out to the to get newsroom, breaking news on comcast.ssue, as a developing comcast has an time warner buy cable plus new york, north carolina, and eastern markets if this deal goes through. with about $20 billion of debt. this would give charter action the money if the deal went out -- wound up going through. they consult rogue rimming, advertising, -- they can sell programming and advertising to a larger group of people. john malone owns 27% of charter, and has been calling for consolidation within the cable industry to help with pricing power. to reiterate command charter communications is accessible with its bid to buy time warner cable, kind cap will buy time warner cable's new york, north carolina, and new england cable. comcast will not be in any other part of the deal. >> thank you, alix steel. in the meantime, want to get you back to d.c., my colleague alan is still standing by, taking a look at the outlook for this bill. i know there is about to be a vote on wednesday, correct? >> correct. like last july, you see this house spea

time warner, comcast and charter.ll explain what this big cable deal might actually mean for you. and how did meatloaf become the love? his answer later. ♪ >> this is "lunch money" on bloomberg television, streaming live on bloomberg.com, your tablet and smartphone. i'm adam johnson. we have a connection with some of the biggest names in the business working on a deal. first, the headline. comcast reporting a 27% profit increase in the fourth quarter and adding 43,000 subscribers. its first quarterly gain in nearly six years. it will raise its annual dividend by $.90 and plans to up its stock buyback by about $7.5 billion. comcast is bringing muscle into a big cable deal starting to take shape. here is how it will work. acquirewill potentially new york and new england subscribers from time warner cable if charter can buy the rest of time warner cable. alec sherman broke the story. >> there is an ongoing saga. a hostile bid. a bearhug letter sent a couple weeks ago. charter saying we are going to speak to shareholders

would go to comcast, va. comcast.uld go to cox. >> interesting when you talk about regulatory bigwigs come in and say you have to divest these markets so it could come out a winner anyway. >> the biggest problem is anything having to do with comcast may take a while. >> brian roberts strong stuff. >> do they raise the bid? it is clear they will raise the cash. >> they have to raise the overall portion because again the last thing we saw that was above eight, the second-biggest operator in the country so this hasn't come along every day. >> what are the chances for this deal? >> 70-30. and 150 plus. >> if you raise the cash portion of 95 you get to that 150? >> if you -- liz: can charter pull that off? >> a deal at 159 brings leverage charter, combined charter at 5.7 times, a high leverage rate. liz: back to the people, tom left ridge running charter, he has something to prove clearly. >> if you are asking about cablevision some people think they get caught up in this consolidation fervor. i don't think so. i don't thi

comcast realized what happened.nd e mailed a statement selling us we're very sorry this happened and we quickly worked to remove account from collections and to take steps from-to-prevent this from happening again. >> thank you. >> comcast tells us it's common for people to have mer than one account but new systems should prevent further fraud. and look, irs has this problem and probably every major corporation. >> let's turn our attention to forecast now. >> still weight for rain. so dry. >> and repains strong for a while. we have clear skies right now. high clouds around and here is a live view from our camera. looking down on to the bay. and 256th since november 1st. worst will be in the north bay. coast and central bay but in other regions won'ting very good. mid-50s in redwood city. 50 degrees in half moon bay. another live view looking over san francisco 53 in santa rosa. getting chilly in the north bay. these features cool overnight, high clouds spare the air again, tomorrow, dry, mild, throughout the weekend

comcast realized what happened. mailed a statement selling us we're very sorry this happened and we quickly worked to remove account from collections and to take steps from-to-prevent this from happening again. >> thank you. >> comcast tells us it's common for people to have mer than one account but new systems should prevent further fraud. and look, irs has this problem and probably every major corporation. >> let's turn our attention to forecast now. >> still weight for rain. so dry. >> and repains strong for a while. we have clear skies right now. high clouds around and here is a live view from our camera. looking down on to the bay. and 256th since november 1st. worst will be in the north bay. coast and central bay but in other regions won'ting very good. mid-50s in redwood city. 50 degrees in half moon bay. another live view looking over san francisco 53 in santa rosa. getting chilly in the north bay. these features cool overnight, high clouds spare the air again, tomorrow, dry, mild, throughout the weekend we

