The Entertainment Lens

Cable Merger Costs

 

The cable merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable (TWC) has brought a lot of unwanted attention from cable subscribers, but bad press has never stopped businesses from doing business. According to Yahoo News, Comcast and TWC have poor customer ratings. The news will not get any better with the merger of the two companies. Below is a brief timeline regarding the enormous business purchases:

 

• In 2011, Comcast bought a 51% stake of General Electric, which owns NBC Universal (NBCU) at close to $14 billion, according to The Guardian.com.

 

 

• In early 2013, Comcast purchased the final 49% stake of NBCU at close to $17 billion, so they now have 100% ownership of NBCU, according to the Wall Street Journal.com. This roughly panned out to be a $31 billion purchase in just three years. 

 

Now, the merger of Comcast and TWC gives the conglomerate all the monthly pricing leverage leaving the cable customers feeling left out. This will be interesting to see over the next several months how Comcast handles their monthly programming and their customer service.