AT&T’s massive $85 billion deal to acquire Time Warner has generated plenty of attention in the press, and it will have to weather a lot of scrutiny from federal regulators before it becomes official. Many have compared the deal to Comcast’s acquisition of NBCUniversal, a deal which seems to have been good for the financial health of both companies, but has produced little of note for consumers. That’s led to speculation that this deal is a vanity project for telecom executives, a way to diversify the business that doesn’t actually have any meaningful synergies to exploit.

But there is one very clear opportunity for these two companies to work together: building a streaming video service that offers an alternative to traditional cable…

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