Comcast-Time Warner Cable Reported Merger Collapse Hailed as ‘Victory’ by Experts

After the Comcast news broke, the reactions started coming in:

• “It’s a line in the sand about how big big can be,” NPR TV critic Eric Deggans said. “This was too big; It made a lot of people that would normally not care or be supportive, it made even them think twice.” Deggans hinted that the outcome may have been different in an alternate political climate: “Who knows, if after 2016 we have a different party controlling the White House, how something like this would be perceived?”
• Syracuse University Director of Media Studies Robert Thompson, isn’t fretting over the death of the deal. Comcast was already too big, he says.
• “It’s a victory to not have a media company that is that enormous,” he said. “I’m still of the old-fashioned belief that these really huge media empires bring in all kinds of problems,” he continued. “Comcast was already the No. 1 cable and broadband provider in the country … the idea of Comcast and Time Warner really gives them an enormous amount of control in programming and distribution.”