Internet subscribers outnumber Cable subscribers

[Smokey]

It had to happen sometime, but the cable guys probably didn’t expect it to happen so soon.

The top U.S. cable companies now claim 49.915 million broadband subscribers compared with 49.910 million cable TV subscribers. That marks the first time that broadband subscribers have outnumbered pay TV subscribers at the country’s cable providers.

17 largest cable and telephone companies in the U.S account for 85.9 million subscribers.

The top cable companies account for about 50.7 million of the subscribers and the top phone companies get about 35.2 million of the total. Comcast with 21.27 million total broadband subscribers has a substantial lead on second-place Time Warner Cable which has about 12 million total broadband subscribers.

AT&T notched about 16.5 million broadband subscribers in the second quarter and Verizon Communications claimed just over 9 million.

If the Comcast merger with Time Warner Cable is approved, more than 33 million broadband subscribers (more than 37% of all broadband subscribers) will be controlled by one company.

Cable Company Broadband Subscribers Now Outnumber Pay TV Subscribers - Comcast Corp (NASDAQ:CMCSA) - 24/7 Wall St. (http://247wallst.com/media/2014/08/15/cable-company-broadband-subscribers-now-outnumber-pay-tv-subscribers/)

[Sir Terrence the Terrible]

With the Comcast/Warner merger, it is not specifically about the amount of Broadband consumers it has, it is about controlling 1/3 of the broadband consumers, 1/3 of the cable customers, a studio, and major sway in negotiations with companies like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and HBO to carry programming over their infrastructure. IMO, that is the dangerous part of this transaction, as a broadband company alone would not have this kind of power.

If this merger is approved, I guarantee you the consumer will lose big time, and prices most certainly will go up on all products offered by Comcast. Not only that, but customer services will definitely get worse(if that is possible), and you will see a whole lot more blackouts of programmer as content is held hostage from other cable companies.

[Smokey]

If this merger is approved, I guarantee you the consumer will lose big time, and prices most certainly will go up on all products offered by Comcast. Not only that, but customer services will definitely get worse(if that is possible), and you will see a whole lot more blackouts of programmer as content is held hostage from other cable companies.

You must have a crystal ball as your predictions are coming true. The monopoly of two cable giants against little guys already started.

In Wilson, North Carolina, and Chattanooga, Tennessee where cities created their own municipal broadband network of high speed internet, USTelecom which represents cable giants Comcast and Time Warner is lobbying state government and FCC To Block High-Speed Internet Expansion by the city.

Cable Companies Calling On FCC To Block High-Speed Internet Expansion (http://www.inquisitr.com/1442649/cable-companies-calling-on-fcc-to-block-high-speed-internet-expansion/)