Will Regulators Put the Kibosh on Cable Consolidation?

[Commentary] There's a reason Time Warner Cable looks like the prettiest girl at the dance: it has 11.6 million subscribers and is in hot water with its shareholders, largely because it lost some 306,000 of those paying customers during its month-long beef with CBS. That cost the company some $122 million, but TWC's revenue is still $2.6 billion -- not exactly a distressed asset. As the cable market matures and threatens to shrink, consolidation has become a serious proposition for companies looking to shed money-sucking bureaucracies and pare down infrastructures across as many subscribers as possible. It remains to be seen whether Washington will be excited to see another merger between giant service providers in an industry already criticized for creating regional monopolies. The last time Comcast wanted to do something like this -- when it merged with media giant NBCUniversal -- it attracted further criticism when, after the deal was approved, then-commissioner Meredith Baker jumped ship to a consultancy job at the newly-formed mega-corporation. If Comcast wants to buy TWC, it's a safe bet that it will have a tougher row to hoe than Charter.

(Nov 22)