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US: Turner CEO calls Gov “Clueless” about AT&T-Time Warner merger

By  |  February 14, 2018

Turner CEO John Martin thinks his future bosses at AT&T have some work to do.  The telecommunications giants “have let us down,” Martin on Tuesday, February 13, told attendees at the Code Media conference in Huntington Beach, California. When asked if he meant AT&T, which is in the process of acquiring Turner parent company Time Warner, the exec responded, “I have DirecTV. I live in Beverly Hills. It’s not that good. They have not innovated quickly enough.”

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    Martin’s point was that the legacy media companies need to focus on the customer experience as much as on the content they are producing. By the time they catch up to Netflix and other streaming video providers, he added, “nobody is going to be watching anymore because they’re all going to be on the non-advertising supported platforms.”

    Martin was joined onstage by A+E Networks chief Nancy Dubuc, who fielded questions about the Amazon Studios chief job and Vice Media. Together, they discussed the impact of media consolidation on their businesses, and Martin expressed frustration about the lengthy regulatory approval process for AT&T’s proposed $85 billion deal.

    “I think the government is clueless,” he said, explaining that the Department of Justice should be more concerned about stopping Facebook and Google from growing too large. “It’s a massive misallocation of resources and capital to fight this thing. They’re going to lose.”

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