This and other questions explored as cable industry looks to keep consolidation on track
Charter Communications Inc. is buying Time Warner Cable Inc. for $55.3 billion and Bright House Networks for $10.4 billion. It is the latest in a series of deals that have reshaped the cable industry.
Q: WHAT IS DRIVING THE DEALS IN THE CABLE INDUSTRY?
A: Cable companies are bulking up to survive as the number of cable and satellite TV subscribers slips — more consumers are "cutting the cord" — and competition from streaming video rises, thanks to rivals such as Netflix Inc. They also must fight TV channels over the cost of programming.
Q: WHAT HAS ALREADY CHANGED?
A: Verizon's FiOS TV service is trying smaller, customizable TV bundles. HBO has launched an online version of its content, HBO Now, that doesn't require a cable TV subscription.
Q. WILL CHARTER SUCCEED WHERE COMCAST FAILED?
A. Consumer advocates fiercely opposed Comcast Corp.'s $45 billion takeover bid for Time Warner Cable, which would have married the nation's two biggest cable providers with a media powerhouse, Comcast's NBCUniversal. Regulators worried that the combination would be too dominant in high-speed Internet service and might undermine the streaming-video industry that is changing TV viewing.
Charter's tie-up with Time Warner Cable and Bright House still isn't as big as Comcast by itself. And it doesn't own a big entertainment company like NBCUniversal.
Q. WHAT OTHER DEALS ARE OUT THERE?
A. France's Altice S.A., which was reportedly also interested in Time Warner Cable, last week bought a controlling stake in Suddenlink Communications. And AT&T, long synonymous with phones but now a provider of TV and Internet service too, is paying $48.5 billion for satellite TV company DirecTV, which competes with the cable guys.
Jennifer Kent On Why Her Feature Directing Debut, “The Babadook,” Continues To Haunt Us
"The Babadook," when it was released 10 years ago, didn't seem to portend a cultural sensation.
It was the first film by a little-known Australian filmmaker, Jennifer Kent. It had that strange name. On opening weekend, it played in two theaters.
But with time, the long shadows of "The Babadook" continued to envelop moviegoers. Its rerelease this weekend in theaters, a decade later, is less of a reminder of a sleeper 2014 indie hit than it is a chance to revisit a horror milestone that continues to cast a dark spell.
Not many small-budget, first-feature films can be fairly said to have shifted cinema but Kent's directorial debut may be one of them. It was at the nexus of that much-debated term "elevated horror." But regardless of that label, it helped kicked off a wave of challenging, filmmaker-driven genre movies like "It Follows," "Get Out" and "Hereditary."
Kent, 55, has watched all of this — and those many "Babadook" memes — unfold over the years with a mix of elation and confusion. Her film was inspired in part by the death of her father, and its horror elements likewise arise out of the suppression of emotions. A single mother (Essie Davis) is struggling with raising her young son (Noah Wiseman) years after the tragic death of her husband. A figure from a pop-up children's book begins to appear. As things grow more intense, his name is drawn out in three chilling syllables — "Bah-Bah-Doooook" — an incantation of unprocessed grief.
Kent recently spoke from her native Australia to reflect on the origins and continuing life of "The Babadook."
Q: Given that you didn't set out to in any way "change" horror, how have you regarded the unique afterlife of "The... Read More