AT&T spent last week in court slugging it out with the Department of Justice over its $85 billion plan to acquire Time Warner. The DOJ argues the deal could lead to higher cable television prices for consumers, while AT&T says the deal is routine and that the agency is blocking it for political reasons.

On the surface, the deal bears a strong resemblance to Comcast's 2011 acquisition of NBC Universal in a deal valued at about $30 billion. Both AT&T and its opponents have already invoked the Comcast-NBC Universal merger in support of their case. In its response to the DOJ's lawsuit last November, AT&T argued that the government’s 2011 decision to approve the Comcast deal, with conditions, set a precedent that should be respected. But AT&T’s opponents argue that the Comcast-NBC Universal deal created a media behemoth with too much power over the media landscape.

The DOJ didn’t weigh in on the effects of the previous merger. But it cited objections filed by DirecTV in 2010, claiming the merger would increase costs for consumers because Comcast could force competitors more to carry NBC Universal content. The irony was lost on no one: DirecTV is now owned by AT&T.

Seven years later, it's hard to draw clear conclusions about the effects of the Comcast-NBC Universal deal. Consumers aren't paying any less for cable, and don't seem any happier with their Comcast service. On the other hand, many of the biggest fears have not come to pass, in part because of the conditions attached by regulators. It's too soon to say how Comcast will behave once the last of those requirements expire later this year.

Nationwide Reach

Part of why it’s hard to read much into the results of the Comcast-NBC Universal merger is that there are significant differences between the two deals. The most obvious is the size of the deal. AT&T proposes to spend more than twice what Comcast paid for NBC. At the end of 2010, Comcast was worth about $54 billion. Today, AT&T is worth well over $200 billion.

A more important difference is reach, says Matt Wood of Free Press, an advocacy group that opposes media consolidation. Comcast is the nation’s largest cable television provider, but it doesn't reach everywhere. It doesn't offer service in the New York City area, for example. That means it relies on other pay TV providers to distribute NBC content in many places. So while some smaller cable providers that compete directly complain that Comcast charges them too much for access to regional sports networks, it would be hard for Comcast to withhold NBC content from other providers without losing viewers in large swaths of the country.

DirecTV’s satellite service, on the other hand, reaches nearly the entire country. And its streaming service, DirecTV Now, can be used over any internet connection. That could give AT&T much more power over competing carriers than Comcast. That’s a big concern for the DOJ, which cited DirecTV’s nationwide reach in its lawsuit.

Much as AT&T does now, Comcast pitched its acquisition as a consumer-friendly move that would increase competition by enabling the company to launch new services. The merger’s effect on competition is uncertain, but it sure didn't bring prices down. Cable rates have risen faster than inflation since 2011, according to research by the website cordcutting.com based on Federal Communications Commission data.

Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice says customers have benefited from the company's acquisition of NBC Universal in other ways, namely its investments in content, such as its Winter Olympics live streaming service for its Xfinity television customers. Meanwhile, Comcast has increased its number of on-demand offerings to 64,000, from 17,000 before the merger, Fitzmaurice says. She also says NBC stations now produce 22,673 hours of local news each year, up from 15,704 hours before the merger.