anyone like comcast in this room, are we going to protest comcast too. i'm sorry. my apology. supervisor scott weiner: please keep your comments to the committee. we have a rule to make your comment. no clapping or booing or shouting out. if you want to express yourselves by putting a thumbs up or down, feel free to do that. we do ask that everyone allow members of the public to complete their public comment and we'll do the same for you. go ahead. >> thank you, i'm not planning on running for public office. people can boo me if they want. i moved here thinking i was liberal and people that are progressive they need to look that up in the dictionary. thank you. supervisor scott weiner: next speaker. >> yes, my name is nick ames representing the park association. i guess i should respond. i was going to get to the point to address now. i just wanted to offer a suggestion that perhaps if we are going to pole the neighborhood to see what the consensus it's, -- is, let's do it. let's hear it from both sides and do that easily i would suggest by sending out post cards to each block

and speaking of tv, comcast may buy some assets from charter.t is a deal to control time warner cable. alex sherman broke the news yesterday. should reviewwe this deal. there are a lot of moving parts. essentially, you have some assets in new york, north carolina, and new england that may change hands, right? >> right. two things will change, if charter buys time warner cable. that would be one, and stec two would be then charter would turn around and sell those three, new york city, new england, and north carolina, all of those cable systems would go to comcast, and the reason for that would be to get more money, more the $20 billion that they are borrowing in order to get this deal done. >> so basically, charter would get more funds, and also a potential competitor gets removed. >> correct. comcast is the biggest potential rival out there that could theoretically affect all of time warner cable, and this way by charter doing a deal at the end of this time warner cable bid is accepted, they remove comcast as a competitor. >> it really shows the

it's only 3 feet from a comcast underground box. given the city's lack of monitoring success, we have all been notified that we have to repair our sidewalks, anything more than a quarter inch has to be repaired. add a lid on them and they get cockeyed. they produce a significant threat. i have tripped on them. they are horrible for pedestrians and we still allow these things to progress. another thing, hill has underground facility. that was done -- >> it's the north west corn er of turney and union street. supervisor scott weiner: when was the photo taken? >> yesterday. >> we appreciate that. maybe dpw can take a look at that cabinet. it's in poor shape. next speaker. >> hello, i live down the street from where one of these boxes is going. at 13001 new hampshire and frankly i can care less. it's in a fine spot, fine if a box is there. what i want is for communities to have control of what these things look like. there is no reason that there can't be art on these boxes. of course with these at&t boxes there is the real reason which

and time warner/comcast.e will break down this potential blockbuster deal. ♪ quakes it is 26 minutes after the hour which means bloomberg tv is on the markets. i'm mark crumpton. interesting day, a turnabout from yesterday. the dow jones invest -- dow jones industrial average up .41%. the s&p is at 1780 eight. nasdaq is trending lower. a couple of movers we are keeping our eyes on. first, herbalife. shares are dropping after the new york post reported that canadian regulators are investigating the company over complaints that it has a pyramid structure. herbalife is already facing scrutiny in the u.s. and china over similar charges. we are also watching apple. shares of the tech giant are falling after iphone sales in the holiday season fell short of estimates. activist investor carl icahn to good vantage of the falling price. he announced on twitter that he has purchased $500 million worth of apple shares. will have more coming up in half an hour. i am mark crumpton. quakes this is "lunch money" on bloomberg

in media, we have the triple play, comcast,

>> comcast is the largest u.s. cable company. they have been that way since john malone get out of the game in the late 1990s and now malone has bought back into charter. liberty media is their biggest shareholder am a 20% of the company, and a deal between charter/john malone is john malone saying to brian in order for us to do a deal, we need your help and we realize that. it is not a story of john malone writing back into the cable industry and conquering. he is coming to brian roberts and saying if we are going to get something done, we need you. brian roberts is the kingpin in all this. >> i am an investor and i am listening to this, what do i need to know about the three players? >> follow the process -- next coupleover the of weeks, we should get a sense if charger is going to bump up that bit of $132.50. time warner cable will likely mount the defense saying they have set $160. we will see if they will come down in their asking price. if they are steady in their price, the process will continue and charter will nominate a

