Media Bureau Opens Docket for AT&T Buy of DirecTV, with AT&T Public Interest Statement on the Way
The FCC Media Bureau opened docket 14-90 on AT&T’s proposed buy of DirecTV. As part of the transaction, AT&T plans to divest its interest in America Movil, a Mexican telecom company, the bureau said in a public notice (http://bit.ly/1n6tWEc). When the applications are filed, “we will issue a separate public notice announcing that fact and setting forth a pleading schedule,” it said. The bureau also released the joint protective order in the docket. The procedures adopted in the joint protective order give appropriate access to the public “while protecting competitively sensitive information from improper disclosure,” it said (http://bit.ly/1n6xtSU).
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AT&T is expected to release its final public interest statement this week. Its initial concessions include a three-year net neutrality commitment, expanding high-speed broadband service in mostly rural areas, and offering DirecTV stand-alone video packages for three years at a consistent price nationwide (CD May 20 p1). The FCC would probably ask for additional commitments related to what AT&T has already offered, said J.G. Harrington, a telecom and cable lawyer at Cooley. The expansion of broadband buildout “coincides with FCC priorities and would be an easy ask for the FCC to make,” he said.
The commission also will look at the requests of competitors and public interest groups in the proceeding to see if there’s something that, from the FCC’s perspective, will be advancing its goals and addressing specific concerns,” Harrington said. Where people do see some significant potential competitive issues, the FCC “will try to get a sense of what relief is going to make sense from the perspective of addressing those competitive questions,” he said.
One concern would be DirecTV’s willingness to support private cable operations by wholesaling its video platform to multiple dwelling units (MDUs) and those companies that provide multichannel video services along with Internet access and interconnected VoIP services to these MDUs, said Thomas Dougherty, a broadcast and transactional attorney at Fletcher Heald. DirecTV will be incented to exit this wholesale market to join with the U-Verse platform in serving these dwellings in areas where AT&T is the incumbent local exchange carrier, he said in an e-mail. As a result, Dish Network “may have a de facto monopoly in the supply of this essential input for private cable, which can be expected to result in higher prices for the private cable consumer,” he said.