Here we go again. Another two media companies have decided that they can’t live with being less successful than Netflix, and so they’re merging together in hopes of creating a larger competitor. This time, the jealous parties are AT&T and Discovery, which announced plans for a $43 billion merger on Monday morning. If regulators approve, the deal would effectively undo AT&T’s previous mega-merger with Time Warner in 2018, creating a new standalone company that pools WarnerMedia’s entertainment assets—including HBO Max and cable channels like CNN—with those of Discovery. AT&T CEO John Stankey said the goal is to create “one of the leading global direct-to-consumer streaming platforms.” Never mind that Discovery’s existing streaming efforts have been going pretty well, racking up 15 million subscribers since Discovery+ launched in early January with favorites like Deadliest Catch and Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives . And never mind that HBO Max has been enjoying a growth spurt as well, with a combined 63.9 million HBO and HBO Max subscribers in the United States, up from 53.8 million a year ago. If you really want to compete with Netflix, these companies seem to say, you’ve got to be even bigger. Unfortunately for us, that probably translates more bloated TV services at higher prices. We’ve been down this road before, and it always ends the same way. TV mergers and price hikes: A brief history For an example of how big media company mergers lead to higher prices, we need only look to Viacom’s merger with CBS in 2019
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AT&T’s WarnerMedia merger with Discovery could mean higher prices for you