Ownership

Google Fiber showed new life in 2017, after a near death experience in late 2016. The fiber internet pioneer launched in three new cities—Huntsville (AL), Louisville (KY), and San Antonio (TX)—in 2017. It also began to heavily rely on shallow trenching, a new method of laying cables, to expedite the construction process.

Democrats are ramping up their attacks on major corporate mergers after a series of mega-deals from corporate giants.  But Democrats aren’t just taking aim at the behemoth deals themselves: they’re looking at the specific government policies that permit them. Sen Elizabeth Warren
 (D-MA) on directly attacked the Chicago school of economics — the principles that have significantly influenced how federal regulators evaluate mergers.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai has rewritten the rules of the information age so thoroughly that there's no mode of communication under his control where the rules aren't looser than they were a year ago. Here's a look at what he's done.

Using data on the prices paid by multichannel video programing distributors (“MVPDs”) for basic cable networks, Ford conducts a retrospective analysis of the price effects of the Comcast-NBCU merger. Estimates from both the difference-in-differences and lagged-dependent variable models indicate no systematic increase in the prices for Comcast’s networks following the merger, including general interest programming, news channels, and national and regional sports networks. Programming costs, however, exert a potent influence on affiliate prices, with full pass through in many cases.

On March 19, AT&T and the Justice Department are expected to head to court to decide the future of Time Warner in what could be a historic legal showdown over a massive $85 billion merger. The timing of the trial could put AT&T in an uncomfortable position as it seeks to buy up one of the world's most valuable media and entertainment conglomerates, known for popular TV channels such as CNN and hit film franchises like the “Harry Potter” series.

What's President Trump hearing when he watches Fox News? He's hearing that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is "illegitimate and corrupt." That it's led by a "band of merry Trump-haters" who are trying to reverse the results of the election. And that it must be stopped. He's also hearing that the FBI is becoming "America's secret police," akin to the KGB in Russia, full of "sickness" and "corruption." These are all actual quotes from some of the president's favorite pro-Trump talk shows. The overarching message from "Fox & Friends" and "Hannity" is unmistakable: Mr.

AT&T’s bid to buy Time Warner is blurring some of the ideological lines that usually split free-market conservatives from liberal skeptics of big business. On the left, some Democratic US senators who questioned the deal earlier have avoided addressing the issue since the Justice Department sued to stop the $85 billion combination. State attorneys general who joined a similar campaign against Comcast’s 2011 takeover of NBCUniversal have likewise sat out the latest government effort to thwart corporate concentration, at least for now.

Scorching criticism of internet service providers over their stance on net neutrality for much of 2017 hasn’t hurt their standing with US consumers — though some weren’t that popular to begin with. For Comcast, there was practically nowhere to go but up. Thirty-two percent of respondents had a very or somewhat favorable view of Comcast the day Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced his repeal plans; 26 percent had an unfavorable opinion. By Nov.

Free Press, United Church of Christ, and the almost half dozen others who are challenging the Federal Communications Commission's decision to reinstate the UHF discount, have told a federal court that nothing in the arguments from the government and broadcasters has changed the relevant facts.  That came in its reply brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.