Satellite mogul Charlie Ergen said he doesn’t “see anything positive” for pay TV rivals in the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger.
“There’s nothing that I can see that’s positive about it for anybody in the video or broadband or content business,” Ergen said on a conference call Friday to discuss earnings for his Dish Network.
Tom Cullen, a Dish executive vice president, also called the merger, which will create a cable behemoth with 30 million subscribers, “extremely concerning.”
Still, both executives said they have yet to take a final position on the deal.
Despite fears that the $45 billion hook-up will create a “seismic shift” in the Internet and TV industry, Ergen also predicted it could lead to similarly large deals in the satellite pay-TV business.
“I would say it certainly doesn’t hurt the case for consolidation within the satellite providers,” he said.
Dish reported fourth quarter profit of 63 cents a share, up 37 percent from last year. The pay-TV company added 8,000 net new subscribers in the quarter, down from 14,000 last year.