comcast ob soshing time warner. the move is affecting the two companies 33 million subscribers. >> the technology enabled by the two kean companies coming together can be better products and new products and just a faster pace of change, so i'm incredibly excited about it and the opportunity for the customers is great. >> the negotiations between charter crumbled and opening the door for comcast. as the two teams rejoice, the massive mernl is raising questions from consumer groups, will the new cable provider hinder the competition and optioning for subscribers, the ceo is playing down the concerns on thursday. >> as we look at the competition of which is this much in video, direct tv, dish, at&t, verizon, this allows us to compete better by bringing the products into new products. >> time warner's ceo agrees. ono reduction in competition, improved customer experiences. >> comcast is a major player in broad band and comcast deal is bringing a focus to net neutrality, the right of the content to have equal access to

comcast is subject to the rules. they agreed to that, and that condition runs until 2018, they may extend it here, even if they don't, they didn't really lose the case, they simply had the order struck down. but they had the court grant them broad authority to grant them more then they tried to do. so the fact of the matser while i think the f.c.c. should be more careful, they have broad authority to regulate, and for that reason, i think that's why you will see the merger go through, because if there is a concern, the f.c.c. can always address then. and the conditions that are in place today are not just about net neutrality, but by making shurna comcast doesn't leverage the media content that it owns. that it bout from universal, to make sure it doesn't discriminate over the top video providers. so those should allow the concerns. >> it offers more speed than time warner cable does. if the concern is getting better broadband, i think it is a great deal, and it is supposed to save $1.5 billion. >> david, we hear so

the reason there is a net neutrality condition on the comcas comcast-nbc merger is because comcast wasking lawfully file sharing. they have a record of this t it's pretty cold comfort to me that comcast is now indicating on day 1 of this giant merger that, oh, no, no, no. we are going to respect net neutrality forever. don't worry. you can trust us. what you never here on the list of all of these great consumer benefits that are coming from this merger are lower prices. >> never comes. because the only direction that cable prices have gone are up, up and up again. >> again, the concern has always been as i said earlier about vertical pressure. >> that's to say the fcc, congress, wasas always afraid if cable providers got too big they would have too much leverage over programming. i will stipulate that could be a concern. it certainly was in the 1990s when most cable channels were owned by cable operators but that number, that percentage affiliation is very low today. what we are really talking about is a situation where comcast is already has its hands tied to it can't leverage its own

if comcast gangs some leverage here, it actually may help in that respect a company like comcast might favor itsina filliated contents or might be able to stop some other new cable market, new cable program or channel from gaining a minimum viable scale. it's important to note here that the fcc has twice tried to implement a 30% cap on the size of a single cable operator. it's twice failed. then struck down in court because the fcc never justified that 30% cap adequately. >> this new company would control roughly 30% of the cable market. >> and indeed, that's very deliberate. the company has said that they will voluntarily divest, sell off, some of the time warner cable subscribers in order to stay below that 30% goal which, again, is not a legal threshold, but it's basically what the fcc has always seemed to think would actually -- could potentially be a problem. so en if that was a problem, we are not en there. >> craig aaron, is this as benign a deal as we just heard baron describe it? >> i don't think so. i think this deal would be unquestionably a disaster for consumers. i think t

comcast.n other words these are the two worst companies for customer service in an industry that already ranks near the bottom. mergers are not always very easy for companies, and the impact on customers can be significant. customer satisfaction ratings dropped significantly for mermed companies and the ratings stayed low for years. it is possible that comcast and time warner cable will provide better customer service together than either company has provided individually, and both companies have a very strong incentive to improve things, given the long-term trend of customers dropping cable subscriptions in favor of other alternatives. but as executives are painfully aware, company employees from the ceo down to the cable guy will have their work cut out for them. that's our show for today. thanks for joining us. i'm david shuster in for ali velshi. have a great evening. ♪ >> good morning, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. here are the top stories. the winter storm that start