>> comcast will begin to hit a ceiling.berty for a while, and there is a dramatic inference between scale and quality. when i had the privilege of being john's partner, he is focused on gail -- scale. owning a lot of cable systems does not mean much to me. owning the right cable systems means a lot. markets, the 27 cities that comprise the nfl. that is what we gave comcast out of at&t broadband. when i say st. louis and los angeles would be enough tract of complement to complement -- an attractive couple met to comcast, we owned those, and we did notm because we want to control them any longer. who is the cat bird seat now? it is the comcast guys. the appliances are all about changing the dynamic of home viewing. who has content? netflix. we talk about netflix all the runningthis show, and comcast into time warner would be the dumbest thing in the world for time warner. it might be a good thing for , it is not a good thing for time warner cable. they would get nothing out of it. >> that is why they have resisted so far. we'

comcast nbcuniversal >>> baby, baby, baby. this is the newest picture of pop star justin bieber courtesy of the miami police department. bieber arrested this morning for allegedly drag racing, tonight out on bail and facing charges of dui, resisting arrest. and driving with an expired driver's license. we are live in miami beach with the latest. he should have taken his song as advice and never say never. >> reporter: yeah. you are absolute louisiana right. and it appears, that justin bieber has not left the area. in fact, there are reports he is staying in a beach front villa just blocks from here at the miami beach police station, he was arrested overnight, as you talked about after what was apparently a rough late night and early morning. justin bieber waved to photographers, as he left the miami dade jail. accustomed to the flash of cameras. >> first case this afternoon is justin bieber. >> reporter: this afternoon it was a single night behind bars where he stood before a judge when he read the charges. >> dui alcohol or d

we want to go to julia boorstin now out in las vegas with news about comcast. >> that's right, comcastan roberts speaking today announcing some positive news about comcast video subscribers saying that in the fourth quarter the company modestly grew video subscribers for the first time in 6 1/2 years. now, this is the first quarter in 6 1/2 years that comcast has added videos subscribers. brian roberts says it will take some time to grow for the whole year but it is a, quote, exciting reversal and encouraging sign. this follows 26 straight quarters where comcast lost video subscribers. over 10 of the last 12 years they've improved on prior years results but this q-4 was an important one for comcast to turn around the video declines. it will not make all of last year positive but it's just referring to q4 and it is a positive turn around. sco scott, book over to you. >> pos titive reaction. media companies have done well over in last 12 months and our parent comcast is in that mix of stocks that has participated in that rise. >> done well and most of them also have the additional mma pr

comcast can't take advantage of the new rules just yet.reed to abide by net neutrality policies until 2018 as part of its nbc universal acquisition. in the meantime, we have to see if others start charging more. >> thank you very much. let's move on from what julia and by the way, great explanation because it is a confusing topic, to what this may mean to you and your money. joining us is technology editor john herman, herb greenberg. herb, you said in an e-mail yesterday with your usual 72% typos, but we understood, this is bad for netflux or something. why did you say that? >> if netflix has to pay more, as other companies will have to pay more, how can that not impact, if they have to spend hundreds of millions more, whatever it's going to be, how can that not impact their costs and their bottom line? if you look at all the companies that would be affected, i would argue netflix is about the closest to a purist play. i want to point out something. netflix's stock yesterday was up even though there was this news. today, you had the buffe

and comcast. but at this point, given charter's decision to release this letter today, they have come to no accommodation with comcast in any way or the other. nor has time warner cable coming any accommodation. >> david, thanks for the update. david faber, joining us. does this change the landscape in your view of how you vw some of these companies? >> yeah. consolid gone. this is something to look back at the liberty media/sirius deal. that gives cash back to time warner cable. everybody's involved in this. i believe that comcast, the parent of our network, has significant interest in some of the assets. and there's no question that there's antitrust issues at least that you have to evaluate. but you look at everything about this, it's about content. why i want to own disney. the content is costing these guys. >> i think time warner cable, if everybody's going to be scrapping over there, which hasn't moved in the after-hours is the first place you look. but when i want to play what's really goin

