Time Warner CEO calls the government’s case against AT&T ‘ridiculous’

Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes denied that AT&T will raise the price of TV channels such as CNN and TBS as a result of the two companies' $85 billion merger, calling the Justice Department's landmark case to block the deal "ridiculous."  "I think it's ridiculous," he said. "It's not how this works." Testifying in federal court, Bewkes alleged that the tech industry — propelled by Amazon, Facebook, Google and Netflix — have dealt a "double-whammy" to his business, and that Silicon Valley poses a greater threat to Time Warner's survival than AT&T and Time Warner pose to other TV providers, such as Comcast or Cox Communications. The source of the tech industry's power, said Bewkes, can be traced to online alternatives to the cable bundle that wield user data and convenience as potent weapons in the war for consumer attention. Services such as Netflix have peeled consumers away from cable TV, reducing the revenue Time Warner receives from cable subscribers, said Bewkes. Yet at the same time, companies such as Google have put pressure on Time Warner's other major source of revenue — advertising — as those tech platforms have turned their troves of customer information into multi-billion-dollar data businesses that marketers find more effective than traditional TV ads.