Lead-In AT&T, TW Rekindle Consolidation Combining Content and Distribution Verticals Could Be Key As Mobile Viewing Grows
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Lead-In AT&T, TW Rekindle Consolidation Combining content and distribution verticals could be key as mobile viewing grows BY JON LAFAYETTE few years, even as other media companies worry about lower ORD THAT AT&T was affiliate revenue growth because of close to acquiring Time cord-cutting and skinny bundles. WWarner has rekindled Analysts now speculate that talk of consolidation in the media AT&T would have to pay as business. Combining with AT&T much as $110 a share in order to would put Time Warner content secure Time Warner before anoth- companies HBO, TNT, CNN and er bidder emerges, possibly from Warner Bros. under the same roof Silicon Valley, where companies as multichannel distribution giants including Apple and Google are DirecTV and UVerse as well as building OTT TV platforms that AT&T’s powerful mobile network. will eventually require exclusive The deal would reverse years premium content. of work for Time Warner CEO AT&T chairman/CEO Randall Stephenson (left) and Time Warner chairman/CEO Jeff Bewkes. Time Warner is a particularly Jeff Bewkes, who aimed to create tasty morsel because it is not a premium content company by has been talking about further the spinoff of CBS 10 years ago. owned by a family or investors selling off units like AOL, Time industry consolidation. Malone has Bewkes fought off the acquisi- who could block a transaction or Warner Cable and Time Inc. interests in Starz and Lionsgate, tion of Time Warner by Rupert make one difficult. AT&T would be following which are combining, as well as Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox in As quickly as an AT&T-Time in the path of Comcast, which Discovery Communications. 2014, arguing that Murdoch’s Warner deal could come together, has prospered since acquiring Shares of Discovery, and other $85 a share offer undervalued final approval by government NBCUniversal, giving its pipelines companies Malone has identified Time Warner’s assets. regulators could be dicey. an abundant supply of content. as “free radicals” in the content Since then, Time Warner’s Both the Justice Department While Comcast appears to have a business, saw their shares rise on revenue and earnings have risen, and the FCC have raised con- bigger and better-developed wired the AT&T, Time Warner news. HBO has launched a long-awaited cerns about vertical integration of network, AT&T may have an Also on the path to consolida- over-the-top, direct-to-consumer content owners and distribution advantage in mobile, where more tion are CBS and Viacom, which product and Turner Broadcast- platforms—like Comcast and viewers are consuming content. are both controlled by the Sumner ing has locked in new long-term NBCUniversal. The Comcast deal Cable pioneer John Malone, Redstone family. Each company distribution deals that should did finally clear the regulatory bar, whose Charter Communica- has each hired advisors to study a push subscriber fees up at close but only after Comcast agreed to tions bought Time Warner Cable, combination, which would undo to double-digit rates for the next significant concessions. mememe was still too high, and they were willing to have the pot of available WIRELESS BIDDERS STAND THEIR GROUND spectrum reduced before they bid IT TOOK BROADCASTERS a a total bid price of blocks per market to nine. any more. couple of weeks and 53 rounds $21.5 billion, or $33.1 SPECTRUM The bidders were still on The FCC has always said the to offer up the latest price tag for billion short. the hook for their closing auction could go multiple rounds their spectrum: $54.6 billion. The way the for- WATCH prices in stage one and and started off with high prices It took wireless companies and ward auction works is they stuck to them, declin- to attract broadcasters. But forward auction bidders only two that a stage closes when demand ing to meet the FCC’s new price, the longer the auction goes, the hours to respond, and the answer no longer exceeds supply in the which effectively closed the stage less spectrum the FCC is free- was a big, fat no. top 40 markets. whether or not there continued to ing up for what it and wireless Stage two of the forward The FCC had reduced the num- be bidding in the smaller markets. carriers had said was to address auction began at 10 a.m. Oct. 19 ber of available spectrum blocks The bidders’ signal was clear. a spectrum shortage verging on a and was over by noon, closing at from a maximum of 10 paired The broadcasters’ asking price crisis. —John Eggerton Miglio/Amazon Jessica 4 BROADCASTING & CABLE OCTOBER 24, 2016 BROADCASTINGCABLE.COM 1004_LeadIn.indd 4 10/21/16 5:12 PM THE WATCHMAN Deputy Editor Michael Malone’s weekly look at the programming scene ‘Revolt’-ing Against Locker Room Talk; Digital Gets ‘Dot’-Complicated AMAZON’S Good Girls Revolt is [like], ‘Is that fair?’ If every girl Programming Strategy, page set almost a half century ago, and woman said that, we would 19). We grabbed java—the but the show, about a group of live in a different world.” coffee, not the programming female researchers at a news Speaking of daughters, Gail language—with creator Randi magazine fighting against a Berman admitted she was ner- Zuckerberg the other day. As policy that states only males vous before her reimagining a kid, Zuckerberg’s TV tastes can be reporters, feels pretty of The Rocky Horror Picture included PBS science show timely. There was plenty of Show rolled on Fox. Berman 3-2-1 Contact and Jem, about Good Girls Revolt locker room talk at the ficti- decompresses by watch- the badass singer of a band tious News of the Week in 1969, ing Project Runway with her called the Misfits. These days, as there is today. “Women are kiddo. They may be in different of Fame on Oct. 18. The Round Zuckerberg, the mother of two, having a bit of a tussle with parts of the country, but watch Mound of Rebound’s offspring is is raving about Orphan Black, our presidential candidate,” “together” by either chatting studying at Columbia University. Black Mirror and Orange Is the deadpans executive producer or texting as the episode runs. “Barkley brains are taking over New Black, along with a few Lynda Obst. “It’s been our favorite show for the world!” gushed Sir Charles. other shows that don’t have Dana Calvo, another exec so long,” Berman says. Finally, a new series on Black in the title. producer, keeps her daughter in Charles Barkley gave a Sprout also has impression- “I love shows with strong mind when crafting story lines. shout-out to his daughter able young brains in mind, as women,” Zuckerberg says. “She doesn’t need to be depu- onstage at the Waldorf-Astoria Dot helps kids—and parents, Then she might just like tized as a feminist,” says Calvo. as TNT’s Inside the NBA show for that matter—find the right Good Girls Revolt, which debuts “She just needs to ask questions was inducted into the B&C Hall balance with technology (see Oct. 28. 1004_LeadIn.indd 5 10/21/16 5:13 PM.