>> the bid question is, what will comcast do? comcast has sat on the sidelines on this.r it does say that charter is potentially willing to do certain divestitures or asset swaps, which could hint that comcast could be part of a future bid where comcast gets part of time warner cable in a joint venture that might bump the price up. the other deal that tomkat -- comcast could do is make a bid on their own or in partnership with the third-largest cable company that they want to do a bid that is higher than that. but this sets the baseline at which is what they are starting off with their offer for what time warner cable is worth. news in ag this formal letter. >> taking it to the shareholders directly. news,other breaking google is acquiring for $3.2 , the companysh that allows you to operate wings like your thermostat from home. you can have a truly smart home. me theddy of mine showed app that he just downloaded for $120, he is now able to control the temperature of his home 100 miles outside of the city. >> let's get back to this media deal. paul sweeney and porter bibb

should do this because by providing internet service risin comcast a.t.t. and other big internet service providers are giving their customers access to one of the most important parts of our modern information columns if we want to make sure that everyone can use that part of the information on the internet we need to regulate internet service providers as common carriers and the internet was just starting out and people access to it by dialing in through their phone lines there were tens of thousands of companies across america offering dial up access. minutes so back then you could make an argument to those internet service providers with information services road common carriers because there was so much competition in the marketplace but now that we're nearing nearing a time when almost seventy five percent of american households only have one choice for internet service access to the and one pipe coming into the house access to the internet has become both a natural monopoly and in a very real way close to an oligopoly very small number of companies ow

that's the story from the comcast center. back to you. with snow and ice hitting the south, one thing is for sure. >> they don't know how to drive -- bottom dollar. >> captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> there's a silver lining. lots of stories of people helping each other out. including this man. tojumps out of his truck help drivers get back down this hill. in some cases, he even volunteered to drive the car for them. tonight in pensacola, temperatures will be in the 20's. you might see more of this bearded lifesaver. [laughter] normally when you see a guy >> bundle up in a morning. >> at warming trend begins tomorrow. we will be in good shape. we will get you out the door tomorrow morning. >> that's it for us tonight. >> dicky: from hollywood, it's "jimmy kimmel live"! tonight -- andy garcia. chef norman van aken. and music from broken bells. with cleto and the cletones! and now that i have your attention, here's jimmy kimmel! [ applause ] >> jimmy: thank you.

comcast will provide most of the new technology at the stadium. there will be exclusive access to many players before and after the games, an an instead yum state of the art studio. the partnership is all about the fan experience. >> somebody makes a play out on the field, and you can look up their stats, replays, what's going on with the game, reference past games. information, any information you want will be at your fingertips. >> we have been in the south bay now for over 60 years and it has really given us presence with the 49ers. it's a really good deal. >> so read more about the ten year deal, go to our website and search 49ers and comcast. >>> and a woman used to cheering for the raiders hopes they will lose in court. lacy t. is suing the raiders alleging they're in a fragrant violation of the wage laws. she says they make about $5 an hour and they don't receive their pay until the end of the year, they're not compensated for rehearsals and are not reimbursed for things like hair and make up. >> we should least get minimum wage. >> not pay

sam schwartz, comcast chief business development officer. thank you very much.s 26 past the hour, temper on the markets. let's get straight to new york and mark crumpton. >> thank you so much. let's get you caught up on the markets right now. stocks are heading for the biggest three-day drop since june. led by losses in the emerging markets. earnings --forecast they topped estimates. royal caribbean shares are surging after it posted a fourth-quarter profit compared to a loss a year ago. ♪ >> this is the early edition of "bloomberg west." you can also catch us at our later time. now for your top headlines. ukraine may be on the verge of a state emergency. the justice minister is considering declaring one after a government protester briefly took control of the justice department headquarters. the state of emergency would allow their embattled president to expand his powers. a new acquisition in europe. they are buying a dutch broadband provider for $6.7 billion. a premium over the friday closing price. the move. globals dominance. and prices are down for super b

basically what happens here is that companies internet service providers the verizons and comcasts and at&ts of the world can basically decide whether or not they want to charge some of the people who have websites money for delivering them to you. is that a good way of putting it? >> that's an -- exactly correct. they have that authority you know in the mobile broadband space today. so let's just take an example of one in the news this week and that's at&t's plan to charge espn for information that's carried over mobile networks rather than charging consumers for that same information. so at&t is saying to consumers you know we'll charge you less or not count it against your data caps when you watch espn content because we've gotten espn to agree to pay for that instead of you. i think most consumers are going to think that's a pretty good deal and that would have been prohibited in the wire line broadband world by these rules except those are gone and those deals are permitted, again i think that's a good thing for consumers. >> sarah, why should i care if it's the espn's and the you

