Comcast to Acquire Time Warner Cable

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
It boggles the mind when I read posts on here of people "wanting Sears to die" and the like. Anytime competitors die away, people LOSE JOBS and the consumer suffers.


Nonsense. Every time competition goes out of business there are a several startups that take their place. Many won't make it, but those that do strengthen the economy and provide employment. A business such as Sears failing isn't providing much in the way of competition anyway-they're already irrelevant in the market. It's better for the economy to lose business' that are bleeding red ink than to try to keep them around and prop them up by artificial means.


Right on, if Sears died there'd be another retailer offering the same jobs but with presumably better management.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

It will go through - they can buy off the necessary people to make it happen.

Unfortunately, TW actually was in support of net neutrality. Guess that means no more netflix when Comcast buys TW for me.

 

[eljefino]

You bet it will go through. I got miserable customer service from Bell Atlantic in 1998 right after New York Telephone merged with New England Telephone, changed from NYNEX, into BA, into Verizon, then split off VZW all in a year or two. They "might" have to spin off an unimportant part of their network in North Timbletuck, which they will saddle with all their underperforming techncial gear and a few lousy guys in suits as well.

Long story short, I transferred my phone service to a new tenant but still got their long distance (sprint) bill. The buck-passing was legendary.

I wrote the appropriate government agency to complain. It got pencil-whipped.

 

[BearZDefect]

If this goes through I will have no doubt that they bought corrupt regulators.

 

[daman]

They can afford it because people buy it,comcrap is just that,a friend of mine has it and has the lowest cheapest package and still is paying almost twice what i am for dish,trying to get him to switch.

All these cable company's are a rip off i hate them all,I'm seriously thinking of cutting the cord!!!

 

[exranger06]

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: daman

All these cable company's are a rip off i hate them all,I'm seriously thinking of cutting the cord!!!


They know who's doing it and who's thinking of doing it. Their customer satisfaction ratings won't melt an ice cube.

 

[sleddriver]

Originally Posted By: JHZR2
The last thing this industry needs is less competition. The products are way overpriced as it is IMO, and less competition yields less basis to increase value to the consumer, vs just raising the prices. They do that as is in markets with at least two providers.

+1 Another Ma Bell in the making?

 

[Nick R]

As a Time Warner Cable customer, I do _NOT_ want this. Comcast has been implementing data caps in some markets of 300GB. We regularly go over 1TB monthly, We'll end up having to get comcast business if this happens. I mean their TV product as far as cable boxes and the software they run is much better than what TWC has, and internet speeds are faster, but that doesn't balance out data caps.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit


Nonsense. Every time competition goes out of business there are a several startups that take their place.


REALLY? How many "statrups" can realistically challenge ChinaMart?

What nonsense.

 

[gfh77665]

Originally Posted By: eljefino

Right on, if Sears died there'd be another retailer offering the same jobs but with presumably better management.


Really? All the ex Sears employees would be hired at this "other retailer" you speak of? All the malls across the USA that house Sears would be immediately refilled?

Presumably? Thats very reassuring.

 

[Triple_Se7en]

I had cable or satellite for over 25 consecutive years, then quit cold turkey. What I miss is watching local MLB, NBA, NHL ....etc. Instead I listen to the radio feeds and get video highlights of the games at their websites. It's extremely rare to get pro sports on regular network TV during the season. I might get to see eight Detroit Tigers games, out of 162. Maybe two Red Wings and Pistons games out of 82..... that's it.

The only sport that's kind to regular free, over-the-air TV is the NFL. I get to see all the Lions games for free.

 

[Win]

Originally Posted By: gfh77665
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit


Nonsense. Every time competition goes out of business there are a several startups that take their place.


REALLY? How many "statrups" can realistically challenge ChinaMart?

What nonsense.


Mr. Walton challenged the behemoths of his day, and won, convincingly. His original five and dime store is preserved as a museum, open to the public.

The little Ercoupe that he used to visit his stores is also preserved in a local museum.

 

[Cutehumor]

Originally Posted By: Nick R
As a Time Warner Cable customer, I do _NOT_ want this. Comcast has been implementing data caps in some markets of 300GB. We regularly go over 1TB monthly, We'll end up having to get comcast business if this happens. I mean their TV product as far as cable boxes and the software they run is much better than what TWC has, and internet speeds are faster, but that doesn't balance out data caps.



Nick. Comcast is all about the dollar. They will cut jobs at time warner after they buy it!

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: gfh77665
Originally Posted By: eljefino

Right on, if Sears died there'd be another retailer offering the same jobs but with presumably better management.


Really? All the ex Sears employees would be hired at this "other retailer" you speak of? All the malls across the USA that house Sears would be immediately refilled?

Presumably? Thats very reassuring.


