Time Warner Cable is the largest cable operator in Dallas and No. 2 in the U.S. It earned over $2 billion in profit last year. Yet it keeps accepting offers from merger partners, first Comcast and now Charter Communications. Why the push to merge? Online upstarts are disrupting the business model, and phone companies are grabbing market share. Add one more incentive: The biggest player gets better deals for programming. All this pressures the industry to consolidate, cut costs and boost investment in broadband service, a segment in which cable operators still enjoy competitive advantages. Regulators may not balk at a Charter-Time Warner merger because it’s smaller than the Comcast deal. And...
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