• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, February 18, 2014

Just days after Valentine’s Day, Comcast and Time Warner Cable are still letting consumers, content providers and marketers bask in the red glow of their announced merger.

Will the love continue? Just wait for the first blackout of a broadcast or cable network to see where the chips fall. If that doesn’t make hearts flutter, what about the next big TV-provider deal?Many TV executives say there is little worry about such mega-media consolidations.  CBS and others shrug their shoulders because they still own valuable content.

Remember CBS’ battle with Time Warner Cable last August? It affected 11 million subscribers.  Could CBS or any network stand up to a blackout that would affect three times the number of subscribers -- 33 million -- under a combined Comcast-Time Warner?

If that doesn’t give executives pause, what about ruminating over the next big TV-provider deal? Over the last several years DirecTV, now with some 20 million customers, has mulled merging with Dish Network and its 14 million subscribers. Federal regulators put the kibosh on this way back in 2001.

To many, satellite TV providers are at a disadvantage to cable operators who have the growing businesses of broadband and phone to even out the ups -- and, now mostly downs -- of their video businesses.

A merger of the two biggest satellite companies thus makes even more sense than the bigger and broader Comcast-Time Warner deal – and now might be viewed more favorably in light of it.

This would result in two major TV providers, one cable and one satellite, and each with around 33 million subcribers. Together Comcast-Time Warner and Direct TV-Dish would have a 50% share of the 112 million U.S. TV homes and a 66% share of the 100 million pay TV homes.

How would consumers, content owners, and marketers feel about that? We wait to see the love.