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

time warner is another enormous company. it owns cable operations in 29 states, local news and sports channels. internet and cloud computing services. now, the two plan to become one, merging the first and second largest cable providers in america to control a big share of the american cable t.v. market and put the other competitors in the shade. if you are watching us on television, you are, by definition, a cable t.v. customer. whether you get your service from comcast, time warner or another company, this merger may have long-term impact on a product you buy. what this massive merger will mean for their competitors and thetentions of millions of customers who buy cable, internet and other communication services is "the inside story." "the two cable goliaths are planning to join forces by the end of this year. comc comcast would ab some time warner. >> i think it's an incredibly exciting opportunity for time warner cable customers. the move will first affect the 33 million subscribers. the. >> the technological i know ovat

comcast taking out time warner cable. this is a long time.witz, brand-new industry and now dominating our lives. >> dominating is a dominant theme. consolidation and airlines, cable. even in retail. >> or martin sorrell said about the overall gdp. sorrell.rtin a data check with scarlet fu. >> retail sales numbers coming up this morning. jobless claims. futures down by 10.5 points. 10-year yield unchanged. >> good morning, everyone. bloomberg "surveillance." at of our interviews out bloombergtv +, and bloomberg radio. scarlet fu and adam johnson with me. >> we mentioned pepsico reported earnings earlier this hour. came in just above analyst estimates. the company boosted the dividend and announced a $5 billion stock buyback row gram. this is a challenge for pepsico. volume continues to fall. north american volume last year sliding three percent. , hughliu is with the cfo johnston. >> you hit all the really big points coming out of the earnings release. thank you for joining us this morning. >> good morning. scarlet mentioned, you boosted your

what you think about charter and time warner cable getting together? autious in what they said. his comment at the time was, is not going to change -- >> will this be the 800 pound gorilla? can't live people without espn. in my house we've got to have disney junior. to 10 channels will be different for everybody. somey has, compared to players, at least three or four that will be in most people's group. you are the less desired channels, you have to be thinking about the kind of leverage you have got. we're going to play this game for the next few years where the strongest players and content can continue to go back to the paid tv players and say, we want more money. the paid tv players probably continue to lose and your cable bill goes up. everybody has to think about what will happen at that point. they be the traditional system blows up -- maybe the traditional system blows up. >> i want to add one thing about why bob iger should react the way he did. you have two adjacent players merging. likeay the one competitor a direct takes a dish out or the ta

time warner lost close to 1 million cable t.v. sub describers in 2013, and more than 5 million subscribers opted out of table overall, between 2010 and 2013. the merger that seeks to join two big players in american communications. on this edition of inside story. joining us now, the ceo of free press, from new york, a recorder with the new york times who covered mergers and acquisitions for the paper, and deal book, and barron -- a lawyer, and president of tech freedom, which is a technology policy think tank. david, let me start with you, you tweeted out to your followers in surprise of how quickly this moved along, was there no long dance before this announcement? >> well, these two companyings have been in touch over the years. but what has happened is that charter communications as really made a push to try to get a deal done with time warner cable. charter was going to have to take on a lot of debt, they wanted to do a good portion of the deal in stock, and they believed that a stock after a deal would not be that valuable.

comcast and time warner content -- and time warner cable do not compete. that is a big deal here. comcast has talked to regulators and they have given them an indication that because of the key difference, there will not be any theoretical pricing difference by eliminating the competitor. the other thing to keep in mind here, cable companies getting bigger, they have more leverage to push back on content providers like cbs or disney. that could keep cable bills down and be a benefit for consumers. >> john is not called darth vader for nothing. he is a smart guy. he has been operating in the media universe for at least a decade. why would charter not come back and make a 160 bit or a 165 it or a 175 bid. they clearly do not think it is worth it. >> correct. charter put out a statement saying they will be disciplined on price on this. the problem is that charter is just not that big of a company. it is easier for comcast to absorb time warner cable into their balance sheet. charter would really have to lever up. they were already pushing their leverage target to above five times, wh

