October 2016

AT&T's recently announced deal to acquire Time Warner reflects massive changes in media and technology. Although regulators could challenge the acquisition or slap conditions on it that may limit how AT&T can use its new assets, the purchase hints at a future where a single company can monetize the same customer multiple times over, just through the customer's routine use of the Internet. If AT&T succeeds — and that's still a big if — it will be that much closer to turning its subscribers into virtual cash machines, going to them over and over to grow its revenue base. Here are a few ways that could work:

Sell connectivity: At its core, AT&T is a network company. Its main job until now has been to sell you access to communications, such as phone or Internet service. These services act as conduits to the information or media you can find once you're hooked as a subscriber.
Sell content: On top of selling you the network, companies such as AT&T increasingly want to sell you the content that travels over those networks — including shows like “Game of Thrones” or “Westworld.”
Sell advertising: This is the big one. Advertising, particularly of the targeted variety, forms the cornerstone of the entire Internet economy. And Internet providers want a big slice of it.
Sell your data: A company, such as AT&T, could put your data to work for its own advertising business. But it could also benefit by sharing your data with marketing firms and other third parties who can use that information themselves.

Comcast could have its eye on as much as 30 Megahertz of wireless licenses in the upcoming federal incentive spectrum auctions, based on a line item buried in its third quarter financial statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In its most recent 10-Q filing with the SEC, Comcast revealed it made a $1.8 billion deposit, that many analysts believe point to its further participation in the incentive auction. The item was under the heading “Investment Activities” in the 10-Q.

While the company offered no explanation in the document just what that deposit was for, investors noted the timing and the requirement that bidders in the formal auction submit a deposit before being allowed to bid. Deposits were due July 1, meaning that they would show up in Q2 or Q3 reports. Based on the size of the deposit, several analysts determined that Comcast could bid for roughly 30 Megahertz of wireless spectrum. That is higher than previous estimates that Comcast would bid for between 10 MHz and 20 MHz of spectrum. AT&T and T-Mobile also made deposits $2.4 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively, which would make them eligible to bid on about 40 MHz each. Dish Network, which already owns about 40 MHz of mid-band spectrum, hasn’t reported yet.

The final week of Donald Trump's campaign for president has turned into a question of "will he? or won't he?" like some kind of sitcom romance. The week of Oct 24, it was reported that Trump only donated $31,000 of his own money to his campaign in early October. (By comparison, rival Hillary Clinton shelled out $50,000 of her own cash.) To show them who's boss, he wired $10 million to his campaign that very same day to buy more ad time.

But is it too little too late? Local markets have been consistently reporting that Trump isn't spending what they expected him to, even when compared to previous election cycles. Perhaps that's because he's waiting until the last minute to book ad time, or that his campaign has been more focused on damage control, or maybe it's the free media he garners from his rallies, which just got a shot in the arm from the FBI. Whatever the reasons, according to Strata, a Comcast-owned ad-tech software firm that processes $50 billion in ad transactions a year, many political agencies don't believe he'll ramp up the ad spend.