comcast bid for time warner cable. the second is the opening -- open internet rule for net neutrality rules that tom wheeler commented on. craig aaron is on "the communicators close vote this week to discuss this. fcc put the kebabs 0-- kibosh on the merger? >> it may try to do so. in the past, when mergers have been proposed, we have heard words come from the fcc like, that would be unthinkable. that has not happened yet. they have not let the kibosh on it yet. i do not think the paperwork has been filed. but they could deny the merger if they want to. i do you think the fcc should stop this merger? >> will it? i do not think it well. i am at a think tank right now. i have no dog in this fight. i tried to look at this objectively, not as a commissioner. you do not have to keep calling me mission or by the way. -- commissioner, by the way. it can be viewed as an opportunity to implement public all estate -- how policy. this happens frequently a big mergers. you have the largest cable company buying the second largest c

comcast was achieving. now comcast has a bigger league. a mucht is that it is bigger universe than just cable and growing. watchlong as i can bloomberg tv. qwest toomberg, cbs, it yes bn go negotiate what they want, comcast can say, we own the whole country. we'll tell you how much you are getting. >> thank you. cristina alesci. we will be back with more talking about other media headlines of the day. stay with us. ♪ >> you're watching "in the loop." that theylly wish is had a commercial camp. during the commercial, this man says some stuff -- funny stuff. we're also joined by the former cnn president. our guest host for the hour. what makes this man an expert? take a look. androducer, onto the north, executive. a treated force in the media for decades. in the late 1990's, he saw the digital revolution before most. a pioneer in digital video. returned to his roots, but this time, at the top. as president of cnn, he built landmark sews -- shows. he saw twitter newsgathering value early on. he keeps looking for the next big thing. he today t

perhaps free press or comcast at the fcc? >> the fcc has a team of career-pointed servants who work on merger transactions like this and they integrate and the department of justice or the federal trade commission. they work very well together and are meeting and talking throughout the day and some of the durations go beyond a year. and they are looking at economic, competition, consumer protection issues, integration of technology issues. and so it is rare i get asked, what if doj went one way and the fcc wept went the other, and i don't think that has happened with me because the teams are integrated. there is an assistant attorney general in u pointed and the fcc commissioners are also a political appointee so you will see the same philosophy given whoever the president is at doj and the fcc to work through these things. they will come at it from different respectives. it is different from the public interest which is more define. anti-trust has a century of precedent there. i cannot think of when the two centuries diverge

comcast, a new giant comcast if this deal is done, they'll be the only really viable option for high-speed broadband. most americans don't face a choice. in a few places in some of the big cities, maybe you can get verizonfy cross, although your -- fios, but it's few and far between. and i think this would give comcast so much power including power over companies like netflix that otherwise do at least compete with them in some of the video space. this makes comcast the gatekeeper over everything, for netflix, they're the gatekeeper if you would hope to get a cable channel, a few years from now when those old conditions expire over, you know, who can thriver on the -- thrive on the internet, which web sites will work and which won't. that is so much power. and once this deal is done, there'll really be nothing standing in their way. >> guest: so, actually, you know, i know and understand and appreciate free press being absolutely opposed to this, and i'm not taking sides on the transaction itself. but a lot of what craig outlined could be resolved through merger conditions. now, it's no se

research and he gave us his insight into the comcast netflix melee you won't want to miss what he had to say about that deal and finally in today's big deal edward harrison and i are talking india what's next for the world's largest economy we'll tell you it's all coming up but it all starts right now. with. our lead story today classism particularly in the microcosm of society that is public air travel now the front of the plane has always been more posh and plush on the back of it but in recent years airlines have put a considerable amount of emphasis on catering to the most affluent of flyers and in the process they've managed to produce a new level of privacy and detachment like we haven't seen since the gilded age true story now for airlines the top twenty percent of customers make up seventy percent of revenue so there's a lot of money on the line for these big carriers like american airlines emirates singapore and british airways that's just to name a few but today a special treatment it doesn't just start when you put your first foot on the plane it begins at. check it now her

if approved comcast would have control over a third of tv and comcast services in the u.s. >> by any measure comcast's proposed bid to take over time warner cable is huge. there's the $45 million price tag and the reach. by buying the second-largest cable provider, comcast would have 33 million survivors, cementing its place as the country's largest cable company. >> to put it in perspective, when chase bought jpmorgan, it was a 33 million deal. this is a large merger. >> the deal was unexpected and comes after comcast became a major comcast producer by finalising its purchase last year. here is how it stacks up. paid tv providers, comcast is the largest with 22 million subscribers. satellite providers and dish network. what can consumers expect? one analyst covering the cable industry says changes for consumers will not be dramatic. >> consumers who are in comcast markets won't see any change at all. consumers in time warner cable will see subtle changes to their services. some sorts of improvements over time. that will take a while to implement and integrate. but relatively subtle