comcast buying time warner cable.y $159 a share and would make the largest cable network in the nation. >>> pepsico announced a new five-year $5 billion productivity program. joining us right now to talk more about it, from purchase new york, hugh johnston, pepsi's chief financial officer. it's great to have you here this morning. thank you. >> thanks, becky. good morning. great to be here. we're excited to publish results today. >> these are better than expected numbers. what happened that the street wasn't expecting? >> i think it's a variety of things. i think the company is performing really well the portfolio we worked on is working both from a product and from a geographic perspective. we've become more productive over time. we're driving more cash out of the business. in addition to the strong results, our long-term guidance we announced 2014 in line with and in addition to that, our cash return to shareholders will be up 35% which we're particularly excited about. >> some of the cash returns, lets talk about s

and it announced its intention to buy time warner cable. would give comcast a whopping 30% share of the pay tv market and 30% of the internet broadband market. cable has been consolidating for two decades now. at the same time cable faces growing competition from satellite tv, if the new deal goes through, comcast will have that many more subscribers, and twice the size of dish network who are trying hard to compete with the cablers. new online video services are also getting into the game. they have been making inroads as they tear down the traditional appointment-viewing model. and then there is the issue of customer service. comcast and time-warner get lower scores than their competitors. bad service and rising bills have prompted customers to shop around. the average cable bill just for tv has almost doubled in the past 15 years, so when a competitive environment with more customers slipping away the merger from a business per executive looks good ju but for the consumer's the implications are not so clear. >> reporter: by my measure co

time warner loves to say to time warner customers, don't leave us. we have this cool new apple thing coming down the road. the problem is apple doesn't have content relationships. >> jon, what does this all mean for apple? >> i found myself thinking today about walter isaacson's book on steve jobs and the comment where steve wasn't that big on paying for cable, decided i'm going to sign up for comcast. and then after signing up, he called the brian roberts, the c.e.o. of comcast and roberts said steve told me it sucks. that's a reminder that yes, 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 c

in the months that followed it, failed to get time warner cable to the table and during that time timea number of times and said, come on, guy, just pay the number we want and buy us. it's going to be good for you. it's going to be good for us. finally, brian roberts decided to do just that, in fact. despite what may very well be a tough regulatory review not just from the department of justice but from the federal communications commission. as for the financial thoughts behind the deal, i did search warrant 60 roberts earlier today on "squawk box" why it's a good deal from that perspective. >> when you take out the bill and a half synergies we're paying 6.6 times cash flow to buy some premier markets and a premier company. and that's because of the synergies. and when you look at that, that may be the most attractive acquisition we've done in many years. >> sounds to me -- they're doing it and saying it's going to be free cash flow accretive very, very quickly. of course, all with stock. they are not bor lowing anything. they will keep leverage low and institute a $10 billion buyback

we'll be watching to see how a comcast/time warner deal would impact time warner's relationship with apple. google driverless cars. we all know they are working on them. who wants to live in a driverless city? we'll take a look at the results of a new intel study coming up. ♪ >> you're watching the best of bloomberg west, i am emily chang. to the future of american cities look like the jetsons? according to an intel study, 44% of people aspire to live in a driverless city. orie johnson and i spoke to steve brown. >> we asked people about the world they want to see. for four percent are interested -- a 44% registered in a driverless city. they want a city environment they can hop into a car and it takes them to a destination with no human behind the wheel. i doubt it will happen in the next 10 years. of the compelling view future. there is less congestion. self driving cars tend to be safe there -- safer. >> the number of people in america who are not young people who are not getting it drivers licenses. a that about the notion that sharing economy? is there a shift in the wind people

competitors google is leaving in the dust, centurylink and time warner cable.oogle fiber started in kansas city and 2012. now it is in provo and coming soon to austin. google wants to bring the service to 34 more cities. ting-edge modems cabled right into each customer's home. it will cost google as much as $900 per household. if google builds it, will customers come? 15 million atv customers will come, giving google fiber nearly as big a customer base as comcast's 24 million. >> google's expansion plan for fiber could threaten certain cable providers. let's talk about that. in austin, plans have been slowed down by at&t. they are saying, you cannot run your fiber of our telephone poles. we were here first. when were talking about this potential comcast-time warner -- just ase comcast google fiber has announced the 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 a

