Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

This Is What The Comcast-Time Warner Deal Does To Cable TV (It's Appalling)

If you aren't already horrified by Comcast's recent $45 billion buyout of rival provider Time Warner Cable, you should be.

As you can see from the chart below, a merger would mean Comcast would control more than half of all American cable subscribers.
Originally posted on Reddit, the data comes from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the trade association for the cable industry.

Pre-buyout cable landscape:
comcast before

Post-buyout quasi-monopoly:
comcast after

According to some experts, this majority could mean slower speeds and fewer good choices on streaming services like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Because Comcastconsiders Netflix a competitor, the company doesn't have any reason to put effort into remedying congestion and the slow speeds it produces on these streaming services. A company as big as the one in the graph above might also pressure content providers not to offer their shows to its competitors, leaving us with fewer good choices when we fire up our streaming services.
And of course, a company that doesn't have to work for millions of new subscribers may not be that interested in lowering prices. Some predict prices will inevitably rise for consumers if the merger goes through.
Good luck binge-watching House Of Cards, America.
Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author:  The Huffington Post  | by  Kevin Short

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