comcast -t that they top comcast? >> they have the capacity to do it. especially if they include a significant cash component. it would probably face less regulatory scrutiny than comcast would. it is pointless to compete with comcast given the relative sizes. i would not expect them to overbid but you can never count them out. >> what markets would they divest in the deal? in new york, we are hating life stock with time warner. you wait and time warner customer service hold forever. happy because be of comcast retains that market, you will have the opportunity to participate and they will allow on their other services to improve. i presume that comcast will want to hold on to new york and l.a., the number one and two largest advertising markets in the u.s. but i don't know. affect with john malone is trying to do with syria? >> the market is looking at syrians and saying there is less pressure on liberty to sweeten their stock deal for syria. i ultimately think they will go through with it because there are other than of its long-term to bringing in sy

cable market combine do you think the proposed comcast t w c merger is anti competitive. i don't think it's going to be any worse for consumers than it already is but any consumer who's had cable knows that it's already an anti-competitive industry the problem in the industry isn't the size or power of comcast for instance if anything this gives comcast more negotiating power with content providers which could in theory drive down prices content providers have raised their prices faster over the last five years than cable companies have so in fact more of the increases that you're paying are going to the viacom and did news of the world than they are to comcast bottom line so i think comcast is doing this to give itself more negotiating power but it's also going to mean more regulatory scrutiny it's going to be more trouble from the f.c.c. it's going to be more trouble from the f.t.c. focusing on their advertising which has been a theme lately at the trade commission so i think for comcast this doesn't really give them any more pricing power with consumers it just lets th

and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture comcast net flix stream deal is just the latest sign that the internet as an information commons is on the ropes so why isn't anyone in the mainstream media talking about this more on that in just a moment also the twenty fourteen midterm elections are still nine months away but a republican senate looks like more and more of a possibility every day but could medicaid expansion keep the summit in democratic hands and new research suggests that if we don't start tackling climate change right away it could be game over for civilization in just a few generations more on that tonight steely take. you need to know this the fix is in and unless we do something quick the internet as we know it will disappear for good on sunday comcast and netflix announced that they had reached a deal that will give netflix direct access to comcast sprog been network until now and netflix has only been able to send its content to homeowners and energy users by using middlemen companies. cogent cogent which in internet. is known as a backbone backbone prov

it is comcast. that is one of the most heated debate in these bundled programming packages right now, the biggest source of compensation in the programming bundle and now you have the largest carrier as the second largest operator, that is like a huge piece of negotiating leverage i think for the fox of the world and for the programmers. of all the outcomes that could have happpned, i wouldn't underplay how important it is comcast as opposed to the regulator. liz: x regulator, that is a big issue. how do you see the regulatory landscape here? it is not the number of subscribers. comcast 22 million. they start to divest under the old 30% market share level the fcc used to require. what the ucs the as the big regulatory hurdle here? >> it is still a fi philosophicl level. comcast is not taking out a competitor. this is a horizontal merger. it does go through with a ton of conditions. start with the comcast nbc universal conditions and extend them out maybe to 10 years. that is what the fcc tried to ge

when were talking about this potential comcast-time warner -- just ase comcast google fiber has announcedhe rollout, comcast has increased the speed it is giving. they have lowered their cost just in the month. the competitive atmosphere is keenly being felt not just by comcast but by at&t and verizon. directv dish, we talked to some people who said they are getting pitches from all these companies is incognize the consumer play. it's hard to compete with the optical fiber speed. copper wires cannot match those speeds. it is part of google's business plan to benefit from the things they are really good at, which is understanding how networks work. they have already paid for that data usage. it's a clever use of their skill set and unused capacity. >> comcast may be trying to increase speed but they cannot get close to a gigabit, right? doesn't their service cap out at 20 megabits? they depends which service are offering. they have certain technologies where you can probably get as fast as 300 megabits per second. be 1000t would megabits. they are all exaggerating how fast the fastest spee