Yup, they'll be rehired one at a time at walmart or in an amazon warehouse or driving a fedex truck.

People have to shop. Stuff they make these days isn't as durable as a 1975 Kenmore washer so people will be repeat buying too.

 

[JHZR2]

Originally Posted By: Win
Originally Posted By: gfh77665
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit


Nonsense. Every time competition goes out of business there are a several startups that take their place.


REALLY? How many "statrups" can realistically challenge ChinaMart?

What nonsense.


Mr. Walton challenged the behemoths of his day, and won, convincingly. His original five and dime store is preserved as a museum, open to the public.

The little Ercoupe that he used to visit his stores is also preserved in a local museum.



That's great but there is a vastly different reality these days. Barriers to entry for established stuff is ever harder. Sure, there are industries where margins are low and many players are routinely going out of business, freight truck delivery is one that comes to mind. But it's true that to think of a viable competitor to walmart popping up,is kind of silly currently. Maybe it will happen, but IMO it's a stretch. And it's exactly why people like high tech. Amazon may well surpass walmart in size and sales and employees at some point, but it's not an apples to apples operation.

I'm not all doom and gloom, but in highly infrastructure and logistics oriented entities with low margins, the barriers to entry are high, IMO, so the poster probably is right.

 

[redhat]

We have basic cable on some TVs in our house (the old 0-99 analog tuner style). Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but didn't Comcast get rid of that and require all to have a set top box?

 

[Pop_Rivit]

Originally Posted By: gfh77665
Originally Posted By: Pop_Rivit


Nonsense. Every time competition goes out of business there are a several startups that take their place.


REALLY? How many "statrups" can realistically challenge ChinaMart?

What nonsense.


It's "startups" not "statrups". We were not discussing Wal-Mart, we were discussing Sears. They have two entirely different business models and business philosophies, so your analogy is rather senseless. But continuing your line of short sighted reasoning, at one time Wal-Mart was a startup and challenged the likes of retail behemoths such as Sears and K-Mart. Look where that stands today. And at one time (now pay attention because this is important), Richard Sears, a railroad station agent, started RW Sears by selling coal, lumber and watches as a side business. Within 6 years sales topped $400,000/year. Quite a sum in those days for a startup retail business.

And yes, if Sears were to go out of business their employees who elect to stay in retail would be absorbed by other retailers. The same thing happened when other large retailers went out of business; retailers such as Montgomery Wards, Woolco, Venture, Payless Cashways, CompUSA and a whole host of others.

The retail landscape is littered with retailers who have come and gone, and all of their employees found other jobs. I'm sure many stayed in retail; others used the opportunity to change careers. It's the nature of business; it has happened many, many times before and it will again happen many, many times in the future.

Originally Posted By: JHZR2

That's great but there is a vastly different reality these days.


That's a myopic viewpoint. I've heard the same thing said time and time again, yet somehow those of us who actually go out and start/run our own business' seem to be able to continue to be successful, even in the face of big competition.

The next big retailer won't beat Wal-Mart at their own game. The next big retailer will change the game and Wal-Mart won't be ready for it, just as Wal-Mart once changed the game and many other retailers weren't able to adapt.

Whenever there's a challenge, enterprising entrepreneurs will find a way to succeed despite the naysayers telling them they can't. True that some will fail, but most do well.

 

[exranger06]

Originally Posted By: redhat
We have basic cable on some TVs in our house (the old 0-99 analog tuner style). Maybe I'm thinking of something else, but didn't Comcast get rid of that and require all to have a set top box?

Yes. It doesn't matter what kind of TV you have, whether it's an old analog CRT, or a new HD all digital unit, every TV needs some type of box for Comcast service. If you have an old CRT, you can get a tiny little converter box that you can hide behind the TV and it has a wired remote sensor you place anywhere. That's about as unintrusive as the boxes get. The other option is the large set-top box, that has all the bells and whistles and let's you access On-Demand and stuff.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Originally Posted By: bubbatime
About to get rid of cable and just go to Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu/Bunny Ears. Would be way cheaper...


Those streaming services depend upon sufficient bandwidth to effectively stream their content. The worry here, at least in my perception, is two-fold:

1) a new cable conglomerate could institute data cap policies that would either limit your total monthly throughput or your MB/s bandwidth

2) a company that is against net neutrality, such as Comcast apparently, could limit bandwidth to services that historically consume the majority of it (such as streaming video services)

Either one of these options COULD present a significant hurdle to companies that endeavor to offer these streaming services (such as Netflix) and to end customers who want to consume those services.

Our household, like many out there, have "cut the cord" in the sense that we no longer subscribe to cable or satellite TV, but if we want to view Netflix and the like, we're no less dependent upon a broadband provider to get that bandwidth to us.