telecom provider at&t is expected to meet to acquire directv according to a source who knows about the meeting. and if it goes through, that deal will be worth about $50 billion. at&t and directv are both staying quiet on this for now but sources say the announcement could come as early as this afternoon. so, cable customers are wondering, how does this affect me? for more on that, i'm joined now by brian stealth zer. good to see you again. how is this potentially going to affect customers in. >> well we're talking about so many people that would be affected by this. one in four people who are watching us right now have directv or at&t television. about a hundred million house holds in the united states that have some form of cable or at light. 20 million of those are directv subscribers all across the country, particularly in rural areas. another 5 million or so have at&t television service. at&t though hasn't had a very strong time expanding its television service. this is going to let them do it. now they're going to own one out of four holdholds that have their tv service. >> so fo

telecom companies. >> mr. whitacre, has at&t provided customer information to any law enforcement agency? >> senator, we protect the privacy of our customers and we follow the law. that's all i can say about that. >> are you declining to answer my question, mr. whitacre? >> we follow the law, senator. >> does at&t provide customer information to any law enforcement agency? >> we follow the law, senator. >> that is not an answer. >> at&t, verizon, the bell phone companies, have seen themselves in a kind of partnership with the government for almost 100 years. >> i'm telling you we don't violate the law. we follow the law. >> that's a legal conclusion. >> for almost 70 years, the government guaranteed them a monopoly. >> i'm asking you for a factual matter. >> and so they have always been and continue to be faithful handmaidens of the government's will. >> if you're under instructions by the federal government as a matter of state secrecy not to talk, say so. >> senator, we follow the law. >> surveillance assistance is now in the structure of these companies. it's something they're very com

at stake, this is a major telecom company. >> right. >> morning with major cable provider, and a couple million dollars of extra lobbying feess quite a good investment for this company or at least that's how it is internally. >> and yes, aren't they certain here. does it mean too much consolidation. will it be consumer friendly on price and surface. with minority voices and hiring practices and content choicing. aren't those simple questions that are essentially front and center in any kind of deal like this? is. >> they shall simple questions but when it comes to politics nothing is similar. the two entities merging here, time warner and comcast, don't really overlap. so it is kind of wayhorizontal merger. there's a second at&t merger being considered with direct tv. and that's kind of playing a role here. if we approve one do we have to approve the other, so there's a lot of complicated issues and telecom politics are always a role of the dice. so comcast sees eight as a savvy move to make sure this goes well. >> he is a reporter that covers for politico. >> there was a lot of criticism about the bill that passed the house

comes to who is the best steward over providing this cheap, fast internet, i look at the government as being the least trustworthy steward their. i don't trust the telecoms, either, but i have great faith in entrepreneurs and technology. we have seen innovation over the past 10 years that has been directed lists -- miraculous. 10 years from now, comcast will aol.y be a relevant as is i'm not worried about internet getting slower or being restricted, i'm more worried about the government intrusions. >> timothy karr? >> i agree, this is about protecting free speech on the internet. and it is about the government serving the role to protect internet users and not protect its own interest. so what we are looking at at the fcc is a very simple regulatory solution, which is for them to treat internet service providers -- not the internet -- as common carrier. as common carriers, they simply have to let our communications flow freely over their pipes as a neutral conduit. so what we are asking for in asking the fcc to reclassify them as common carriers, is not the idea that will become a public utility or the government is going to take over the internet -- thi

provide faster connections to customers demand but at&t can. this potential deal comes just a few months after another blockbuster telecom deal. comcast to buy time warner cable, a deal worth $45 billion. >>> to politics now and the race that's a long way from getting started. and the candidate washington can't stop talking about. hillary clinton. not even the race yet at least not yet, chatter today is all about remarks by republican strategist karl rove who's questioned the seriousness of clinton's concussions from days as secretary of state. erin mcpike is standing by at the white house. sounds like hillary clinton is getting a tough reminder of 2008 very early on. >> reporter: miguel, she sure is. massachusetts governor duval patrick was on cnn "state of the union" this morning and he suggested that that very thing, the inevitability factor going for her in 2007 and 2008, was a big turnoff for voters and he's worried about it again going forward. now jerry brown, the california governor, was also on a sunday show this morning. he was on abc's "this week" and listen to the point he made about that. >> i can't see any opposi

at all the teams and how they interact. the question will be, for any future telecom deal, do the providers interact with pay-tv for broadband, and where do regulators see the industry going. there has been a lot of diversions in cable television and broadband. really, these deals could all simultaneously, and under the same competitive playing field analysis. >> very interesting. whetherto us about regulators will say yes. >> we need to cover another deal i cannot handle. we will bring in a man i can also not handle, on the verge of why videogames streaming company $4 billion, we're talking about broadcastlets players and watch live streaming of video gaming action. the startup has 45 million users and generates more web traffic than hulu during peak hours. , when they say you ,ave been doing research explained the company to meet. it sounds read to kill us. >> is my personal twitch experience. guys will -- they were telling us the numbers of viewers they're getting and i swore they were a decimal point off. there is no way they could be talking about 400,000 users, a really big network process death broadcast viewership. a