comcast down by 2.5%.reporting better than expected profits. let's talk gold prices and the state of that business with rio tinto's ceo sam walsh. you've turned this business around in a big way, sam. in large part they're cost cutting. the big question, i think, in the market is, are we gown to the bone? are we cutting into mussel? what's going on next? >> good morning. this morning we announced results for 2013. so% increase -- 10% increase in 10% dividend increase. cost production, we really just got started. we committed to a further billion dollars of cost savings that will take our run rate to $3 billion compared to 201. >> you've been trying to shed assets you don't love. one of those has been the iron ore business you have in canada. a lot of people looked like they were circling but they dropped like flies this morning you said you don't need to sell it. is that a function of the fact that you can't sell it or a function of the fact you don't want to sell it anymore? >> it's a function of value. a

rather than super giant super sized comcast that might show up. after the time warner deal gets done if they can get it done so i think this is a glimpse of the future of the internet and that is a glimpse that most people the average consumer can't participate in they don't know what's going on they just know their prices only go in one direction and up some more. you guys have been blogging about this writing about this pretty extensively over color change your take on this you know our take is that you know i agree with everything they said in and they you said in the opening but this is not just about the business community it's not just about the small business that wants to innovate into the market it's going to have more challenges because of deals like this it's also a problem for every day people the person who wants to start a blog maybe in the aftermath of the trayvon martin tragedy and wants to start a blog or a tumble or where they can put up stories and say that they too are trayvon or people in their community the ability for their

they are confident on the comcast and twaws comca comcast the time warner front that it will pass musterreak-up fee if the deal should fall by the wayside, comcast will not be obligated to pay anything to time warner cable or vice versa. they might say it's a sign of confidence on the part of both. in fact, they know that this deal should pass muster. >> and nobody would come in with a bigger bid. >> highly unlikely. >> they would say we've only got a third of subscribers, but they have 16 of the top 20 markets. they will control the pipes until kingdom come. >> 84 million houses, 33 million subscribers although they say there's a willingness to divest 3 million subscribers there are no ownership caps and no overlap. >> david, thank you very much. let's go back to rick in chicago. i hear you've got the business inventories figure. >> december business inventories rise more than expected. they were up half of 1% so they were up 0.5. the reason that's notable unlike other inventory metrics that are going to subtract from further revisions of gdp this adds a smidgen. back to you. >> thank y

that deal that would combine the largest tv providers comcast and cable. if approved the company would have 33 million customers, nearly one out of every three cable households in t u.s. and become a dominant force in delivering tv content. the all-stock offer would give time warner shareholders $159 a share. pretty big premium. stock's closing price today of $144.81. julia borstin has more. >> reporter: comcast acquisition of time warner cable, if it's approved, would create a cable and broadband internet giant with nation-wide reach. comcast saying the deal will pay off and start generating money in year one. in part because it will have operating efficiencies of $1.5 billion. >> comcast buying time warner cable gives them a huge nation-wide footprint to decrease competition, obviously provide a muchct for the average american consumer. >> reporter: but consumer concerns will be under the microscope when the fcc evaluates the deal. consumer advocacy group free press rejecting the deal watching in a statement "comcast will have unpress denlted market powe

but they will ask a lot of comcast. they will ask them to divest subscribers to see if it puts them over the 30 million mark. that has been the magic number in terms of cable eyeballs. neutrality, things like that. programming rights. it will be a difficult process and it is not a done deal. comcast making the case in favor of this from a competitive standpoint. the conditions may be very painful for comcast. >> we spoke to the former president of cnn and i want you to take a listen to what he had to say about this deal. >> these companies have to get as big as possible as fast as possible to keep the programming cost down, to create even more economies of scale and marketing. all of that stuff. >> alex, we have been talking to apple about a new deal with apple tv. what does this mean for innovation in the cable industry? >> there is an argument it will speed it up because comcast technology is already superior than time warner cable. if you make them bigger, you give them more resources, bigger scale, and you can get m

comcast agreed to buy time . rner cable for $45.2 billion this faces a length thay approval process. fit goes through comcast will have sealed it's dominance turnover industry. we've got a great round table of guests to talk about this today. jon erlichman is with us from l.a. peter cook is in washington, d.c. with the regular tear angle. understand new york alex sherman joining us. john, i'm going to start with you, how did this happen? >> we know that there has been reported a lot on this. this enter from chart tore get bigger. in a world where people have a lot of options outside traditional cable. facebook, any big platform where they can spend their time these days, the cable industry feels like it needs to get bigger so it can spread the cost around, the cost of making the service better and the technology that goes into that. charter had this great interest in doing this deal with time warner cable. time warner cable wanted them to pay more money. they wering about the possibility of comcast acquiring some

