Rand Paul: Without Media Monopolies, I'm For AT&T-Time Warner Merger

Sen. Rand Paul is in favor of the proposed merger between cable giants Time Warner and AT&T, telling Newsmax TV Wednesday he's a capitalist — but first he wants to see the end of monopolies in the industry.

"I'm kind of a capitalist. I think as long as there is no government favoritism, I'm not against mergers," Paul told host J.D. Hayworth on "Newsmax Prime."

"I will say that in cable television, one of the problems is that government monopolies, particularly local government monopolies, are granted to companies. So what I would say is if big companies want to merge, I would let that happen."

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Paul said he would like to see more competition at the local level because it would benefit consumers.

"I would also let local competition happen by saying, and the cable companies might not like this, I would probably allow as many companies that wanted to have their own cable run under New York City," he said.

"I'd let them all put cable down. Instead of one or two choices, you might have 10 cable companies. I think that'd be better for the consumer, better for the marketplace, but right now we have not necessarily a real free market because we have local monopolies guaranteed by government and then we have this question of mergers."

President-elect Donald Trump is against the deal, reportedly telling a friend it would concentrate too much power in the industry.

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