While AT & T almost had no relationship with the entertainment industry three years ago, it now faces a lawsuit in this regard.
Early indications were that litigation around the $ 85 billion acquisition of Time Warner Inc. by AT & T will focus on the television business and have garnered a lot of evidence from the video rivals of the two companies, according to The Wall Street Journal Documents show that the competitors believe that AT & T will use Time Warner's entertainment assets to confront them.
According to people familiar with the matter, companies such as DISH Network, Showtime channel parents CBS, 21st Century Fox, Netflix Inc., and Starz Inc. provide information that the U.S. Department of Justice may use to support themselves Point of view, that the huge acquisitions will hinder the pay-TV content market competition.
Justice Department attorney Craig Conrath told federal judge Richard Leon at a preview hearing on Friday that government lawyers have summoned about 30 third parties for information that is typical of high-profile antitrust cases of.
In the same vein, AT & T prepared for the lawsuit, chief lawyer Daniel Petrocellisai said the company has drafted a list of 22 potential witnesses and the government has sent as many as 35 witnesses.
Petrocelli said that in order to streamline the process, they have already agreed to bring these witnesses from all parts of the country to Washington, D.C.
Many observers were surprised by the U.S. Department of Justice filing a lawsuit in November last year to stop the merger, which AT & T believes is the nation's largest pay-TV distributor and Time Warner, the nation's largest media company The combination of the two companies will create a single, overly powerful entity, and AT & T chief executive Randall Stephenson said the government bases the law on illogicality and pledges to go back to court.
The case is scheduled to be held on March 19 and people familiar with the matter said it seems unlikely that both sides will reach a settlement and will inevitably be held in court.
Perhaps the central issue in the case is how the merger between AT & T and Time Warner will affect other video distributors, and AT & T will own Warner Bros. and cable television channels such as TNT and CNN if the merger is to take place. The company has said the television ecosystem is well-stocked and its deals will not hinder the ongoing shift in the industry, and the company believes the emergence of new platforms such as Netflix and the entry of technology giants such as Amazon into the video content means that both the AT & T What the company is doing with Time Warner, and new consumers are still able to choose between traditional TV services and online services.
The U.S. Department of Justice held a different view that AT & T's annexation of Time Warner could force other TV operators to pay a higher price for Time Warner content such as Cartoon Network and TNT. TNT broadcast many NBA games. The Justice Department also said that the United States Telephone and Telegraph companies controlling Time Warner may curb the innovation of online television services, and consumers seeking to abandon traditional cable or satellite television services are becoming increasingly interested in these online TV services.