As AT&T begins the battle in the District Court of D.C.
to defend its proposed acquisition of Time Warner and its valued content (e.g.
HBO and CNN), it will be arguing it’s case before the randomly assigned judge, Richard
Leon. In 2011, Judge Leon ruled in favor
of the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, but only after behavioral conditions were
attached. At the time, he questioned
whether these conditions would be effective in preventing anticompetitive harm because
of limitations in oversight and enforcement of the rules.
Seven years later, a lot has changed in the industry…notably
the growth of OTT distribution and original content creation by non-traditional
players. Is a vertical merger of AT&T and Time
Warner a necessary response to a disrupted industry or just another mega-play
to control what people watch and how they watch it. Judge Leon is tasked with sorting it all out…a
crystal ball may be needed!
