Analysis: What A Potential Time Warner/AT&T Deal Could Mean For The Adult Animation Industry

Coming to the plate.

Now that the Disney-FOX transaction is currently in escrow, we’ve got another huge deal on the horizon that’s already experiencing some of the same headaches that Disney is going to face in 2018. That being AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner. Like Comcast,  AT&T is another communications conglomerate looking to get a bunch of original content. In this case, AT&T could be acquiring HBO, TBS, TNT, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and CNN along with a 10% piece of Hulu for a crazy price of $108 billion. The DoJ is looking to sue to make this not happen, and there’s a court case in March to see what goes down. As part of the deal, the Turner Networks may be spun off, but that could cause the deal to fall through altogether because AT&T wants to own the networks that have Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty, and Anderson Cooper.

So let’s say this transaction goes through, then what about all of the killer cartoons that are on all of the aforementioned networks. Well, they could be in trouble. Here’s a best case/worst case scenario for all of them.

Best Case

AT&T getting Turner Networks would be a huge pipeline to cash for content production. This is important for the animation business because Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, TBS, and sometimes truTV all feature original animation content that employs a bunch of producers, actors, staff, etc. What this transaction COULD mean is the growth of original animation in the vein of Verizon’s go90 network. A Youtube alternative that features free content that is actually paid for by a company unlike the freebie version of Youtube.

I don’t foresee a Disney-like skew on content, AT&T could give two shits less, though Comcast hasn’t exactly been a player in adult animation neither, but maybe this is where AT&T feels like it’s target buyers, 18+, are gonna be and would probably relish the opportunity to advertise new devices, TV packages, content, and more until their eyes turn blue.

Worst Case

Either the deal doesn’t go through, OR, Turner Networks has to spin-off in order to make the deal happen as per regulatory concerns. Doing this would slash budgets for content across the board.

Ok, let’s pretend the deal goes through anyway and Turner Networks is part of the deal. There’s still a big thing we’ve got to worry about. Net Neutrality. With Net Neutrality officially being repealed by the FCC this could give cause for concern for viewers. In theory, AT&T could stream new episodes of Rick and Morty first to AT&T customers with the best possible internet or TV service, then they could turn around and wait a week for Verizon customers, and also cause AdultSwim.com to load slow as fuck on Comcast users.

Anyone every tries watching anything on an AT&T network? All of a sudden, you may want to rethink your cord-cutting options so as to get both value and a palatable experience in TV watching.