Here’s what the $56 billion Charter and Time Warner Cable merger is really about

[Commentary] The proposed $56.7 billion marriage of Charter Communications and Time Warner Cable is all about broadband. People are watching less TV as they increasingly stream video from online services like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon. So the companies that for years have made money through TV subscriptions are battling over the pipes that you depend on for streaming video online. If the merger is approved by regulators, the new company, which would be made up of Charter, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks -- the last of which Charter said in March it would acquire for more than $10 billion -- would become the second largest cable company in the country, just after Comcast. And the new company would control nearly 30 percent of the US broadband market, according to MoffettNathanson, a media and telecommunications research firm.

Because there's little real competition in broadband, cable companies could simply raise the price of that subscription to offset any revenue declines they have from people cutting the cord. As Zachary Seward of Quartz points out, broadband Internet is a major growth area for cable companies, and the Charter-Time Warner merger would be a way to capitalize on that. And you'd likely have no other choice than to pay up.