>> but comcast out of the money to up its bid. >> comcast has said it does not want to buy all of time stop there just interested in the sidebar. a weaker charter lowers a competitive bid for content. that's one of the things we constantly cover on "bloomberg west." yet companies like netflix fighting for hbo and showtime and bidding up the price is. all of the prices on this content. if comcast can convince charter to pay more, charter will have less money to spend on programming going forward and might have to keep more bidders out of the pie. >> i really do question how this business is going to move forward. the cable broadband business -- i may have told you this before -- i grew up in a small town in new hampshire and my family bypassed the entire broadband effort. i go home and have no wireless connection. >> lucky you. >> this is what they rely on. they get all their video delivered via their mobile device or ipad. you wonder if one can bring prices down, and that's with the wireless companies would like to do, if you could bring rice is down, mike that be the future or do both

shares of comcast up slightly $52.49 at the close there. timewarner cable fell a little, 1 33.45. >>> patients given the drug did not show improved survival. the results disappointed and shares fell to $29.66. shares of merk hit a record-high from over weight to under weight. the company's prospects for a cancer drug improved and could bring more than $6 billion in annual sales to the company by the year 2020. the stock up one percent to $52.53. >>> it was just the opposite at cisco systems. the rating was downgraded from neutral to under weight. the firm sited the high evaluation and weakness in the emerging markets. shares slipped a fraction to $22 a share. >>> at&t told british regulators it won't make a near-term bid for vote a phone. now that at&t has denied a takeover bid, it must weight six months if it decides to make a buyout offer. shares of at&t rose slightly to $33.51. >>> and royal caribbean posted a beat thanks to ticket sales. it gave investor as rosy full year outlook despite an illness outbreak that affected 600 passengers

make a prediction, is comcast going to step in and do anything about this network?uld like to think they would. my prediction is some time in the next 12 months, especially before the next presidential election, you'll see the swinging door at msnbc again and there will probably be new faces and some of the newcomers of the last year or so will be gone. >> maybe they'll make you a big offer and we'll have to top it. >> yeah, bill, that's going to be a tough one. >> ms. laura ingraham, everybody. plenty more ahead this evening. kelly on two-court rulings, one on religion, the other on welfare drug use. >>> then charles krauthammer on the far left taking over new york c you're givi away pie? would you like apple or cherry? cherry. oil...or cream? definitely cream. [ male announcer ] never made wi hydrogenated oil. oh, yeah. [ male announcer ] always made with real cream. the sound of reddi wip is the sound of joy. they're about 10 times softer and may have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor causing bacteria and helps dissolve stai

. >> you have been quoted as saying you didn't think a comcast deal would be approved by the fcc. >> i was saying that recent precedence suggests the that the proposed transaction would have more regulatory hurdles. i wasn't commenting on how i thought the transaction would come out to but i was looking at some of the recent precedence. >> if the comcast merger did come through, would you support extending the merger conditions that still apply to comcast from the nbc merger? >> this is a situation where i have to review the particular facts. i can't say at this point what my decision would be. >> recently the supreme court decided to pick up the aereo case. before the supreme court took that up, what have you said about them? >> i have said very little about aereo because it is a novel area of the law. the question is of copyright law rather than communications law. i am in the position of being an interested legal observer to see what the court does. >> do you see aereo becoming an fcc issue at some point? >> it certainly could be. the parties involved are also parties where fcc se

dot com just because they wanted comcast wanted to use to use a sports news website that they have an owner operator but thanks to the d.c. circuit court's ruling internet service providers like comcast are well on their way to being able to discriminate between websites and make the owners of competitor websites pay more money to run their websites at higher speeds to reach american consumers so what will the end of net neutrality mean for you the consumer . back in two thousand and nine reddit user quink created a graphic detail on what internet prices might look like without net neutrality since last week's court ruling that graphic has gone viral and it does a great job detail in a word without a world without net neutrality graphic talks about a fictional internet service provider in telco with telco in a world without net neutrality you get basic internet service for twenty nine ninety five a month but good luck finding any websites you can access for that plan that's because in a world without net neutrality internet service providers will be able to package websites like cable

