What Does The Time Warner Buyout Mean For You?

On Thursday morning, it was announced Comcast is acquiring Time Warner Cable in a $45.2 billion deal. The deal will merge the nation's two largest American cable operators. Comcast is said to be offering $158.82 per share to Time Warner shareholders, significantly higher than the rival bidder, Charter, which offered around $130 per share. In order to get the deal past the close scrutiny of antitrust legislators, Comcast has agreed to offload 3 million subscribers, which would bring the total number of customers for the combined company to 30 million. This would keep the market share at just under 30 percent.

This is the point at which you could start thinking, "That's an awful lot of numbers, and why should I care?" Well, if you're counting down the days until the new season of Orange is the New Black, you'll want to pay attention to this deal. Here's the good and bad of the buyout...

Good: YOUR CABLE EXPERIENCE WON'T CHANGE MUCH

Comcast and Time Warner Cable don't compete in any markets, so when it comes to choosing a cable TV provider you'll still have the same amount of options as you had before.

The merger allows Comcast to get in on the advertising action in New York and Los Angeles, with the added bonus of Time Warner Cable's regional sports networks in LA.

Bad: BEWARE, NETFLIX ADDICTS...

...and Hulu fanatics, and YouTube devotees, and Internet porn aficionados and gaming enthusiasts. There is one major drawback of this deal. Time Warner Cable customers currently enjoy unlimited broadband access. Comcast users, on the other hand, are subject to a cap.

The likelihood is that this cap will carry over, meaning if you love to stream TV shows or movies, or if you have a lot of people connecting several devices, your bill will probably get more expensive. If you're on a low-tiered bandwidth plan you'll probably have to upgrade, and if you're already on the highest plan there is then you'll face pricey overage fees if you exceed the cap.

Images: Orange is the New Black, flo-robot/tumblr