time warner.t is the breaking news. dagen: thanks, liz macdonald. do you like it? connell: i do a lot. dagen: chronic problems. could just be me and my general energy. connell: another area where we agree. new developments on the target breach that has been all over the news. experts say they allow the hackers to integrate target's network some more on that coming. dagen: nascar's champion didn't even make the playoffs. what about 2014? straight ahead. [ male announcer ] hands were made for playing. legs, for crossing. feet...splashing. better things than the joint pain and swelling of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. if you're trying to m , now may be time o ask about xeljanz. xeljz (tofacitinib) is a small pill, not an injection or infusion, for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not wo well. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, iluding tuberculosis. seris, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start

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

comcast agreeing to buy time warner cable. they want it, for $45 in stocks take a look at time warner shares over the past eight months. as it was in play, a lot of companies from charter to maybe even cox making noises about wanting it started to push this stock considerably higher. the stock has risen about 50%, last night time warner cable turn its back on charter accepting the offer from comcast. here is the offer, $159 per share. well above what charter was offering and well above where the stock is trading right now. does wall street really feel they paid too much? the big question is if the merger will even be approved by regulators. a glimpse from an all-star panel. former fcc commissioner probably has an answer or an opinion. the new media analyst. and david bank, rbc capital markets media analyst. i will begin with you, do you like this deal, do you like this combination and do you like the press? >> if your opening a miami bureau, i would like to volunteer for that. liz: okay, i will work on it. >> here's my reactio

time warner cable, meanwhile, surging. , which he broke early this morning. >> it is one of the biggest media deals of all time, and certainly the biggest we've seen in cable, creating a coloss sas that will stretch across the country. comcast agreeing to acquire time warner cable for $45 billion. of course, any trust regulators and the fcc still have to weigh in before this deal will be approved and will close. nonetheless, the possibility of it has been in the air for quite some time. in fact, time warner cable has embraced comcast as it tried to avoid the clutches of charter and liberty media and said, hey, why not bid for us? why not do this deal? the financial part of it, well t makes a lot of sense, many would say. and finally, that seemed to be the case for brian roberts, who i spoke to earlier in asking him, well, why this deal as opposed to an international deal or expanding in content? >> when you take out the synergies, we're paying about 6.6 times cash flow to buy some premier markets and a premier company. that

comcast's ceo and the time warner cable ceo will be joining us on "squawk box" in just over an hour'stern. do not miss out on that, ladies and gentlemen. coming up next, the first hour of "squawk box," the countdown to the opening of markets staid stateside. whatever happens, have a profitable one. good-bye for now. >>> good morning and welcome to "squawk box." it will take more than snow and ice to keep two cable giantes from connecting. comcast striking a mega deal to acquire time warner cable. >>> and cisco shares getting the cold shoulder from investors after the forecast from this company shows a chill. i know andrew is going to tie this to the nsa. and oh, yeah, it's snowing outside. february 13th, 2014, and "squawk box" begins right now. >>> good morning, everybody. welcome to "squawk box" here on cnbc. i'm becky quick along with joe kernen and andrew ross sorkin. our top story today, comcast is set to buy time warner cable. david faber reports that the all-stock transaction is worth roughly $159 a share. that's about $44 billion. the tie-up would create the largest cable provi

if the time warner comcast merger goes through, time warner comcast will control 19 of the 20 largestts in the u.s. that's a number we will hear a lot of. google fiber is one of the few efforts that might actually create competition in the marketplace. i don't know that google wants the time warner comcast merger to go through. >> i have seen reports that comcast plus time warner, a merger could set back internet speeds by a decade. for a decade we won't see much innovation in the speeds of a comcast and time warner. jon, what do you make of that number? >> that gets directly to what cory has been talking about. you have got the google wildcard to keep all those cable companies honest. the cable companies have been spectacle -- skeptical of the nationwide rollout of google fiber. they do not see it in markets like new york city. it is true that could be the one thread for those players going forward. >> cory? >> jon is right. right now he has got provo and kansas city in austin. google says they will add 30 or more. that could make a big change. we will see what they end up doing. sal

