AT&T/DirecTV Approval Speculation Mounts
Government approval of AT&T/DirecTV is close but precise timing appears to be a guessing game, our conversations with sources indicated Wednesday. The transaction "should be done before too long," emailed Public Knowledge CEO Gene Kimmelman. Reuters reported Tuesday that the Department of Justice completed its review of AT&T/DirecTV and is waiting for the FCC to conclude its review, which could come "as soon as next week." An industry official involved in the proceeding said, "I'd be surprised if it gets done next week, given that the item hasn't circulated [among FCC commissioners] and they'll have to review and approve a lengthy order." New Street Research analysts, who also said DOJ had signed off on the transaction, recently told investors in a research note that they believed final approval could come the week of July 6 but was more likely to come the week of July 13 or 20 (see 1506290061).
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AT&T urged the FCC to approve the deal, which it said would deliver benefits to tens of millions of consumers, said an ex parte filing in docket 14-90 on the company's latest discussions with commission officials, which previously had generally been done in concert with DirecTV officials. "Clearly, the FCC is negotiating directly with AT&T" about potential conditions, said one attorney involved in the proceeding. An AT&T spokeswoman had no comment.
Critics of the deal continue to emerge and weigh in, as enTouch Systems, a self-described "Houston-area quad player," called on the FCC to impose conditions to address problems it's encountering in negotiating program access to Root Sports Southwest, a regional sports network (RSN) owned by AT&T and DirecTV. "Due to the fact that my company provides robust head-to-head video competition to both AT&T U-verse and DirecTV and the fact that the RSN has granted a most favored nation (MFN) clause to another [multichannel video programming distributor] in the market, the RSN is now demanding discriminatory and above fair market value rates from enTouch and its customers," enTouch's CEO J Lyn Findley said. American Cable Association Senior Vice President Ross Lieberman, whose group counts enTouch as a member, told us that "it’s shocking that AT&T-DirecTV, just weeks away from having their deal approved, would be so aggressive in their negotiations that they would leave a smaller cable operator feeling it had no choice but to make its complaint public and risk getting treated even worse in retaliation."
Cogent continued to urge the FCC to impose an interconnection condition even though it recently signed an IP interconnection agreement with AT&T, an ex parte filing from the first company indicated.