![]() ![]() If the deal goes through, which most observers expect, Roberts will own, by conservative estimates, 35% of the nation’s broadband Internet connections, and that’s after the company divests a few million users as part of the merger. In February, Roberts made a $45 billion bid to buy Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second biggest cable company. But Roberts’ real trump card is that he owns more of the physical infrastructure-the high-speed digital wires capable of streaming online video to people’s homes-than anyone else in America, and he’s making a play to control even more. His company is already the largest cable outfit in America and the owner of the television behemoth NBCUniversal, with the lucrative rights to broadcast hundreds of live sports events every year. What he didn’t say was that he is poised to dominate that new world, however it evolves. People, he said, will watch TV where they want it, when they want it-and it won’t be through an old box in their living room but through smartphones and tablets and any number of slick new screens hooked up to the Internet. Americans today are streaming video on more devices than we thought possible “24 months ago, even 12 months ago,” and that’s not changing anytime soon. After settling before the audience, Roberts described the revolution that he expects will remake his company in the coming years.
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