I get that it’s a busy time of year for a lot of y’all. Moving kids into their dorms is a big and emotional deal. One last summer fling for those with later timetables is a priority. And, of course, specultating on what in tarnation is going on in the poor frazzled mind of Natalie Harp is everyone’s business now.
Understandably, you might have missed a pretty big story that became official Thursday. As a public service, allow me to bring you up to speed, courtesy of DEADLINE’s Dade Hayes:
Charter Communications said Thursday it has closed its $34.5 billion acquisition of Cox Communications, creating a new cable and broadband giant.
The combined company will have 37 million subscribers to video, internet and wireless services, with the Spectrum brand to be available in 45 states in the U.S. starting in September. While the two companies didn’t compete directly prior to the merger due to geographic and regulatory restrictions, they were rivals in the overall market-share battle for pay-TV and broadband subscribers. Along with the Cox deal, Charter also has consummated its plan to acquire Liberty Broadband. The deal is a transfer of assets controlled by media billionaire John Malone, whose many corporate affiliations include serving as chairman of Liberty Broadband.
Those are some pretty big numbers and it effectively combines the second and third most prolific MVPDs under one very co-mingled roof to now take the crown away from Comcast on at least the count of broadband, cable and intenet subscribers. THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Georg Szalai gave further context as to exactly how incestuous this combination will become on the corporate infrastructure circuit:
Within a year following the transaction’s close, the firm will change its parent company name to Cox Communications but will continue to operate as Spectrum across all markets. The company will remain headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, keeping “a significant presence” in Atlanta.
And, of course, the victor who has emerged with the spoils was obliged to release a reassuring statement which Szalai also provided to his readers:
“The addition of Cox to the Spectrum footprint is one that can be celebrated by customers, employees and investors alike,” said Chris Winfrey, Charter president and CEO. “Together, we will bring the best products, at the best price, coupled with the highest level of customer service to more customers across our expanded 45-state Spectrum footprint. And Cox employees will soon have access to all the programs and benefits that have made Charter an employer of choice where its 100 percent U.S.-based employees can build long-term careers.”
Funny how we have seen exceptionally similar rhetoric being espoused by Winfrey’s and their PR teams’ equivalents in the wake of announced mergers of Nexstar and Tegna and Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery. Personally, I thought tossing in the jingo-istic coda of “U.S.-based employees” was a masterstroke. But since Charter and Cox have no significant ties or espoused political leanings that attract the outsized attention of attorneys general, union leaders or elitist media journalists eager to give both pulpits to bitch from, this hasn’t gotten quite as much amplification or discussion as those other intended Transformers-like coming togethers to take on their larger respective competitors and, of course, the big bad overlord of AI.
Might be because Charter is based in suburban Connecticut and Cox in Atlanta, not exactly the sexiest media markets and on the surface having nothing to do with SoCal. But that’s not entirely true as any red-blooded Dodger fan in Angel, Padre and Athletic territory will you, as will the LOS ANGELES TIMES’ savvy veteran Meg James:
By mid-September, customers of the Atlanta-based Cox will see their packages shift to Spectrum. But Charter is giving its new subscribers in Santa Barbara, Palos Verdes, Orange County, San Diego and Las Vegas a treat beginning this weekend: turning on SportsNet LA, the Dodgers-owned channel and ending one of the longest TV sports blackouts ever. Cox had long refused to carry the TV channel, citing the Dodgers’ high license fees. So customers with Cox service have been unable to watch most of the team’s regular season baseball games for more than a decade.
And at least at the moment the number of actual jobs being lost as a result of this is relatively modest, as FINAL ROUND AI’s Kaustubh Saini confirmed earlier this week:
Charter Communications eliminated approximately 1,200 corporate management positions, first reported by The Wall Street Journal on October 21, 2025. The cuts represent just over 1% of Charter’s total workforce of 95,000 employees and are concentrated in back-office and corporate functions at Stamford, Connecticut and other corporate locations.
But it’s not like Charter has as many other arrows in its quiver as, say, its now number two subscription competitor, Comcast. And based on its track record of diversifying business opportunities I can’t be all that optimistic that any will materialize any time soon. I had a front-row seat for the ill-fated effort they attempted with Sony willingly playing along as they have over the years with other marketplace insurgents that introduced L.A.’S FINEST and resurrected MAD ABOUT YOU with a patchwork quilt of markets and footprints that our team needed to fill in far more gaps that anticipated. If nothing else, the management of that Spectrum Originals effort ingratitated themselves enough with the Sony brass to wind up having them hire them to run their division just as Charter’s patience had worn out. The Charter management isn’t even biting at the chance to fully take over Sportsnet LA which was reportedly offered to them earlier this week by the Dodgers’ financially beleaguered and potentially imprisonable CEO Mark Walter. They made their bed with Cox, and now they are going to have to lie in it.
So one does not need to consult Polymarket or Kalshi to predict how this ballgame gets played out over time. Redundancies will become more obvious, and AI will become more attractive to its shareholders. Just like they already have to the aforementioned mega media companies, not to mention Scripps and for that matter Cox, which owns a handful of still-significant ABC affiliates in corporately visible markets like Atlanta, Charlotte and Orlando. A lot more than 1200 jobs will be lost and yeah, a goodly number will be California-based.
Tell us, Rob Bonta and Leticia James, was this not a politically charged enough hill for you to die on to even offer some sort of observation on? Really, media watchdogs, you’re paying legal researchers time and a half to file orders to stymie Perry Sook’s quest of Tegna but this asset combination didn’t even merit a footnote? Janice Lin and Richard Rushfield–you didn’t cancel your networking lunches to drag your carcasses into your podcast space and hurriedly cobble together a podcast to give those mentioned above yet another soundbite to saberrattle off of? It wouldn’t have anything at all to do with the fact that in the case of Charter and Cox there’s no obvious connection to the octogenarian asshole who the tortured Ms. Harp is servicing below the waist either by fellating or changing adult diapers–perhaps both?
Look, I’m by no means in favor of any of these mergers since I know way too well the actual human cost involved. My timeline is flooded with such lamenting realities. I tend to be more sanguine than reactionary because I also know way too well that when the numbers scream action is needed they speak way louder than any grandstanding aspirant for higher office ever can or will. The Charter-Cox combo bodes to be as ultimately impactful on the industry such purportedly concerned folks claim to want to “save”. So why didn’t more of y’all at least give it equal billing to those other stories that perhaps mirror your own personal POVs on what you think actually matters? Hmmm?
The next time you run into one of them at a Beverly Hills bistro or maybe your college-age kids’ dorm, you might at least wanna ask.
Until next time…