AT&T CEO Says Time Warner Deal Not About Raising Prices
October 25 2016 - 2:14PM
Dow Jones News
By Deepa Seetharaman
LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- AT&T Inc. will launch a $35-a-month
"mobile-centric" video service next month, Chief Executive Randall
Stephenson said Tuesday, pointing to it as an example of how prices
won't rise as a result of the carrier's $85.4 billion deal to buy
Time Warner Inc.
The upcoming over-the-top video service is part of the carrier's
effort to access cord-cutters, which is the rationale for the deal,
said Mr. Stephenson, speaking at the WSJDLive conference in Laguna
Beach, Calif. along with Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff
Bewkes.
"If there was ever an environment that was begging for
innovation, it was this environment," Mr. Stephenson said. Mr.
Bewkes added: "We would say and we've been saying it since 1995,
every channel in the country should look like HBO or Netflix --
there's no reason we can't."
The two executives played down concerns that the merger wouldn't
get regulatory approval. The deal faces possible opposition from
U.S. antitrust authorities and objections by lawmakers as well as
media and telecom rivals.
Tuesday, Mr. Stephenson said he wasn't surprised by the concerns
and described them as "uninformed comments." He pointed to the
upcoming $35-a-month service, which will have more than 100 premium
channels. "That's not a medium for raising prices," he said.
"Anybody who characterizes this as a means to raise prices is
ignoring the basic premise of what we're trying to do here," he
said.
AT&T reached an agreement to buy Time Warner for $85.4
billion last week in a deal that would transform the phone company
into a media giant that produces and distributes content. It will
unite AT&T's millions of pay-TV and wireless customers with
Time Warner's stable of media properties, including the prized HBO
premium network, cable networks TBS and TNT, and the Warner Bros.
film and TV studio.
Tuesday, Mr. Stephenson said Time Warner's strategy to
distribute its content "widely and broadly" would continue under
AT&T.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 25, 2016 14:59 ET (18:59 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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