Industry consolidation was on the minds of analysts as quarterly earnings reports progressed last week, and some of the top executives in the media industry gave thoughtful responses to how they would be affected if cable operators and satellite companies get bigger and more powerful by merging. While distributors saw merit in possible combinations, the biggest content companies averred they will do just fine in a bulked-up environment. "This is probably the most robust year we've ever seen from a distribution perspective, meaning the number of outlets that are available to us and to other content owners to distribute their product has grown significantly, and pretty significantly in some cases," said Disney CEO Bob Iger, pointing specifically to Netflix on his company's earnings call. "We feel that some consolidation among cable owners, if that occurs, is going to have no impact whatsoever on our business because there are so many buyers in the marketplace.
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