PBS高端访谈:AT&T和时代华纳的合并对消费者意味着什么?

Judy Woodruff: The Department of Justice announced it is suing to block a mega-merger¹ between media giants AT&T and Time Warner, a deal initially² valued at $85 billion. It is the first major antitrust case taken up by the Trump³ administration. Lisa Desjardins has the story.

Lisa Desjardins: The Justice Department said this merger would have harmed consumers. AT&T fired back and said it will challenge the government's move in court. Some observers have openly wondered if the decision is influenced by the president's continuing battle with CNN, which is owned by Time Warner. A short time ago, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said he didn't know if CNN played into the decision, but it was an open question. David Shepardson of Reuters has been covering this story, and he joins me now. David, wow, what a story. Let's start with these two companies. At their core, they don't compete. They're related businesses. But why is DOJ arguing that they violate antitrust laws?

David Shepardson: So, you're right. These typical vertical⁴ mergers⁵, companies which don't directly overlap⁶, generally, those go through. But in this case, the Justice Department is saying that the combined company will have too much power. AT&T owns DirecTV, a big pay TV subscriber⁷. It obviously owns mobile phones. And it would be able to use that content to charge its rival distributors, like Comcast, hundreds of millions of dollars more per year, as well as pass those costs on to consumers. So the big argument is going to be, will a judge buy that a larger, vertically⁸ consolidated⁹ company poses a threat, or is it a better competitor to new companies like Netflix and Amazon?

Lisa Desjardins: AT&T fired out a very fiery¹⁰ statement. They call this a radical¹¹ and inexplicable¹² departure in the law. Is this unprecedented¹³ as far as the Justice Department goes? And what is AT&T saying in response?

David Shepardson: So, it is not unprecedented, but it's been about 50 years since the government took a vertical merger to court. And, certainly, by comparison, in 2011, the Obama administration allowed Comcast to acquire NBC Universal, a similar vertical merger. But a lot has changed. There are serious concerns about the -- will companies get too large, have too much market power? But, on the other hand, AT&T says, look, this is settled law. If you look at the marketplace, given all the competitors, people are more limited in the ability to raise prices in this competitive marketplace. They deny the government's allegations. But it goes back to the central question about whether then candidate Donald Trump's opposition¹⁴ to the merger and his criticism of CNN were a factor in this decision.

Lisa Desjardins: You keep bringing up vertical merger. And I know a lot of folks will be hearing that.

David Shepardson: Right.

Lisa Desjardins: But let's talk about the scope of these two companies, what they own.

David Shepardson: Sure.

Lisa Desjardins: They have massive influence in U.S. and global life. And can you talk about why they wanted to get together in the first place and what the effect would be if they did?

David Shepardson: Right. You're absolutely right. This is a huge company. Beyond DirecTV and AT&T's mobile service, Time Warner owns HBO, TNT, CNN, a lot of -- a studio, big assets that make a lot of content. And so AT&T's argument has been to compete with Facebook and Google, the companies that are getting huge control of the advertising¹⁵ market on the Internet, that they need to be able to use the data from these three different companies in order to compete with these other rivals. So, you know, their argument is, we have to get bigger in order to compete. And the government's argument is, if you allow them to get this big, they will be able to deny that content to a rival, and you can only get HBO potentially on DirecTV vs. Comcast, if they didn't agree to pay higher prices.

Lisa Desjardins: Right. You hit on this, so I want to get at what this would mean for consumers. This might be oversimplifying. But, to me, it's almost as if Wal-Mart wanted to buy like LEGOs, a huge product, two big companies, and they wanted to try and control that market. How would this affect consumers who, say, get their entertainment not through Time Warner, through Comcast or another company?

David Shepardson: Right. So, by your analogy, what would typically happen, and what happened in Comcast, NBC Universal is the Justice Department asked for behavioral conditions. That is, the company -- Comcast had to agree not to treat how it used that content differently than other companies, other rival distributors. And, in fact, AT&T had raised questions about that in 2011. So, you know, the difference is here the government is not seeking a behavioral condition, but rather to sell off certain assets. They asked AT&T to either sell off DirecTV or Turner Broadcasting, which includes CNN, so to get smaller, rather than agree to behavioral changes.

Lisa Desjardins: We don't want you to have that opportunity to affect those marketplaces.

David Shepardson: Right.

Lisa Desjardins: Quickly -- I'm sorry to make this a short question -- but can you talk about the CNN factor here and the timing¹⁶ of that?

David Shepardson: Sure. Well, just last week, President Trump was again criticizing CNN. As you know, as a candidate in 2016, President -- then candidate Trump said he wouldn't allow the merger to go through. Since then, he's not directly commented on it, but AT&T is clearly going to make whether the president exercised influence over the Justice Department as a result of his anger with CNN as part of the case. That's really an open question whether a judge will agree.

Lisa Desjardins: David Shepardson, what a case, at Reuters. Thank you for joining us.

David Shepardson: Thank you.

1 merger   

n.企业合并，并吞

参考例句：

• Acceptance of the offer is the first step to a merger.对这项提议的赞同是合并的第一步。
• Shareholders will be voting on the merger of the companies.股东们将投票表决公司合并问题。

2 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 vertical   

adj.垂直的，顶点的，纵向的；n.垂直物，垂直的位置

参考例句：

• The northern side of the mountain is almost vertical.这座山的北坡几乎是垂直的。
• Vertical air motions are not measured by this system.垂直气流的运动不用这种系统来测量。

5 mergers   

n.（两个公司的）合并( merger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Mergers fall into three categories: horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate. 合并分为以下三种：横向合并，纵向合并和混合合并。 来自辞典例句
• Many recent mergers are concentrated within specific industries, particularly in retailing, airlines and communications. 现代许多合并企业集中进行某些特定业务，在零售业、民航和通讯业中更是如此。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

6 overlap   

v.重叠，与…交叠；n.重叠

参考例句：

• The overlap between the jacket and the trousers is not good.夹克和裤子重叠的部分不好看。
• Tiles overlap each other.屋瓦相互叠盖。

7 subscriber   

n.用户，订户；（慈善机关等的）定期捐款者；预约者；签署者

参考例句：

• The subscriber to a government loan has got higher interest than savings. 公债认购者获得高于储蓄的利息。 来自辞典例句
• Who is the subscriber of that motto? 谁是那条座右铭的签字者？ 来自辞典例句

8 vertically   

adv.垂直地

参考例句：

• Line the pages for the graph both horizontally and vertically.在这几页上同时画上横线和竖线，以便制作图表。
• The human brain is divided vertically down the middle into two hemispheres.人脑从中央垂直地分为两半球。

9 consolidated   

a.联合的

参考例句：

• With this new movie he has consolidated his position as the country's leading director. 他新执导的影片巩固了他作为全国最佳导演的地位。
• Those two banks have consolidated and formed a single large bank. 那两家银行已合并成一家大银行。

10 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

11 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

12 inexplicable   

adj.无法解释的，难理解的

参考例句：

• It is now inexplicable how that development was misinterpreted.当时对这一事态发展的错误理解究竟是怎么产生的，现在已经无法说清楚了。
• There are many things which are inexplicable by science.有很多事科学还无法解释。

13 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

14 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

15 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

16 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。