One company to rule them all? AT&T basically now owns everything except your soul



From this article from the New York Post, AT&T pretty much controls most of everything related to Internet, cell phones, media and other:







"Earlier this week, a judge decided the fate of the AT&T-Time Warner deal, and the result was a big thumbs-up in the general direction of capitalism. The $85 billion deal has closed, Time Warner has officially been assimilated into AT&T (and renamed Warner Media), and there’s almost zero chance that anything will stop it now.
With the closing of the deal, AT&T is now far more than just a telecom company. It owns dozens of brands, as well as the rights to some of the most popular shows on TV. It has dozens of cable channels, and if the worst fears about programming disputes play out, AT&T could black those channels out from your pay TV provider during a dispute. In no particular order, here are some of the big brands AT&T now owns.

HBO

Arguably the biggest single name AT&T just acquired. Owns the rights to shows like “Westworld,” “Game of Thrones,” “Veep,” “Last Week Tonight” and “Silicon Valley.” Also has first-run distribution rights (the first people to air a movie after it leaves theaters) with companies like Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Universal and Dreamworks. It also owns the Cinemax cable channel, which runs feature-length films from some of those distributors.

TBS

Cable channel owned by Turner, and in turn (heh) by AT&T. Airs popular shows like “Conan,” “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” “Friends,” “Family Guy,” “New Girl” and “2 Broke Girls.”

CNN

Another subsidiary of Turner, CNN … well, you all know what CNN is and what it does. Outside of HBO, it’s probably the most recognizable brand that AT&T acquired in this, and certainly its biggest cable channel. Between CNN, TBS and HBO, AT&T has more than enough content to offer cheap streaming bundles to the masses.

Turner

Turner Broadcasting System, as it’s fully known, owns a bunch of cable channels and some websites that flesh out the rest of AT&T’s cable content. Channels include CNN, Boomerang, TBS, TNT, Turner Classic Movies and Cartoon Network. Through Turner Sports, it also owns websites like Bleacher Report, NBA.com, PGA.com, NCAA.com and NBA TV.

DC Entertainment

DC Entertainment is a subdivision of Warner Bros. that deserves its own mention just for the sheer amount of stuff it has under its umbrella. DC Comics, the comic book producer, is under the umbrella, as is DC Films, which makes movies based on those comic characters. Some of the characters it has the rights to include Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Aquaman. Batman is part of the same universe, as a character of Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros is one of the “big six” movie studios and owns some of the most successful movie franchises in history. “The Dark Knight” trilogy, Harry Potter, The “Matrix” trilogy, “Inception,” “Suicide Squad” and “The Hangover” all came out of Warner Bros.

New Line Cinema

Warner Bros also owns New Line Cinema, a studio best known for the “Lord of the Rings” and “Hobbit” trilogy. It also has smaller hits like “Rush Hour,” “Wedding Crashers” and “Sex and the City” to its name.

The rest of AT&T

That’s just the major brands that AT&T acquired — it also has its own collection of household names that it’s owned forever. AT&T Wireless is the cell carrier, U-verse is its cable TV offering, DirecTV is a satellite broadcaster it also owns, as well as dozens of regional cable and phone companies — almost anything with the name “Bell” in it. Bizarrely, the list also includes the Yellow Pages and yellowpages.com."


Comments