I see a connection between today’s ruling giving the go ahead for the AT&T/Time Warner merger and yesterday’s official end to net neutrality.
While the decisions themselves were unrelated, the results could be very connected when you consider that AT&T, which is a major broadband, mobile and TV provider, will now own a major content conglomerate with brands including HBO, Warner Brothers and TBS.
One of the big concerns of net neutrality advocates is the fear that ISPs could discriminate for or against certain content providers and now AT&T is both an ISP and a content provider. At first it will probably seem very pro-consumer, such as exempting certain content from data caps or making sure your HBO stream is lightning fast. But could it have some negative long-term implications such as favoring T-W content over competing content or even slowing down competing content.
I should add that Comcast — also a major broadband provider — owns NBC/Universal and that Verizon is snapping up content companies as well so we’re seeing the merger of distributors and content companies across the board.