AT&T’s Plan to Surpass the Competition

    As AT&T is in the process of buying entertainment company Time Warner, they have announced its plan to release a live streaming bundle for television. This bundle will include a smaller amount of channels but will be one of the cheapest options, as it will cost only $15 a month. This was announced during a court case between AT&T and the Justice Department. The Justice Department is trying to stop AT&T from buying Time Warner, as Time Warner owns creators such as HBO, CNN, and TNT. If AT&T were to buy Time Warner, they would also own these creators and would be able to air these channels only on AT&T bundles. The Justice Department argues that AT&T owning Time Warner would harm competitors, and these competitors would be forced to follow AT&T’s terms if they wanted to air the channels that AT&T owns. They also argue that it would be harmful to have too much power in one company. AT&T is specifically wanting to buy Time Warner to compete with companies such as Netflix and Amazon.

Source: arstechnica

AT&T pointed to their plan to release AT&T Watch as an example as to why buying Time Warner would be beneficial for consumers. AT&T Watch would offer a low price alternative to the current DirecTV Now, which costs $35 a month. AT&T Watch will also be free for subscribers of AT&T wireless. One big catch is that AT&T Watch will not include any sports channels, and the channels it will include has yet to be announced. It is planned to be released in the next few weeks. It is interesting to see how the court case will pan out, and to see if AT&T Watch is any good. What do you think - should AT&T be allowed to buy Time Warner?

Source: WSJ

Author:

Ritik Sinha