration that would have absolutely terrified America’s founders — and few in power seem bothered today.
Now Comcast is bidding for AT&T Broadband, the former TCI, and the result would be the biggest cable giant of all. It should be unthinkable for this buyout to occur. Sadly, it may take place, because the people in charge in Washington dismiss the public interest these days when big business comes calling.
Look for a host of media buyouts in coming months and years. When it’s over — when Hollywood and a few giants control every major media outlet — we’ll discover what it means for the media to become an oligopoly. I fear it means disaster for the American republic, where the consent of the governed depends on an informed electorate.