"I'm skeptical of huge media mergers because they can lead to higher costs, fewer choices, and even worse service for consumers," Sen. Al Franken said in a statement, | Getty $85 billion AT&T purchase of Time Warner sparks political controversy

An $85.4 billion merger between AT&T and Time Warner, two of the country’s biggest communications companies, is set to become a political battleground for the next U.S. president given the size and scope of the deal.

AT&T announced its latest business gambit late Saturday: A pairing that would create a telecom behemoth by combining AT&T’s wireless, broadband and satellite services with Time Warner’s film and cable properties, which include HBO, CNN and Warner Bros.


The move furthers the consolidation of the telecom industry, after AT&T completed a nearly $50 billion purchase of DirecTV in 2015. Charter Communications followed with its takeover of Time Warner Cable, the pay-TV provider, earlier this year.

AT&T and Time Warner expect the regulatory review of their deal to close by the end of 2017 – meaning it will be up to a new administration and a new Congress to review the massive transaction.

Already, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has excoriated the deal. Hillary Clinton, who hasn’t commented, has previously called for strong antitrust scrutiny of major mergers like this. And many lawmakers, who tend to view telecom deals skeptically, quickly raised their voices Saturday night.

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn), for one, said the acquisition "raises some immediate flags about consolidation in the media market."

"I'm skeptical of huge media mergers because they can lead to higher costs, fewer choices, and even worse service for consumers," Franken said in a statement, promising to seek more details about the transaction.

Public Knowledge was quick to raise the alarm against further industry consolidation. The advocacy group warned combining a major programmer with a distributor could lead to AT&T favoring Time Warner content on its platform or making it more expensive for AT&T’s competitors to access Time Warner programming.

“Ultimately, it would be AT&T's job to try to prove that this deal would benefit, rather than harm consumers and competition,” Public Knowledge Senior Counsel John Bergmayer said in a statement before the deal was announced.

The two companies said they expect the Justice Department to take the lead in the regulatory review. Time Warner owns a TV station in Atlanta, which could draw FCC attention. The companies said they are still reviewing what FCC licenses, if any, will be transferred to AT&T.

Any governmental review would almost certainly stretch into the next presidential administration. Already Trump has slammed the proposed merger, pledging during a speech in Pennsylvania Saturday that he wouldn't allow the deal to proceed.

"As an example of the power structure I'm fighting, AT&T is buying Time Warner and thus CNN, a deal we will not approve in my administration because it's too much concentration of power in the hands of too few," Trump said in Gettysburg.

Trump then directed his ire at other major transactions and tech companies. He said he disapproved of the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, and pledged that if he became president, he would consider breaking it up. He also said he Amazon “controls” the Washington Post and should be paying more taxes. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post in 2013, and the newspaper is owned by him, not Amazon.

A spokesman for Hillary Clinton's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Previously, the Democratic nominee has pledged to "appoint tough, independent authorities to strengthen antitrust enforcement and really scrutinize mergers and acquisitions, so the big don't keep getting bigger and bigger."

--Ashley Gold contributed to this story