Reject AT&T merger with Time Warner Takeover would be wildly anti-competitive: Opposing view

Michael Copps | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption U.S. Justice dept. sues to block AT&T bid for Time Warner The U.S. Department of Justice sued AT&T on Monday to block its $85.4 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc, saying the deal could raise prices for rivals and pay-TV subscribers. Video provided by Reuters

Recent news reports indicate the Justice Department has threatened to derail AT&T’s attempted purchase of Time Warner. President Trump so dislikes CNN’s coverage of his administration that he apparently wants to compel Time Warner to spin off the cable news network or face legal uncertainty.

To be clear, if true, these reports mark yet another low in Trump’s ongoing war on the freedom of the press. Outrage at Trump’s attacks on the free flow of information are appropriate and timely. But we should not lose track of the fact that AT&T’s takeover of Time Warner, with or without CNN, would be wildly anti-competitive.

For too long, companies have sought vertical combinations because of purported pro-consumer synergies that never materialize.

OUR VIEW: Opposition to AT&T deal smacks of politics

Regulators, for their part, have largely looked the other way and ignored any potential anti-consumer impact of vertical integration. Meanwhile, the public interest suffered.

Marrying content and carriage creates online gatekeepers with all the wrong incentives. AT&T would have the incentive and ability to slow down or preclude access to online video services that rival HBO Now. Worse yet, would post-merger AT&T muzzle John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on HBO? Would the satirist still be able to lampoon poor AT&T service, or champion strong network neutrality protections — which AT&T opposes? Would they prevent him from criticizing Trump?

The problems here go much deeper than late night television. In 2011, the government allowed Comcast to absorb NBCUniversal in another “harmless” vertical merger (a deal that I opposed). Afterwards, Comcast was caught discriminating against rival cable channels and slowing down rival online video services. All the while, America tumbled down global broadband rankings. So much for “synergies.”

Simply put, marrying medium and message has a sorry track record. The Justice Department ought to reject this merger, but for reasons grounded in law, not political score settling.

Michael Copps, a member of the Federal Communications Commission from 2001 to 2011, is a special adviser for Common Cause . At the FCC, he cast the lone dissent against the Comcast-NBCUniversal merger.​

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