i can tell you the time warner customer here in new york, they get time warner, the bar has been setorward. adam: have to move forward. pepsico earnings today, jack. we had pepsico on was cheryl casone during the noon hour. what'' happening? we used to drink soda like there is no tomorrow. what is going on? jack: pepsi decided to stick with the pepsi business. pepsi and coke working on bringing out the diet soda with the natural sweeteners. it has been a long time since we have seen a big launch of a new diet drink. that could move the needle for both sides. adam: their stock is down 2%. liz, how do you get pepsi off-track? are they off-track? liz: they have been struggling a little bit the past couple of years. they tried to going to be salty snack business. frito-lay became a hot prospect during the super bowl with tteir hot commercials. americans are changing the habit, coke and pepsi better as well. coke struck the deal with green mountain coffee to have the pods going into green mountain to create carbonated drinks. pepsi needs to shake it up a bit. >> if you like pepsi, you're

time warner cable wanted them to pay more money. they wering 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. >> but is this deal going to go through? the regulators made it clear ith at&t and t-mobile they wanted four wireless carriers. is it going to be any different? >> it is because they are different businesses. the government is going to scrutinize this carefully. you get number one and number two joining together, that raises a lot of flags. because there is that full sprecktrum 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 they are going to ask a lot of comcast. they are going to ask them to d

david: back to the time warner cable deal. will the deal be good or bad pour consumers if allowed to be pulled off? tweet us at ftnatb -- fbnatb. ♪ [ male announcer ] what if a small company became big business overnight? ♪ likereally big... then expanded? ♪ or their new proct tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine a company's future with the future of trading. company profile. a research tool on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. ameriprise asked peoplenkorswim. a simple queion: can you keep your listyle in retirement? i don't want to thin about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. david: s&p futures are closing. let's head back to alan knuckman at cme. how is

time warner cable, this is going to take quite some time to complete, as i said, and far from a sure thing that regulators will give their okay, although there is confidence on both sides that they will get to that end game. as for charter communications, its shares also off given it's unyear it's strategy towards consolidation will be or if it even has one. back to you. >> david, let me ask you a question, if i might. am i flight assuming that the regulatory hurdle is the reason why time warner cable shares are trading where they are, at a discount to what you just said was the -- was the punitive value of the comcast offer of about $158 a share? >> right. trading at about an 8% share. often the case, remember time valley and money, this is not going to get done, if it does get done, probably for a year. saying the end of the year. call it 12 months. right there, of course, discount it, and then the rick, tyler, you bring up that is not insignificant. which is a big fight with the fcc conceivably, at least, given its concerns on a political front and on a diversity of voice s fronte

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 power players and they expect that this deal will go through and they are selling something that they're hoping washington will buy but from what we've been hearing from the american people folks were suspicious of this deal from the very start these are two companies that always rank on the bottom when it comes to consumer satisfaction in customer service so there are some real questions here and customers are right to be asking questions you notice when comcast talks about the benefits of this deal one of the things that they never mention is lower prices for consumers and in fact consumers can expect that their prices will continue to rise at this merger is approved that's coming. at the consumer level it seems like increasingly we're seeing basically something that looks like monopoly her

time warner. what will the regulators say? >>> shoppers stayed home last night causing retail sales to drop. how much is due to the weather and is it cause for concern? >>> and cisco skids. shares slump as the maker of networking gear faces fresh questions over whether its turn around strategy is working. all that and more tonight on "nightly business report" for thursday, february 13th. >> good evening, i'm tyler mathisen. >> around i'm in for susie. we begin this evening with a megamerger in the media world. 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 the 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 n

