Washington — At&T’s John Stankey, who will be in charge of the unit overseeing Warner Bros., HBO and Turner networks if the Time Warner merger goes through, took the stand at the antitrust trial and gave what was certainly the irreverent quote of the day.
“I don’t like Comcast,” he said on Wednesday, adding, “I’m not going to cooperate with someone I don’t like.”
At&T-Time Warner’s lead counsel, Daniel Petrocelli, had asked Stankey about one of the government’s arguments for blocking the $85 billion merger. That is the possibility that they will coordinate with another media giant, Comcast-NBCUniversal, to undermine emerging online multichannel services like Dish’s Sling and Google’s YouTube TV.
His point was that At&T already has had a number of disputes with Comcast or, as Stankey said, “We do battle with them all the time.”
Stankey has been tasked...
“I don’t like Comcast,” he said on Wednesday, adding, “I’m not going to cooperate with someone I don’t like.”
At&T-Time Warner’s lead counsel, Daniel Petrocelli, had asked Stankey about one of the government’s arguments for blocking the $85 billion merger. That is the possibility that they will coordinate with another media giant, Comcast-NBCUniversal, to undermine emerging online multichannel services like Dish’s Sling and Google’s YouTube TV.
His point was that At&T already has had a number of disputes with Comcast or, as Stankey said, “We do battle with them all the time.”
Stankey has been tasked...
- 4/19/2018
- by Ted Johnson
- Variety Film + TV
Washington — Turner Networks CEO John Martin, testifying in the At&T-Time Warner antitrust trial on Wednesday, highlighted a key argument for the merger: The threat coming from Google and Facebook for advertising dollars.
“We are not even playing in the same arena,” Martin said under cross-examination from Daniel Petrocelli, the lead counsel for the two companies.
His point was that Google and Facebook have gained a foothold on the type of targeted advertising that sponsors crave, but that Turner networks was still selling spots based on broad demographic information and dayparts.
“We’re a wholesaler, sort of stuck in the middle,” Martin said. “We don’t know who our viewers are.”
At&T, with its information on usage by mobile and satellite subscribers, “would give us a tremendous head start” in building a data-driven ad model.
He said that this was especially important as Turner tries to reduce the number of ads it runs,...
“We are not even playing in the same arena,” Martin said under cross-examination from Daniel Petrocelli, the lead counsel for the two companies.
His point was that Google and Facebook have gained a foothold on the type of targeted advertising that sponsors crave, but that Turner networks was still selling spots based on broad demographic information and dayparts.
“We’re a wholesaler, sort of stuck in the middle,” Martin said. “We don’t know who our viewers are.”
At&T, with its information on usage by mobile and satellite subscribers, “would give us a tremendous head start” in building a data-driven ad model.
He said that this was especially important as Turner tries to reduce the number of ads it runs,...
- 3/29/2018
- by Ted Johnson
- Variety Film + TV
Washington — Turner Networks CEO John Martin was on the stand again in the At&T-Time Warner antitrust trial, and was at one point grilled about a 2015 email in which he wrote that Dish’s new Sling TV service would be “crap” without the Turner channels.
The Justice Department is trying to show that Turner networks are such “must have” channels that At&T-Time Warner will be able to demand onerous fees from rivals, and ultimately drive up the cost to consumers. Without the Turner networks, the Justice Department says, rival distributors would face the loss of subscribers.
Martin wrote the email to Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes on Jan. 6, 2015, and he was making a point about the soon-to-be-launched virtual Mvpd service. The attorney for the Justice Department, Eric Welsh, said that the term that Martin used actually was a profanity.
But Martin said that at the time, he thought...
The Justice Department is trying to show that Turner networks are such “must have” channels that At&T-Time Warner will be able to demand onerous fees from rivals, and ultimately drive up the cost to consumers. Without the Turner networks, the Justice Department says, rival distributors would face the loss of subscribers.
Martin wrote the email to Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes on Jan. 6, 2015, and he was making a point about the soon-to-be-launched virtual Mvpd service. The attorney for the Justice Department, Eric Welsh, said that the term that Martin used actually was a profanity.
But Martin said that at the time, he thought...
- 3/28/2018
- by Ted Johnson
- Variety Film + TV
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