Free Republic

AT&T says it will receive an $43 billion in a combination of cash and debt ===================================================================== AT&T said Monday the U.S. telecommunication giant has reached a deal to combine its content unit, WarnerMedia, with Discovery, an agreement that would help the major Hollywood studios compete with such rivals as Netflix and Disney. AT&T says it will receive an $43 billion in a combination of cash, debt and WarnerMedia’s retention of certain debt, according to CNBC. The deal, if approved by regulators, effectively reverses AT&T’s years-long plan to combine content and distribution in a vertically integrated company. The deal would create...

Concerned about Republican inroads into the Hispanic community, congressional Democrats are trying to fend off a proposed merger between Univision Communications Inc. and the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation.clip The merger would place Jerry Perenchio, Univision's billionaire CEO and a registered Republican, at the helm of a corporation owning 65 Spanish-language radio stations. The closest competitor, Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), has 27 stations.clip"If the Univision merger is approved, there may be less diverse programming, news sources, and viewpoints available to Spanish-speaking audiences," Daschle wrote. "This could significantly impact public debate and lead to less local and community-oriented programming." Several weeks earlier, eight...

Concerned about Republican inroads into the Hispanic community, congressional Democrats are trying to fend off a proposed merger between Univision Communications Inc. and the Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation. More than 20 Democratic senators and representatives -- including Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) -- have urged Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell to block the planned corporate marriage between the two entities, which would create the nation's largest Spanish-language radio and TV company . . .