Anna Nicolaou

AT&T unveiled plans to spin out and merge WarnerMedia with Discovery. The company's failed media deals destroyed more than $50 billion in shareholder value. The telecoms sector has long been fascinated with Hollywood as it has railed against the notion that the industry is little more than a collection of “dumb pipes” that act as conduits for value created by other companies. Yet telecoms-media convergence often comes at great cost and companies including AT&T and Verizon have embraced the notion that focusing on the pipes may not be so dumb after all.

The year 2017 is shaping up to be a landmark in the US telecoms sector, with industry executives and analysts predicting a frenzied period of mergers under the more deal-friendly regulatory regime of President Donald Trump.

The sector is readying itself for a period of upheaval. “Now is the time to consider that, which in an earlier time might have been unthinkable,” says Jonathan Chaplin, analyst at New Street Research. A “Big Bang consolidation” is inevitable, he says. President Trump has boosted confidence that his administration will be more open to megadeals since assuming the presidency. He picked Ajit Pai — a Republican commissioner on the Federal Communications Commission sympathetic to arguments that telecoms groups need to merge to compete with Silicon Valley rivals — to chair the US telecoms watchdog. And Jeff Eisenach, a consultant who has supported previously blocked telecoms mergers, is head of the FCC transition team. The prospect of lighter regulation has lifted shares across telecoms companies since election night.

[Commentary] Donald Trump has created fissures through the once solid US conservative media in the same way that he has shaken the foundations of the Republican party, and torn up the rule book for a presidential candidate.

It is a measure of how extraordinary the 2016 White House race has been that Fox News and the Wall Street Journal, traditional bastions for US Republicans, have clashed with the party’s nominee. Publications such as the National Review have long been part of the establishment GOP while drawing on outsider status as the Democrats held control of the White House. But with the arrival of Trump, “establishment conservative media all of a sudden wakes up and says: what have we created here?” said Gabriel Kahn, a professor at the University of Southern California and former Wall Street Journal reporter. In a digital age the media industry has fragmented, with the internet opening up a new echo chamber for sites such as Breitbart to cater to more granular audiences. “Only in today’s media landscape can a candidate like Trump thrive,” said Mr Kahn. “20 years ago it was mainstream media and not much else.”