Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders urged the Justice Department to block the AT&T-Time Warner deal and said it “would almost certainly lead to price hikes and reduced choice.”
As evidence, he pointed to AT&T’s purchase of DirecTV, completed last year. Regulators approved the $67 billion combination with conditions, and they said it could lead to more competition for cable companies and more options for viewers. Yet Sanders said it’s fallen short.
“AT&T claimed that such a deal would benefit consumers,” Sanders wrote to a top federal antitrust official. “Less than a year later, these benefits are nowhere to be found, and AT&T raised prices for DirecTV services.”
AT&T recently agreed to buy Time Warner Inc. for over $108 billion, which will require a federal regulatory review that could take a year. Many issues will be debated, including concentration of power, preferential treatment and privacy protection.
But AT&T's addition of DirecTV, a satellite TV business, shouldn’t be cast as a warning sign. So far, the results are promising -- for consumers and the company.