More Media Consolidation In The Offing

So says Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen…she sees consolidation in distribution, even as new players like phone companies begin to compete with cable operators in offering Internet, television and voice services. “There will be three to five large distributors … there’s roughly four or five large content companies, and lots of other players,” Cohen told the Reuters Media Summit in New York.
Within the cable segment, Comcast and Time Warner Cable are likely to dominate, and the remaining players will be much smaller and possibly controlled by private investors, she said.