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Delays may be in store for two very high profile mergers -- Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) with Time Warner Cable (TWC), and AT&T (NYSE:T) with DirecTV (NYSE:DTV) -- as a federal court weighs a dispute over an FCC decision to provide deal opponents access to sensitive documents.
- Content companies are arguing that letting merger opponents like Dish Network (NASDAQ:DISH) see hundreds of thousands of pages on their programming-negotiation pricing and strategies "would be highly damaging."
- Content lawyer Robert Long says the FCC is "totally unprecedented" in providing the docs; the FCC responds that strong protections are in place and the details about buying power in programming are important in getting informed third-party input to consider approving the deals.
- Judges reacted with skepticism toward the FCC's argument, but with no inkling of when they might rule, the timetable for the mergers may have to move later.
- More coverage of Comcast-TWC merger
- More on an AT&T/DirecTV deal