US telecoms and Trump: media frenzy

Having been elected president, Donald Trump’s ambitions to become a media mogul appear to have been deferred indefinitely. Instead, he will have to settle for the opportunity to reshape the entire telecoms playing field.

As quickly as technology has evolved in the Obama era, displaced market leaders have tried to use their heft to keep up. But they had to contend with a Justice Department and Federal Communications Commission that became sceptical of a laisser-faire attitude to increased market concentration. While President-elect Trump has railed against corporate power, a rally in shares of cable television and broadband providers suggests he will let companies decide for themselves what services they will provide to consumers and at what cost.