Its really difficult to look at the wire, wireless, and cellular platforms and limit their platforms to a single business. No longer are they just a cable franchise or telephone company or cell phone business. Through triple plays and mergers, the industry has been shrinking steadily. AT&T wants DirecTv, Charter wants Time Warner Cable, Verizon wants AOL, and today, Dish Network wants T-Mobile.
It is a changing media environment that requires companies to envision the future and lead their companies toward it. It is no longer an analog world; a new digital cloud that encompasses all types of communication, voice, video, audio, and data. And the revenue that is derived from it is no longer digital pennies but actual dollars. Subscription revenue, advertising revenue, storage revenue, e-commerce revenue, and more are the bounty that awaits the companies that successfully transform to match the growing demand.
Is the Dish - T-Mobile merger a good move? If it can create more cost efficiencies, drive more users, and deliver a greater share of the market, then it will be a smart decision. If it fails to capitalize, it will get lost in the shuffle. But consolidation is not over. In fact, it is only beginning.