comcast buying from g.e. the balance of nbc. >> the answer is in the free market, in the free market that we have in this country, managements could make mistakes, they can structure the balance sheet and they can make opportunities. so far, both time warner and comcast have been winners. >> you've been saying that this could be a very good year for acquisitions. besides this whole time warner love fest that you're talking about, what other tips can you give our viewers? >> i don't like to give tips. but within the context of what i like, financial engineering, companies spinning off companies. time warner finishing off the publishing business. national fuel and gas has a model out there spinning off the utility business. nfg sells at $70, susie. if gas stays at $4, this stock would make up 50%. it's a utility with wonderful assets in the marcellus area and in the utica area. other companies like that would be mergers of pet boys in the auto parts area, federal motor an example which split up into two parts e

comcast sportsnet's mindi bach is in seattle with the team, but we want to start with monte francis, who's in san francisco with more on muni. hello, monte. >> reporter: good evening. i just spoke with paul rose, the spokesman for the mta. they say they've done this for a few years and for good reason. he says in the past, celebrating fans have climbed on top of street cars and gotten very close to those overhead wires which are charged with electricity, so there is an obvious public safety concern. so, muni is going to de-energize the wires and take its historic street cars on the "f" market line out of service all day tomorrow. buses will run down market street instead. the same thing is being done on part of the line along judah streets and sunset, where fans have also been known to gather and also climb on top of light rail vehicles. also, the iconic cable car lines will be mostly out of service starting tomorrow afternoon. the california line stops at 2:00 p.m., and apollo hyde and apollo mason cable car lines will run only between fisherman's dwarf and chinatown starting at 4:0

dennis: was able to get some type of net neutrality from comcast and in exchange for approving comcastrt of appeals, just this morning, the sec has lost two other court rulings, the court said sec, overstepping to impose rules forcing comcast and other cable guys in terms of how they want to price traffic. >> i hope the sec at this point tries to impose tight 2 rules, these are ancient rules designed for now extinct phone monopolies and railroads from the 1800s. on the nimble, a different animal, that would harm consumers, increase prices, it would inhibit innovation and investment. dennis: google kind of helped start this entire net neutrality push, google, netflix, apple, they don't want comcast and time warner cable to be allowed to charge them more to carry more -- netflix alone consumes one third of all night time bandwidth sell lot of consumer groups say they worry about raising prices on netflix if it pays more money than time warner cable. >> the sec didn't know market study or economic analysis before it jumped to regulate. let's see how the market development, this could be a

comcast parent of our network is up sharply.hole group is up, so they don't see downside to $96, they say, well, maybe if there's no bid and the stock's $115, $120, why should we take such a small premium on that as an unaffected stock price? >> well, i'm not sure i agree with that. i think to some extent time warner's performance is an outlier. in fact, it is an outlier. its distinctly negative, it shouldn't trade at the same multiple as the rest of the industry until it's fixed. >> the what do you do from here? hearing you, tom, saying you think it's a full and fair offer. you're not going to win on $132, i'll put my 27 years of experience behind the fact that you're not going to win at $132. >> we think if the shareholders look at the offer that we've made, that they will come to a different conclusion than you do. >> they say -- this is the advisers that i'm speaking to from time warner cable that you could go up to as much as $110 in cash, is that true? >> we can borrow money. it is true. and -- but you have to think about

but it will work for non-nbc and comcast programming as well. >> that's right.covery have jumped on board. >> and cable operators. >> that's right. we want this to work nationwide so we need other cable operators and distributors to work with us. >> not just on twitter either. it would be interesting to see this button on websites. >> we launch with twitter but shortly we hope to have this wherever there's activity or conversation online. >> what problems are you trying to solve with this technology? >> the observation that we had was that there's a lot of discussion in social networks, on websites, inside apps around television and entertainment. but it's too hard. there's too much friction to get the user from there to watching it. and we want to make that easier. and as you saw in the demo, we've made it easier so see it is that link between the place that you discover that you're interested in watching something to the place you can go consume it. >> of course all of this just increases the chances of us interacting more with tv. >> that's right. we want peo

