mr. kimmelman, could you speak to mr. st ephenson's characterization on at&t's track record on complying with commitments as spotless? i. kimmelman: senator, all can say is i think it is a great company, and i think they are a very aggressive competitor. sometimes aggressive competitors can step over the line. there have been varieties of complaints at different points in time. i don't think it is worth going into in great detail. these will be reviewed by the agencies. every body who is competing hard sometimes competes a little too hard, and that is nothing new in the marketplace. ago, at&ten: a year was slapped with a $25 million or pray -- for failing to protect its subscribers' personal information. ephenson, about a year ago, he and i talked about how his company lobbied from permit outor prohibiting mucin -- municipalities from launching their own broadcast networks. i would love to see that data. either way, i would love to see the fcc involved in this. bloomberg dispute, that was the fcc dealing with that. doj has

mr. kimmelman. could you speak to mr. stephenson's characterization of at&t's track record on complying with commitments as spotless? >> senator, all i can say -- i think it's a great company and i think they are a very aggressive competitor. sometimes aggressive competitors can step over the line. there have been varieties of complaints at different points in time. i don't think it's worth going into it in great detail. these will be reviewed by the agencies. they're a wonderful company but everybody competing hard sometimes competes a little too hard and that's nothing new in the marketplace. >> well, a year ago at&t was slapped with a $25 million fine for failing to protect its subscribers' personal information, mr. stephenson, about a year ago he and i discussed how his company lobbied to prevent municipalities from building their own broadband networks to meet their communities' needs this is using your competitive advantage and i'd love to see that data. and i think by the way i would like to see the fcc involved in

mr. kimmelman and mr. stephenson? >> that's not really my wheelhouse. i don't have a comment on it. >> got it, got it. >> mr. bewkes on a slightly different question, you can get back to that if you'd like but i first want to ask you, i'm encouraged to hear that time warner's business model is based on broad distribution for content. other companies obviously have taken a different approach, netflix for example has been a successful company. it's got a market company, $52.9 billion and that's a viable be option to take a different approach. can you tell me how time warner weighs broad distribution versus exclusive content, how do you balance those relative to attractiveness. >> we're been able to build our networks, cnn, hbo, tnt, cartoon network only because we have broad distribution and if we were to, and we've never done this, if we were to not offer our networks over any of the cable satellite, telco or over-the-top platforms that are now the place where increasing number of americans are choosing which one to get their tv service through we would

mr. kimmelman? >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator klobuchar, on behalf of public knowledge, i'm joined by consumer federation of america, i appreciate the opportunity to testify. i'd like to ask the report we released this morning that senator klobuchar referred to could be put in the record. i know it looks like great bedtime reading by its size. >> without objection. >> i start here because this is a description of the last 20 years of activity in this industry, which i think is relevant to look at this morning, as you consider the impacts of this merger. all the leadership of the committee pointed out all the potential pros and significant cons of this. i raise this because what it shows is that $2700 that consumers are paying per month, there are times when lax anti-trust oversight allowed substantial mergers of cable and telephone companies and content companies. there were times when there was limited regulation, and what we conclude is, looking, comparing the prices consumers are paying with the actual compet

mr. kimmelman. >> thank you, mr. chairman. senator klobuchar, members of the sub committee, on behalf of public knowledge, and consumer federation of america i appreciate the opportunity to testify. eye asked the report we released could be put in the record. know it looks like great bedtime reading to you by the size. >> no option. >> but i start here because this is about a description of the last 20 years of activity in this industry, which i think is relevant to look at this morning as you consider the impacts of the merger, the leadership of the committee pointed out the point pros and significant cons of this. i raise this because what it shows is that the $2,700 that consumers are paying per month, there are lot of issues also 20 why that number is so big. during that 20 years, there're times when lax antitrust overtight aloud mergers of cable and content toys and telephone companies. times when there was limited regulation and what we conclude is looking -- comparing the privacies consumers are paying with the actual c

mr. kimmelman points out has had problems itself and had to be modified by regulators. it involves wireless. it's a national platform, and it involves more than one platform, but speaking very bluntly, what i think, what any of my colleagues think may make no difference whatsoever, because donald trump has said he's going to block this merger, and i take him at his word. >> why? >> we operate as an act here. i know that mr. stephenson you've met with the trump transition team. have you met with the trump transition team? >> no, senator, i have not. >> well then what remains on the record is that the president of the united states or i should say the future president of the united states has said he's going to block this merger and he said it emphatically and unequivocally and he has said it because, and i quote, "it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few." a classic antitrust analysis from the president-elect. i'm a strong supporter of anti-trust enforcement, and i may well agree with donald trump. what concerns me is the reason that he gave -- an add

