(Reuters) – Twelve percent of subscribers would quit their cable or satellite companies if Time Warner Inc’s (TWX.N) Turner networks were no longer available, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology marketing professor said on Thursday.
John Hauser, who teaches marketing, was the fourth witness to be called by the U.S. Justice Department in its lawsuit to block telecommunications company AT&T’s (T.N) $85 billion deal to buy Time Warner.
Rigdon also noted that he did not expect AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner to affect Comcast. “I don’t have any reason to believe that it will impact my relations with Turner,” he said.
In cross-examination of Hauser, Peter Barbur noted that Warren Schlichting, group president of Dish’s Sling TV, testified on Tuesday that 30,000, or 0.25 percent, of its subscribers dropped Dish when Turner programming went dark for about a month in 2014.
Barbur, who represents Time Warner, also said that Cable One provided testimony that it lost less than 1 percent of subscribers when Turner’s networks went down for about a month in 2013.
“Instead of looking at real world data on blackouts, you were retained to do a survey,” Barbur said.
Hauser said that without knowing the entire scenario of those situations, it was hard to say why the results differed from his findings. “I believe my numbers are accurate,” he said.
The trial, which is taking place in the U.S. District Court in Washington, is expected to take six to eight weeks.
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