and where does that leave a company now like comcast versus the other providers? >> that's right. i mean, they are bound by the rules that were just struck down. so they were willing to take that gamble in getting their merger approved, and i think that speaks to some of loopholes that we saw in the existing rules that were struck down. we were not entirely happy with how strong they were, and i think most wired internet providers -- and wireless -- thought they could live with 'em. at&t came out and supported them in 2010. >> there's one direct analog that happened, i don't know, about ten years ago where two cable companies merged in this accepted what was a national subscribership cap, the number #ubgd do, and hen those rules were struck down by the d.c. circuit. in that case the fcc chose to step in and waive the conditions saying you did that thinking this was law, this is no longer law, we're not going to hold you to that. that is entirely up to the fcc. because technically, that's not a regulation. and because it was a voluntary condition, it wasn't even agency action, it's

the best deal in town could be going over to basketball -- the comcast center. there you go. the terps played notre dame tonight. great night of basketball over at the comcast center in college park on the campus of the university of maryland. the latest college rankings are out and syracuse is number two and george washington is number five. georgetown plays villanova tonight at the verizon center. we will have a translation at 11:00. >> >> with a never to use that term -- polar you know what. very cold air coming tonight and very gusty winds and that is why the entire region is under a wind chill advisory. the bigger story continues to be what will happen just south of here with winter storm warnings. we will be right in the northern fringes of it. we don't have any precipitation in the forecast but maybe the northern next would be in the forecast. >> we will be watching. >> that is it for us now. have a >>> welcome to "world news." tonight, frozen nation. a new blast, a new twist. ice and snow in the deep south. the midwest may hit 50 below zero. and an american town you'l

>> comcast also did report.here are -- there's some special things going on here, some adjustments. there's a higher tax rate that analysts apparently did not know about which makes the bottom line number, which is never the number you would necessarily lose on comcast, obviously. it's more of an ebitda story anyway. >> cash flow, too. >> most of those -- >> what's that? >> free cash flow was up 7%. >> for the year. >> for the year. >> for the year, yes. out of all -- there's about ten different things that you look at for comcast in almost every area, it was above expectations. one of the things we heard, remember, after how many quarters after losing video customers in the fourth quarter they were able to add 43,000. that's something, isn't it? >> for a long time, it looked like -- >> cord cutters. >> cord cutters but it wasn't as important anyway because you're doing data, into homes you're not internet, not as much video. to be able to turn that around, that's significant. it's weird that all of a sudden mal

up withcould team comcast.comcast could decide they want a bid for the entirety of time warner cable although that may run regulatory issues. has, cox communications been looking at this that they could team up with charter or comcast. still a lot to be determined. >> thank you. just a few minutes away from the opening bell. top 10 trades you will not want to miss. oop."it here on "in the l ♪ >> welcome back. you are "in th ele loop.: " julie hyman has the latest before the open. >> futures pointing to a higher open tom a sharp contrast of yesterday when the s&p suffered the biggest drop since november. a lot of people rejiggering the expectations for what the fed will do. a lot of questions swirling around. this morning retail sales coming in better than estimated. a little bit mixed on the bank front. all of this indicating a slightly higher open. >> thank you. on the markets again in 30 minutes. catching down the open to the top 10 trades. olivia sterns joins in. starting with gm. announcing global sales res

how about bought comcast? $136 billion the market cap's now bigger than disney. >> do we have to worry about china with comcast? south africa? argentina, comcast, i mean, this is what people have to think about. >> right. >> they have to think a little broader. stop thinking about the fed. stop thinking about the s&p. start thinking about brian roberts and, again, you can say jim's a house man. have i ever been a house man for anyone? not even my own house for that matter people that know me well. >> that doesn't mean you won't pay attention to the emergency meeting in turkey today. >> if you are going to go nonsecular, you're not going to get a lot of money. look at the way egypt was at one point a great gateway to africa. if turkey wants to get serious for those of us who remember the initial turkey away from the army running the country and going to a less secular, that's what caused deval after deval after deval, if turkey wants to go the wrong way, do you know what, you don't need to own yapi credit, but