| Profitable. The cable, just like telcom has been a ZERO LOSS business since "DAY ONE"! Its just PERCEPTION that there are actual losses in the industry, or some really bad accounting FRAUD (a-la MCI). They don't need a bailout, just access to each other's markets. Verizon has entered about 6+ more markets than they had at the beginning of their merger to become Verizon, most notably in the mid-west and south USA. The cable industry has been one big country club since its inception, gouging the consumer all the way through while reaping the benefits of LOW taxation and extremely favorable franchise monopoly status. Even with marketshare loss to satellite (not going over 25% at any point, even with two satellite companies vying for those dollars) they still reaped profits.
... against this backdrop,
Exactly who is talking bailiout here??
Yes, telco might eat enough marketshare to inevitably lead to cable consolidation, mostly thanks to the AT&T merger, but this will take 8-12 years to get into fruition, and the majority of that marketshare will be Verizon's not AT&T's. No other telco is that aggressive to get Video franchises or overcome all obstables to market deployment. For all the rhetoric, the very industries these companies represent will blur in the next 8 years, the next timeline to look for is when analogue video dies for broadcast. We will see wireless carriers making big moves on wimax/3rd generation wireless by then (February, 2009). |
