Mediagazer: Comcast, Time Warner Deal to Spark Regulatory Debate, Outcome Uncertain (Wall Street Journal)

10:35 AM ET, February 13, 2014

Top News:

Time Warner Cable To Merge With Comcast Corporation To Create A World-Class Technology And Media Company — Strategic Combination Will Accelerate Delivery of Comcast's Technologically Advanced Products and Services to Time Warner Cable's Customers — Transaction Creates Multiple Pro-Consumer …

Discussion: CNBC, DealBook, Reuters, Re/code, VentureBeat, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, Digits, Guardian, The New Yorker Blog, Gigaom, Washington Post, Variety, GeekWire, Gizmodo, WebProNews, @comcast, @jordanbks, ZDNet, USA Today, Electronista, @stevejohnsonmsu, @jolingkent, @zackseward, BBC, Bloomberg, BGR and The Next Web

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Comcast claims competition from Google Fiber, Netflix & Hulu are reasons to approve merger — The $45.2-billion Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger sure is good for the two cable companies, who were already the #1 and #2 cable providers in the U.S. and will now have about 30 million customers combined.

Discussion: Vanity Fair, @notsalome, @agolis and @gigaom

Bloomberg:

Comcast Agrees to Buy Time Warner Cable for $45.2 Billion — Comcast Corp. agreed to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. for $45.2 billion, combining the two largest U.S. cable companies in an all-stock transaction. — Investors of New York-based Time Warner Cable will receive 2.875 new Comcast stock …

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Time Warner Cable CEO Sells Company a Month Into Term: ‘This Transaction Seems Very Natural to Me’ — Rob Marcus isn't getting to spend much time as the boss of Time Warner Cable. His first major action, barely a month into his term, is presiding over the company's sale to Comcast.

Discussion: @edmundlee

Om Malik / Gigaom:

Comcast and Time Warner Cable: Forget TV, it is all about broadband — If it is allowed to gobble up its number two rival, Time Warner Cable, Philadelphia-based Comcast will become the largest broadband provider in the United States, and perhaps the largest outside China.

Wall Street Journal:
Comcast, Time Warner Deal to Spark Regulatory Debate, Outcome Uncertain

Discussion: @brkend, Re/code and @wsjd

Peter Weber / The Week:
There's no way Comcast will buy Time Warner Cable

Discussion: Fast Company, Mediawire Daily, UPROXX and DealBook

Bloomberg:

Apple Said to Plan New Set-Top Box Amid Time Warner Cable Talks — Apple Inc. (AAPL) is planning to introduce a new Apple TV set-top box as early as April and is negotiating with Time Warner Cable Inc. and other potential partners to add video content, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Wall Street Journal:
Apple TV's scaled-back plans would rely on cable providers to acquire programming rights

Discussion: @wsjd and Law Blog

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

NBC executives tout Oympics gains, acknowledge critiques, study for 2016 — The chairman of NBC Sports, Mark Lazarus, remains adamant that timeshifting and subsequently cutting down the Sochi Olympic opening ceremonies was a good idea. — “I continue to believe, having now been in the stadium …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and @mikenizza

Chris Gayomali / Fast Company:

The Death Of The Spoiler Alert? — ESPN, TWITTER, AND A HOST OF OTHER COMPANIES SEEM INCREASINGLY UNCONCERNED WITH RUINING THE OUTCOME OF THE GAMES FOR VIEWERS—AND THEY SEE IT AS A GOOD THING. — Sochi, Russia's largest resort city, sits in the shadow of the Caucasus Mountains, 5,178 miles away from New York.

Discussion: @kpfallon, @niemanlab and USA Today

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

The Guardian signs seven-figure deal to build on ‘shared values’ and provide branded content for Unilever — Guardian News and Media has signed a seven-figure deal to provide branded content for household goods giant Unilever. — It is the first deal for the new Guardian Labs division …

Discussion: Guardian, @whatthebit, @niemanlab, @raju, @loismcewan and GNM press office

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

FCC Backs Off Study of Newsroom Editorial Practices — The Federal Communications Commission is quietly changing course on a controversial study after parts of the methodology were roundly criticized by GOP lawmakers and commissioner Ajit Pai for encroaching into editorial decisions and content at TV stations.

Kim Willsher / Guardian:

Libération editor resigns after journalists go on strike — Nicolas Demorand was embroiled in row with newsroom staff over shareholders' vision for future of French leftwing paper — The editor of France's Libération daily newspaper has resigned, saying after journalists went on strike …

Discussion: Guardian and @jayrosen_nyu

Bloomberg:

Buffett in Talks to Exit Stake in Graham Holdings — Warren Buffett is in talks to exit his $1.1 billion investment in Graham Holdings Co. (GHC), the former publisher of the Washington Post, after owning the stock for more than four decades. — Graham may swap assets including a business …

Discussion: Slate, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, @bbgbillionaires, @raju and Fortune

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

How Larry Kramer Will More Than Double USA Today's Circulation This Year (Exclusive) — MarketWatch founder Larry Kramer surprised the media world when he agreed to take over USA Today as president and publisher two years ago. — Leading Gannett's legacy print behemoth with a “digital first” …

Discussion: @vivianschiller, @ckrewson and @npenzenstadler

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BBC World Service's sponsored content plan will ‘threaten impartiality’ — National Union of Journalists insists scheme to introduce a limited amount of advertising in April will devalue the brand — The BBC's plan to introduce advertising and sponsorship to the World Service from April …

Hu Yong / Nieman Reports:

China's market-oriented media face a precarious future — Two-thousand-and-three was a milestone year for investigative journalism in China. Some media organizations had been transformed from Communist Party propaganda tools into market-oriented news outlets.

Yang Xiao / Nieman Reports:
Are the linguistic tricks Chinese journalists use to express their opinions just another form of self-censorship?

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

Loek Essers / PC World:

No authorisation required for hyperlinks to copyright works, CJEU says — The owner of a website does not require authorisation of the copyright holder to link to freely accessible copyright works on another site, even if Internet users get the impression that the work is appearing on the site …

Discussion: Digits

Jack Shafer:

The new Medicis funding journalism — Neil Barsky, a former Wall Street money manager, became the latest Medici of journalism this week when he hired Bill Keller, former executive editor of the New York Times, to head his new non-profit journalism enterprise, the Marshall Project.

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, @nytfridge, @nbj914 and Columbia Journalism Review

David Sirota / PandoDaily:

PBS station WNET financed “Pension Peril” series with $3.5M donation from Arnold Foundation — The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS's news division — On December 18th, the Public Broadcasting Service's flagship station WNET issued …

Discussion: PandoDaily, @johnarnoldfndtn, THIRTEEN, The Raw Story, Felix Salmon, @billmon1, @davidcayj, @davidsirota, @harveyjkaye and @froomkin

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Media Standards Trust updates its “churnalism” tools — The U.K.'s Media Standards Trust has released an updated version of Churnalism, its tool to identify news stories that are thin rewrites (or outright cut-and-paste copies) of press releases. In addition to a revamped website …

Discussion: @niemanlab and Media Standards Trust