mr. kimmelman? >> thank you, mr. chairman, senator klobuchar, on behalf of public knowledge, i'm joined by consumer federation of america, in our statement, i appreciate the opportunity to testify. i'd like to ask the report we released this morning that senator klobuchar referred to could be put in the record. i know it looks like great bedtime reading by its size. >> without objection. >> i start here because this is about a description of the last 20 years of activity in this industry, which i think is relevant to look at this morning, as you consider the impacts of this merger. all the leadership of the committee pointed out all the potential pros and significant cons of this. i raise this because what it shows is that $2,700 that consumers are paying per month, there's a lot of issues as to why that number is so big. during those 20 years, there were times when lax antitrust oversight allowed substantial mergers of cable and telephone companies and content companies. there were times when there was limited regul

mr. kimmelman, do you have any thoughts? this very concern that, again, nbc -- these are wonderful businessmen. you know, i understand their goal as to what they do with their business. nbc said the exact same thing. i'll just say, the enforcers found that there were these incentives, they imposed limitations or would have blocked the transaction there. this is even larger. i'll just -- >> and did they live up to the conditions? >> some, but there have been a lot of problems, i think. companies like this company would not even have the resources to take advantage of those tools. i think there are significant difficulties with conditions which we could get into later. but there has clearly been a history of these kind of favoritism discrimination. i'll just remind you, the bipartisan congress in 1992 stepped in and required cable to sell its products, tv networks, where they were vertically integrated, to satellite in order to allow satellite to get access to the product. you could have made the same argument, why wouldn't we

mr. kimmelman, you think the fcc should preview still?> at this within their jurisdiction at all i believe they should. i think it would add a benefit to the overall public policy analysis. >> thank you. >> i want to thank you all for coming and participating today for answering questions and providing testimony. we received a statement from mr. patrick gosch. the record will remain open for a week for an additional questions and submissions. this hearing will be adjourned. [inaudible conversations] >> we are live now. this is a senior trump tower is donald trump continues making possible candidate for the cabinet and other positions outside. this is what's happening for the past few hours. [cheers and applause] [cheers and applause] .. [shouting] [shouting] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [shouting] [shouting] [shouting] [shouting] [shouting] [shouting] [shouting] [chanting] >> this is the scene outside trump tower. you can see the lobby shot that we been showing you off and on. that is available on our website right

mr. kimmelman might disagree. >> i'm not worried about comcast not eating time warner content.e distribution it would compete with that is growing right now, not being able to get exactly what it needs to be a player or competitor. scarlet: that was some of the highlights from the at&t and time warner hearing in washington today. the marketslower as and equity action is doing well. boiled down about 2%. this is bloomberg. about 2%.n this is bloomberg. ♪ i've spent my life planting a size-six, non-slip shoe into that door. on this side, i want my customers to relax and enjoy themselves. but these days it's phones before forks. they want wifi out here. but behind that door, i need a private connection for my business. wifi pro from comcast business. public wifi for your customers. private wifi for your business. strong and secure. good for a door. and a network. comcast business. built for security. built for business. ways wins. especially in my business. with slow internet from the phone company, you can't keep up. you're stuck, watching spinning wheels and progress bars until

mr. kimmelman: compared to previous transactions, it would be beneficial to the process. sen. franken: mr. stevenson and mr. --, you have not committed a deal for review by the fcc? mr. stephenson: we are working through the process right now. the trigger is whether we assume licenses from time warner. access to over 100 licenses. we are going through them to decide which one we need to actually transfer. until we get to that review, we cannot say if there will be an application or not. i would suggest that the doj, as was pointed out, looks at the fcc on these matters or expertise. and no doubt that the doj will continue to work with the fcc with the review and will also keep the fcc posted on the process and whether we do a former filing or not. sen. franken: there is a different level you have to meet and the fcc, their merger review requires that any proposed deal actually benefits consumers, so i would think that the message you are sending to us and the current and potentially at&t consumer is, if you cannot assert that this deal will benefit the american public, it is no