here's what you need to understand about comcast.unique because it doesn't just distribute other people's television channels but it owns some of the channels, nbc, bravo, msnbc, usa, with this new merger the fear is comcast will use its muscle to help out its own channels while hurting other channels you might want to watch. opponents are lining and, in fact, when this deal news broke wednesday night and i started scurrying trying to write a story for cnnmoney.com my first e-mail to the free press because i knew he would be shocked and appalled by the news. he was and his group came out against the deal that very night. craig joins me now from washington to tell me why. craig, you wrote in a petition that's now up on free press' website putting this much power in the hands of one company is dangerous. why do you say that? >> shocked and appalled is absolutely right, brian. i think this deal, if it goes through, would give comcast way too much power over what we watch watch, see, hear, read and download every day. this would make com

comcast will be buying time warner cable in the steel.ate the largest countryrovider in the with a market share of over 30%. a couple of the issues we are watching, number one, how will the boj respond to that? muffin it is and came out saying he expects 3 million subscribers will ultimately be in purchase by charter and that will help get this deal through. landscape.s the >> it is a huge transaction. look for reporting on that day. >> time warner cable goes up in the premarket, charter communications is down by 6.5% in the premarket. rotorhead made a bid for time warner cable. insufficient, which is what enabled comcast to make a significantly higher bid. charter left out the quote. >> they strung them along for three months. of whole foods down. the company lowered its four- year forecast. increased competition, not just from other grocers, but whole foods new store. you mentioned hopefully it is lowering prices to get more foot traffic meeting in. >> we live in an amazon world. the home shopping network, told me. we have got to compet

comcast c.e.o.brian roberts said this morning on a press call we done even compete down to a certain zip code. they are not in the same market. so the way that regulators will probably want to view this or at least one aspect is will consumers see less choice as a result of this merger. and the answer is no, if you are a time warner cable customer your choices haven't changedÑi as a result of this. or if you are a comcast customer. so in that way it shouldn't affect consumer choice and so therefore it doesn't hurt competition. of course to begin with, however, as you pointedñr out just a secretary ago the cable companies operate in minimonday op belows, that they evened-- they owned their markets for decades ant hadn't faced competition until the satellite and cable tv started offering tv service, that is where the competition is coming from, not between cable providers. >> ifill: let's talk about the satellite guys and the internet broadband folks who are now providing information, they are now pro

charter was talking to comcast about the possibility of comcast acquiring some of the assets of time warner cable and along the lines they decided comcast, it's a better move to get bigger than everybody else and have control over marks like new york and los angeles and chicago, philadelphia, the d.c. area. they truly are the biggest player in the cable business in the united states. >> right. but is this deal going to go through, peter? the regulators made it clear with at&t and t-mobile they wanted four wireless carriers. is it going to be any different with cable companies? >> well, it is because they are different businesses. yes, the government is going to scrutinize this very carefully. you get number one and number two joining together, that automatically raises a lot of flags here in d.c. because there is that full spectrum of competition from the satellite providers and google and the things over the internet, a lot of folks i'm talking to say this is going to be looked at a little differently. but at the same time they are going to ask a lot of comcast. they are going to as

comcast and time warner.rs. >> and washington, where -- tens of billions of dollars worth. >> and in washington, arguing about the value of this deal for the american consumer. i think of ed markey of massachusetts who has been leading the way on this. how ed markeyish is washington this morning? >> something i have been paying attention to since the deal was announced, there are pros and terms of companies that know how to navigate washington, and then the elites, and that is what comcast is. i have about 35 firms on retainer to lobby both agencies and capitol hill. won a million dollars on lobbying. hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign donations -- $20 million in lobbying. hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations. judiciary committee -- comcast is plugged with all of them. they can put a ton of pressure on regulators. >> $20 million for lobbying for brian roberts and $8 million for time warner cable, $28 million, my working number, are they essentially buying our representatives? >> th

