AT&T Begins Testing Its Power In The Wake Of Merger Mania & The Death Of Net Neutrality

AT&T Begins Testing Its Power In The Wake Of Merger Mania & The Death Of Net Neutrality

6 years ago
Anonymous $cyhBy-qkd5

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180628/12454740132/att-begins-testing-power-wake-merger-mania-death-net-neutrality.shtml

So as we've long noted, the death of net neutrality and the latest round of M&A mania isn't going to result in an immediate internet apocalypse. ISPs are nervous about looming court challenges which, thanks to all manner of ridiculous behavior at the FCC, have a good chance of succeeding. They also know that unless they can get a phony, pre-emptive law on the books, the next FCC or future, less-cash-compromised Congress could just come in and restore the rules. As such, they're going to be testing their newfound freedoms very slowly, much like the boiling frog metaphor (you are the frog in this equation).

Case in point: on the heels of the company's $86 billion merger with Time Warner, AT&T introduced a new $15 per month streaming video service dubbed "AT&T Watch." Watch is a bare-bones skinny bundle that competes with services like Philo, a $16 per month offering from several major broadcasters. But AT&T's ownership of the pipes this content flows over gives the telecom giant a very notable advantage. In this case, that has resulted in AT&T offering the service for free to the company's wireless customers, an advantage smaller streaming operators may find hard to overcome: