What the AT&T and Time Warner deal will mean for you

AT&T's proposed acquisition of Time Warner (TWX) is premised on speed -- a need to keep up with consumer expectations and media industry changes.
With the addition of Time Warner, "we can move much, much faster to bring our customers unique experiences in the world of mobility and the world of TV," AT&T (T, Tech30) CEO Randall Stephenson says.
Stephenson acknowledges, however, that the $85 billion deal will require a lengthy review by Washington regulators. The two companies are anticipating an approval by the end of 2017.
For AT&T customers, nothing will change right away. Wireless service won't cost more or less as a direct result of the deal.
But in the next few years, AT&T anticipates major changes in the ways we connect to and consume media, and it wants to be at the forefront of them. It wants to introduce new ways to watch TV and access news coverage. And it wants to persuade wireless customers to pay for a cable-like bundle of channels without the need for a cable cord.
"Ultimately, we think we'll be competing head to head with the cable companies with a wireless offer," Stephenson said. "We can hit those kind of price points, combine it with this kind of content, we think this is exciting."
AT&T is also looking to take on the cable companies in delivering broadband. And it is on this front that the company may be able to argue to regulators that it is going to deliver real benefits to consumers. Broadband in the U.S. is slow and expensive, especially compared to other countries, partly due to lack of competition. AT&T has big plans to bring innovative new wireless solutions to market.
Related: Why Wall Street doesn't like the AT&T - Time Warner deal
AT&T had already been charting this course before the talks with Time Warner turned into the deal that was announced on Saturday. It views Comcast (CMCSA), the country's biggest cable provider and the owner of NBCUniversal's channels, as a top competitor.
Other distributor rivals include Charter and Dish, and other giants competing for ad dollars and attention spans include Facebook and Google.
So the logic goes like this: Owning HBO, CNN, Warner Bros., and Time Warner's other assets will give AT&T a stronger hand in shaping the future of media.
It could, for instance, use the control it will have over Time Warner to start building a new, more seamless, way to consume media.
Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has long promoted "TV Everywhere," an idea that people should be able to pay once for a bundle of TV channels and then watch anywhere, anytime, on any device.
Imagine, for instance, that you're watching last night's episode of "Veep" on your TV as you get ready for work. You need to walk downstairs to make coffee, but you don't want to stop watching, so you get your iPad, hit a button, and it picks up exactly where you were. Then, when you're ready to leave the house, the show moves right to your phone -- or to the screen in your self-driving car.
Cable companies would love to do this with shows from every network. But the adoption of this idea has been stymied by disagreements between channel owners like Time Warner and distributors like Comcast. If the channel owner is itself owned by the distributor, it will have a very difficult -- if not impossible -- time saying no.
The deal could also eventually make AT&T's wireless, broadband and cable offerings more attractive to consumers. Stephenson has been talking about "unique" experiences for AT&T customers -- social media integrations, "curated content," and other things to be invented later.
AT&T will almost certainly not do something like make HBO exclusive to its cable customers -- regulators likely wouldn't allow that, and even if they did, it wouldn't make business sense for HBO to stop selling itself to other distributors. (Appearing on CNBC, Stephenson called the idea of witholding channels from competitors like Comcast "nonsensical" and "crazy.")
But it could, for instance, make new episodes of "Game of Thrones" avail