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

time warner cable sees apple and they would love to be able to say to time warner customers, don't leave us. we have this new apple thing. the problem is apple doesn't have content relationships. >> what does this mean for apple? >> i found myself thinking about walter isaacson's book about steve jobs. the comment where steve, who was not big on paying for cable, decided i am going to sign up for comcast. after signing up, he called the ceo and robert said, i thought he was going to say it was pretty cool. steve told me that it sucks. comcast has some cool technology. they think about a more innovative service. most of us view the cable companies as slow, trying to squeeze us for money, and have been hoping that there might be some new great type of tv watching experience that is much more like the experience you have on your phone. that is why a lot of people have been pointing to apple. the challenge that 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 the cable companies already ha

apple tvwords, if wants to study user interface for time warner customers, time warner says we are fineecause they are better at that. has been a little bit more closed. they are a little bit more wary about letting the intruders into the gates. so we will see how it progresses. from the side of netflix and apple tv how much trust do they have of comcast and time warner cable? >> if you think about the broadcasters themselves, the ones cutting the deals with the likes of netflix, they get paid a lot of money from comcast so they have to be respectful of that. but a lot are skeptical that all of the people who watch those various shows will continue through cable. that is why they are developing .heir own apps it is almost like a hedge. they will go as far as they can without frustrating the cable company. and then, of course, disney did this landmark eel with the netflix where much of the feature movie content, when it is out of the theaters it will not be available through the cable world first but available through netflix. they have a vested interest in seeing services like netflix c

that values time warner cable at $158.82 a share. i think we have heard that number somewhere before. >> would think we can create tremendous value by running this company on our own. if charter wants to transact $158 is the price. >> this was the cable love triangle. charter try to buy time warner cable but twc played hard to get. now, comcast was going to be in on that deal, potentially buying some of the assets. >> we were hearing that comcast was going to enter into a friendly agreement with charter to try to acquire time warner cable together, so the news that they have done an end run around charter and done a friendly merger with time warner cable came as a shock to just about everybody last night. >> ok, so let's get past a surprised factor. buying the second-largest u.s. cable company brings comcast more than 11 million subscribers. it gives comcast access to new york city market and more provider content. so the question is -- how big does that make the new company? >> if you include directv, dish, verizon fios, at&t u-vers

charter and time warner, that does not seem to be the case.ould you say john malone is the loser here? >> he didn't win time warner cable. >> he didn't win yesterday. everyone makes sports analogies. the differences with a football game, at 3:00 you know who one. with the investment business, you turn it on at noon and you know who won five years later or 10 years later. the person with the highest score one and a football game. >> just because comcast won the deal doesn't mean this was a great investment. >> there is a right price and a wrong price. you can overpay. one of the things that drives me crazy is in the industry, it drags on our business. buying is not success. buying and making money is success. >> we are going to cover more. >> welcome black -- welcome back to bloomberg television. i am stephanie ruhle joined by matt miller. >> 26 minutes after the hour, that means we are on the market. we will take a quick look at futures here. very little change in the futures market. the s&p is a tiny little green arrow there. nasdaq futures u

stuart: to take over time warner cable, okay, got it. big board, as expected the dow opened sharply lower and we're off over 90 points and now we're down 87 and that puts the dow back at 15-8. linkedin we're calling it the adult version of facebook. our protection staff says all of those linkedin message they get very annoying. they're coming in from strangers they don't know. after the break, a vice-president at linkedin answers the charge. and "varney & company" is moving we're expanding, two full hours of varney, can you stand it? i promise you, our time may be changing, but the content will n not. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] you're watching one of the biggest financial servicespanies in the country at work. hey. thanks for coming over. hey. [ male annouer ] how did it come to be? yours? ah. not anymore. it's a very short story. come on in. [ male announcer ] by meeting you more than halfway. it's how edward jones makesense of investing. those litt cialis tadalafil for daily use [ male announcer ] by meeting you more than halfway. helps yo