if the time warner comcast merger goes through, time warner comcast will control 19 of the 20 largest in the united states. see.is a number a lot will google fiber is one of the few efforts that might create competition in the marketplace. that is perhaps why google will not want a lot of attention. i do not know if they want the merger to go through. >> i have seen reports comcast -- for a warner decade, we will not see much in comcast and time warner. what do you make of that number? >> it gets directly to a cory has been talking about. affect you have got the google wildcard to keep all the cable companies on it. i think cable companies have been somewhat skeptical on the nationwide rollout of google fiber. they see it in small markets and do not necessarily see it in markets like new york city. but it is true that could be the one threat for those players going forward. >> cory? >> yes. john is right. got kansashe has city. we are about to -- google says the nasdaq34 more to recently. i can make a big change. we will see where they end up doing those things. we know salt lake city

comcast, would you consider doing it? comcast, come on. make it happen. brian roberts finally decided to do that and for rob marcus, who's been the ceo a very short time, apparently a clear decision. >> the value being offered was very close to $160 a share, and we think the long-term value creation opportunity is even greater than that. for us, a clear decision. >> but before this deal can close and by the way both sides are hoping to close it by the end of the year, though that may be somewhat aggressive it has to pass the muster of antitrust authorities and regulators. the department of justice and perhaps even more importantly, the federal communications commission. after i broke the story a few months ago, that com kavpt was interested in looking at time warner cable, i also reported many times that in the eyes of brian roberts, it was a difficult deal to get done, in part because it would simply be hard. hard to deal with the fcc. hard to have to enter into another consent degree, if that wering to happen, yet roberts apparently got comfortable with

forget about d.c. -- we will talk wall street here and we will focus on what comcast and how comcast is going to message this deal to investors. >> so the comcast-time warner cable yield could provide the giants more leverage in the negotiating subscriber fees. companies charge for content. >> this has become a big business, a wonderful business for these media companies, which tied toast were largely advertising, but because of the growth of cable over the years, the other businesses basically materialized where the cable companies would end up paying those small cable networks some money to be carried by the cable company, and that became sort of their business model, and in the broadcast networks, the abc's, were sayingwere wait a minute, we can do the same thing, a lot of people are watching our programming and we spent a lot of money in a, and we want to be paid for it, and whenever they go into the court of public opinion, they generally win. you think about cbs and time warner cable having the blackout fight last year, and few people have business with the cable companies, so

it gives the online video giant a direct connection to comcast.t promises to give comcast customers faster treatment of netflix video content including "house of cards," and a whole host of other programs. now this is a big deal. because netflix is big. it has 30 million subscribers across america. an estimated 30% of downstream internet traffic in the united states is taken up by netflix video streaming during peak hours on some days, and streaming video takes up a lot of band width in pipes not designed for it. increasingly it is about video, and video clogs up the pipes. so netflix needs to make sure its streams reach its subscribers quickly. to ensure delivery of the content, theying want to cut out the middleman and do business directly with internet providers like comcast. verizon converts it is also in talks with net flex for its fios program. all this means is that consumers will pay more for the service in the end. it's not clear if net flex is pay more to complex, but the internet's net neutrality is now under attack. patricia sabga has

comcast cable is the acquiree, up 16%. earlier, stephane pa drady caught up with the advertising firm lezi and asked him his thoughts on the deal. >> concentration is the name of the game nowadays. we are showing this with the merger with omnicom. i think what comcast is doing is sensible. and is right. and when you look at the size of the platform, the size of the media onus today, i think the trend will not stop in the next few years. it will continue and that is a necessity for the new world. >> for your business, is it a good thing, for the advertising market? >> you know, we have to adapt to this new world. i think that concentration has some merit. it has also some drawbacks. when you look at the bottom line, at the end of the day, it is extremely positive that we see some great layers in this world and i think it is the sense of the history. >> that was morris levy. the comcast ceo, brian roberts, and time warner cable's ceo rob marcus will be joining david faber in a first on cnbc interview at 7:00 a.m. eastern, th

shareholders will get stock of comcast in return for this deal. they are going to get 2.875 for every time warner share they old. that values the company at about 17% higher than yesterday's close. if you look at the time warner cable shares today, you'll notice theorizing which is what you might expect but they are trading below that offer price. there could be a couple of reasons behind that. first of all, comcast shares are declining so the value of the bid is declining to some extent. second of all, it's going to take a long time for this deal to close. it could be the end of 2014. and third of all, and of course peter is going to get more into this is the regulatory risk associated with this deal. that's why the time warner cable shares are rising but not as much as you might anticipate. as for comcast, not usual for an acquiring company to be declining. most analysts are bullish on this deal and the fact it will add 11 million subscribesers to comcast and access to the new york city market and more bargaining power with content providers. th

