# AT&T Broadband/Comcast AOK, but Dish/DirecTV dead?



## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

:computer: Riddle me this...

How can the merger of AT&T Broadband and Comcast be OK, yet the merger of Dish and DirecTV be anti-competitive and anti-trust? 

Unless I'm mistaken, the combined subscriber base of AT&T Broadband and Comcast will exceed the subscriber base of DirecTV and Dish network--even after eliminating the people who subscribe to both DirecTV and Dish.

In addition, all that AT&T and Comcast have to do is change the name on the billing statements and they're done, while DirecTV and Dish have to include equipment upgrades.

And, while I won't claim that the customer relations record is spotless for Dish and DirecTV, haven't we seen even worse customer relationship stories, including alledged falsified call records from a AT&T Broadband franchise that was based in Florida that made news. 

:shrug:


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

The THEORY is that the Dish/DTV merger reduces competition across the country from 3 to 2 in cabled areas and from 2 to 1 in non cabled areas, thereby reducing competition. The ATT/Comcast merger doesn't reduce the number of competitors in any areas since in all areas they operate the competition is already 3 (cable plus 2 satellite) and will remain 3. Therefore, the satelllite merger will reduce competition, and the cable merger will not.


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## catman (Jun 27, 2002)

AT&T stand for American Thugs & theives . Achie bunker said that . Back in the 70's


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## RichW (Mar 29, 2002)

The Cable merger does, however, reduce the number of viable service compnies which compete for cable franchises. Cable is already a monopoly for most of the country.


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## MrAkai (Aug 10, 2002)

Thankfully my city has two viable cable franchises, one of which is not AT&T.

So there are at least 4 choices for pay TV in my area.


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## bogi (Apr 3, 2002)

FCC didnt approve the Comcast/ATT merger yet. They stalled it for now.


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