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 buying time-warner for $45 billion.avid shuster joining us now with all of the details. >> yeah, del, comcast is our nation's biggest cable provider, and scooped in in with an all-stock offer that ended an earlier bid by charter communications. comcast is valued at moore than $144 billion, with close to 22 million subscribers, and part of the value comes from the fact that it also owns nbc. time-warner cable is valued at over $37 billion, with more than 12 billion subscribers. it is just a cable provider, . but together time-warner cable and comcast have more than 33 million customers, and because of its size the merger is expected to face tough review. comcast on top with nearly 22 million subscribers. direct tv and dish network have 20 million and 14 million subscribers. time-warner cable is next with 12 million subscribers. and then is verizon, cox, at&t, and charter, each with more than 4 million subscribers. brian roberts pointed out that his company and time-warner cable serve different parts of the country. >> we

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 over time. not inconsequential. >> a difference - comcast is seen as being aggressive than time warner cable with tv everywhere products, allowing contents on mobile devices. another difference, comcast has more on demand programming. comcast calls the deal p proconsumer critics think not. >> of 19 of the 20 largest cities, there's one choice, comcast as the local cable monopo monopoly. that means second class service at high prices with no option to choose anyone else. >> the deal is expected to come under scrutiny from regulators. comcast says it will shed 3 million subscribers. observers expect concessions will be needed. >> we should add comcast says it will follow rules for net neutrality, treating all online traffic equally. >> researches in california say they made a breakthrough in an effort to develop a new source of energy. the work could lead to an endless supply o

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it offered to buy time warner cable. it's bid was much lower. time warner cable holding out for a higher bid has worked out. but now investors and annual lis are asking where does charter go from here? who else can it team up with? that's why we're seeing a decline in shares today. >> if that deal is going to move forward, government regulators are going to have to give this the green light. what else do we know about this? >> that is one of the risks associated with this situation. that's one of the risks to the deal. we might see comcast divest some of its properties and charter, which i just mentioned, that company might be able to pick up some of those assets. >> thank you so much. let's go to our chief washington correspondent peter cook. he has more on this story. is this going to be an up hil fight on the regulatory front? >> anytime you have the number one cable company and number two cable cun company joining together, you get some red flags and we'rey views in washington. at the end of the day analyst players think this deal will likel

and time warner cable is the most hated. a couchle of theories.ne, it is possible that this larger company will be able to keep the prices down, that are. >> thatted by content providers like disney. and if it can keep that prices relatively low, then you don't have to increase the fees that people pay each hospital. on the other side. whether this new company be able to jack up fees themselves and there's not much that consumers can do about it. >> what are you working on? what else? >> i knee you are all about the american dream, and all of us being able to realize our potential, a lot of people that involved home ownership. there are a lot of people out there whose dream is changing and they are making the decision to rent. and for all those people that are making that calculation. all right, david, appreciate it. the u.s. military is upset about the release of 65 prisoners in afghanistan. now despite u.s. demands the release is of no concern to the united states. jane ferguson has our report. the government has insisted for weeks it will relea

time warner has had a hard time with customer satisfaction.one is known as darth vader of telecom. in the cable industry, that probably did not go over well. >> that may have been the straw that broke the camels back. comcast was willing to do or at a partnershipn with charter. once malone went hostile, that may have been too much for comcast to handle. one thing to go out there and criticize. another to go out and propose entirely new board of directors. >> it is extraordinary to me that just days before comcast made the announcement charter nominated their own slate of time warner cable board members. of course the thought is they would not have done that if they thought there was something brewing on the side between comcast and time warner cable. i am really surprised at how well that was done, how secretive and clueless charter and the leaders were. >> john is a gifted dealmaker. brian roberts is every good as as -- is every bit as good we were, may be better. it was friendly between broad markets and brian roberts. it was tax sensitive.

we look at comcast's bid to buy time warner cable. >> ifill: plus, robots can beat us at board games and computers can win on "jeopardy," but can they replace human workers? >> we have robots in the lab for a long long time, now we have robots out there in the real world doing productive work every day. that's a big difference. >> ifill: those are just some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> i've been around long enough to recognize the people who are out there owning it. the ones getting involved, staying engaged. they are not afraid to question the path they're on. because the one question they never want to ask is, "how did i end up here?" i started schwab with those people. people who want to take ownership of their investments, like they do in every other aspect of their lives. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and the william and flora >> and with the ongoing support of these