brian rogers told me that buying time warner will ensure that comcast customers get access to better products faster and. it's a really special transaction for both time warner cable and for comcast shareholders or employees and mostly our customers the deal is pro competitive consumer we're going to be able to bring better products faster internet more channels on demand t.v. everywhere and a national local platform that other people however are not so enthusiastic about the deal joining me now for more on this our chance williams associate policy director of free press and todd boyle media and democracy program director for common cause really extraordinary organization it's great to have you guys both with me tonight chance break this deal down forty five billion dollars who is comcast. time warner cable and the time warner cable is not tom time warner the bigger right so exactly comcast is one of the most powerful companies here in washington d.c. i think that's demonstrated by the approval that they were able to secure of their merger with n.b.c. universal a few years back huge

of comcast and roberts said steve told me it sucks. that's a reminder that comcast does have some cool technology and brian roberts does think about putting out a more innovative service. but most of us view the cable companies as slow and trying to squeeze us for money and have been hoping there might be some new great type of tv watching experience that is more like the experience you have on your phone. i think that's why a lot of people have been pointing to apple. as bloomberg has reported in apple's talks with time warner cable, the challenge apple faces is breaking up that cable ecosystem, being able to sign competitively priced deals with all the content players that are similar to the ones that the cable companies already have. now jon, you also did a big interview with disney c.e.o. bob iger. disney owns nbc, i want to talk about the content perspective. first take a listen to what iger had to tell you in that interview. >> whether this consolidation or ownership of the existing multichannel business changes, we're going to b

yesterday comcast america's largest cable provider announced that it will be buying time warner cable america's second largest cable provider whatever abit of competition in the marketplace and what could this merger mean for free and open access to the internet ad and more in tonight's big picture rubble and while the east coast is digging out from the latest massive winter storm west coast is dealing with a devastating drought how much more severe weather does america need before lawmakers in washington get serious about fighting climate change ask evan weber and angela anderson into tonight's conversations. you need to know this yesterday comcast the nation's largest cable television provider majority owner of n.b.c. and m assembly c and one of the nation's largest internet service providers announced that it will be buying time warner cable the nation's second largest cable television provider for forty five billion dollars. that's a very big deal pun intended and it has huge implications for the type and amount of content consumers might have access to on the internet on cable te

with this deal netflix and comcast will cut out the middleman. netflix paying comcast to direct it. it's a valuable partnership between the nation's largest internet provider about to become much larger and streaming video netflix. >> you have a company that represents 1/3rd of the traffic on the internet strike a deal with a company that represents as much as 1/3rd of the internet subscribers. >> reporter: youtube have similar arrangements to work directly with internet providers, but this is the first time a content company like netflix paid an internet provider like comcast directly. that doesn't mean netflix will face higher cost, it's just paying a different company. up until now, netflix paid other companies to deliver data. one of those companies, kogent. verizon ceo mcadams saying on cnbc monday morning he's in talks with netflix and expects to close a similar deal. >> the commercial model i think will work well. to me, that shows that you don't necessarily need a lot of regulation in a dynamic market here by doing these commercial deals and we'll get good investments and re

so if you're not comcast, you've got to pay nbc comcast or comcast nbc for the rights to the olympicsan charge whatever they want. they have to pay themselves the same thing by law but they are taking out of their right pocket and putting it in their left pocket. that's anti-competitiveness, as far as i'm concerned. >> is there evidence, has there been studies that when these mergers happen, especially when it comes to, say, comcast and nbc universal, that that has definitely resulted in prices going up and consider service going down? >> one of the things we did because i was objecting so hard was to put conditions on this. so we haven't seen that necessarily yet. we can't prove that. but they haven't complied with a lot of the conditions that the fcc put on it. i gave you an example that will relate to you. cnn is a cable network news. it's what it is. >> yeah. >> there's a thing call neighborhooding. you know what that is, right? cnn and msnbc and fox news -- >> put them all near each other? >> all near each other. well, they were supposed to put bloomberg in the same neighborhood