telecom, cable and satellite companies are trying to compete against comcast as it works by time warner cable. if that goes through and this deal pans out at&t direct tv would be the biggest tv providere u.s. 26 million customers direct tv 285 channels to watch. today is the day to mute your friends when you don't care what they tweet about. you can have the mute button you can silence friends without unfollowing them on twitter. if you want wi-fi in your car there are plenty of ways to do that now another. for $5 an hour high speed ininternet with on star service and at&t will handle the connection. it is a big gamble since most of us already connect to the internet while riding cars anyway. gm's connective car has to be better and faster. five bucks gets you 200 megabytes a data. 50 bucks a month gets you 5 gigabytes enough to keep the kids happy in the back seat. check your 401 k you are going to be smiling. the dow topped more than 100 points. it closed another record high. ditto for the s & p 500 and nasdaq jumping 2 percent yesterday ladies. >> good news for investors. >> see if we can keep it going today. >> thank you for joining us, lauren simonetti. >>> attention all chocola

at the same speed. the speed that you pay your internet service provider for. what was approved today could change that structure in that internet service provides like telecom and companies that provide the internet into your home can decide to charge web sites for faster or premium delivery of content. and that means higher quality content. >> well, explain this to me. two republicans on the commission, basically don't think that internet should be regulated at all. but why did these two democrats who i you say have these misgivings decide to support this. >> they decided to support this in the first step at least in answer or at least addressing questions and asking questions to the public about what is the best way to approach what's known as net neutrality. and find you these rules also come with a basic provision that internet service providers can't outright block content on the internet so that they support. what they don't support is again this idea of paid pryor at thisization or faster lanes on the internet-based on what companies pay the most for that so they said very carefully in very unattorney terms that that portion of the rules they don't like.

telecom industry may be headed for major reshuffle. at&t is buying directv for $48.5 billion. that would create the second largest paid television provider with 26 million subscribers. at&t stock is down in trading. melody hobson is with us from chicago. what does at&t want with directv? >> they want their customers, plain and simple. it's 21 million people they want and they want to be able to provide them with whatever they want, wireless, satellite, broadband, on whatever device they're using, mobile, their own tell advice, a laptop, even in their car or on an airplane. they hope to be able to do that by bundling services together at a premium price of course, and also of last but not least, having the clout, because they have more customers, with the content providers to be able to get that great content. >> after comcast wanted to buy time warner, the question of antitrust came up. it's come up again with this merger. what's the likelihood of a anti-trust stopping these mergers? >> i think at&t learned a lot when they tried to buy t-mobile and they failed. i think they're going in with more information and smarter. secondly, all of

providers, they are not actually celebrating either. >> that is right because within the plan is a separate proposal, an alternative pathway, that would reclassify as telecom services. we heard from at&t, verizon, comcast, similar statements, and top is the statement from a at&t official. they are worried about the alternative. they want to make sure wheeler and his colleagues at the ftc do not choose that route -- fcc do not choose that route. >> thank you, peter cook. &a have had lots of m activity, and darden just announced they will be selling red lobster to golden gate capital for $2.1 billion. they are signed the red lobster chain. and other fast-casual chains have been struggling as fewer customers going to their restaurants. they are selling this to a private equity firm for $2.1 billion, just announcing that woman to go. -- announcing that moments ago. unveiled its new fall lineup including the final season of "two and a half men." last -- lesspoke to moonves. >> they are really excited about thursday night football. he felt it was worth it. we did get a chance to clear up some rumors that were out there, such as who might be taking over late show echo -- show." one of the

at&t approach to that provider about an acquisition. no, from that company. approachedk also directv about a merger. a megamerger in the telecomindustry may also be in the works. sprint, 80% owned by japan's softbank planning to move forward for a bid for t-mobile usa and met with banks this month to make that arrangements for the office -- offer. bloomberg news's managing editor of mna joins us with more on the possible deal. jeff, let's talk about the timing. when the spring 20 to make a possible bid? >> this is the oddest situation. it has been well telegraphed. late last year he met with banks and wanted to see if the financing was there, which it was. then he met with regulators and got a thumbs down. he has taken that into account and then i guess he will move forward just at -- anyway. he is confident the financing is there a what he is looking for is a june-july time frame to get a deal done with t-mobile. it's got to negotiate with budget telecom back in germany, t-mobile.of >> u.s. regulators seem to be the hurdle. i think back to the at&t deal in 2011, everyone thought it will pass but u.s. regulators stopped it. wh

looks at transmission in internet access to try to pull it out, that will be viewed henceforth as a separate regulated common carriage telecom service. everybody else in the internet ecosystem is providing transmission, so content delivery networks, backbone providers, cogent level three that have always been providing services on an uncredited basis outside of title ii, and even edge providers large ones with their own networks like google and facebook and many others all our providing transmission to get the content from servers -- civility and enormous destabilizing risk if you're going to say one peace within and it will be regulated for the first time as a telecom service, the many other forms of internet transmissions likewise might be regulated as telecom services. from my standpoint having watched this to get the fcc wants to achieve certain protections and we now have a rough consensus, a lot of broadband provider went to agree on certain baseline nobody rolls and certain review procedures -- no blocking rules, and otherwise appropriate arrangement, i think we can forge a consensus around a title ii is something that won't ever lead consensus but it leads to tremendous uncertai