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Cable television
有線電視
The 61 billion proposal
耗資610億的提案
The latest plot twists in a continuing television drama
電視連續劇中最新的情節突轉
SPURNED suitors usually nurse the wounds of rejection quietly.
令人唾棄的起訴者通常悄然的治愈拒絕的傷口。
Not in the cable-television industry. Having unsuccessfully approached Time Warner Cable twice last year, Charter Communications, a rival American cable operator, has gone public with a new proposal.
這并不是在電纜電視行業。美國有線電視運營商的競爭對手Charter通訊，兩次試圖接近時代華納有線公司都未能成功，現在又有一個新的提案已經上市。
On January 14th Charter announced a bid valuing TWC at 61 billion including debt, offering 132.50 ashare compared with the 95 or so they were fetching early last June, when rumours of its approach emerged.
1月14日charter宣布為時代華納有限公司估價610億，提供一個份額132.50美元相比于原來的95美元高出許多。早在去年六月這些做法就流傳出來了。
Charter's boss, Tom Rutledge, wrote a public letter to Robert Marcus, the boss of TWC, beseeching him to consider the offer, and held a conference call to seek shareholders' backing for the bid.
Charter的老板湯姆?拉特里奇寫了一封公開信給TWC的老板羅伯特馬庫斯，求他考慮該提案，并舉行了電話會議，以尋求股東的支持。
TWC's executives are playing hard to get: they want a higher price, and vow not to let Charter steal the company.
TWC的高管們欲擒故縱，他們希望得到更高的價格，并發誓決不讓charter公司竊取。
For those who have been following this cable drama, it has been a question of when, not if, the industry would consolidate.
對于那些一直在遵循這種電纜劇的人來說，一直有個有關行業鞏固的時間問題，而不是是否的問題。
TWC isAmerica's second-largest cable operator by subscribers, after Comcast, and Charter is the fourth-largest.
TWC是繼康卡斯特后的美國第二大有線電視運營商，而charter排名第四位。
John Malone, one of the industry's pioneers, whose company, Liberty Media, is Charter's biggest shareholder, is among many in the business calling for mergers.
行業的先驅之一—約翰馬龍，他的公司自有媒體是行業最大的股東，也是眾多的業務中要求兼并的公司之一。
This would help cable firms fend off competition from satellite operators, phone companies and streaming services like Netflix, which are poaching their customers for internet service and for films and TV shows.
這將幫助有線電視公司抵御來自衛星運營商，電話公司和如Netflix的流媒體服務等互聯網服務對他們客戶的偷獵和對電視電影節目的競爭。
Besides letting them cut costs—Charter reckons a merger with TWC could save at least 500ma year—scale would also give cable operators more clout when negotiating with content providers over the rates they have to pay to carry their channels.
除了讓他們削減成本，charter打算與TWC合并每年可以節省至少5億，而且在于提供商洽談必須支付的渠道費率時也使有線運營商更有底氣。
Last year TWC got into a fight with CBS over its fees, which led to a blackout of CBS channels for a month until the two reached agreement.
去年TWC與CBS戰斗而花費了過多的費用，這導致CBS頻道停擺了一個多月，直到兩方協議達成。
TWC lost more than 300,000 customers during the third quarter, many of them as a result of this spat.
TWC在第三季度失去了超過30萬客戶，其中不乏是因為這種爭吵而出現的結果。
With its latest proposal judged still inadequate, Charter will have to decide whether to offer more.
其最新的提案也有不足之處，charter將不得不決定是否要提供更多。
Other cable firms, such as Comcast, may enter the fray, offering to buy all or part of TWC.
其他的有線電視公司，如comcast公司，可能會加入戰斗，提供購買TWC所需的全部或部分資金。
Pay-television is not a growth business for cable operators, so they must become more creative to increase sales.
付費電視并不是有線電視運營商增長業務的方式，所以他們想要增加銷售必須變得更有創意。
One area of experimentation is to offer broadband along with a light television package, as several cable providers are doing in certain markets, to appeal to wallet-wise youngsters.
實驗的一個方面是提供寬帶伴隨著光的電視包裝，幾個有線運營商正在做某些市場，以吸引錢包鼓鼓的青少年。
Others are selling metered broadband, with the cost tied to usage.
其他正在銷售的計量寬帶，花費和使用成本緊緊相連。
Cable firms and other internet providers may soon be free to try even more radical experiments with pricing.
有線電視公司和其他互聯網服務供應商們可能很快可以嘗試更為激進的實驗與定價。
On January 14th an appeals court struck down federal rules that required them to treat all internet traffic equally—a policy called net neutrality.
1月14日上訴法院推翻了一個名為網絡中立的聯邦規則，這個政策要求他們對待所有互聯網流量相等。
If the court's ruling prevails, this would let cable firms and other internet providers start demanding payment from bandwidth-hungry suppliers of video, such as Netflix, for speedy delivery to viewers.
如果以法院的判決為準，這將讓有線電視公司和其他互聯網服務供應商開始要求高寬帶視頻用戶，如Netflix快速傳達給觀眾。
Besides giving cable firms a juicy new source of income, this could curb the expansion of an increasingly powerful group of competitors for providing packages of video content.
除了給電纜公司提供收入的新來源，這可能遏制日益強大的集團競爭對手擴張提供視頻內容。
The cable firms could also favour video sites in which they had an interest: for example, Comcast part-owns Hulu, a rival to Netflix.
電纜公司也可能對視頻網站感興趣，例如，Netflix的競爭對手hulu—他們有用comcast的部分股權。
As any fan knows, cable-TV dramas tend to be long-running and full of plot twists.
由于任何人都知道，電纜電視劇往往是長時間運行而又情節曲折，
This one will probably be no different. Stay tuned.
這其中可能會沒什么不同。敬請關注。
