The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has put on hold its reviews of AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV and Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable (TWC) as it awaits a court decision on whether it can disclose sensitive contract information.
As part of its investigations into the respective mergers, the U.S. telco regulator tried to provide select third parties access to video-programming contracts between the merging companies and content owners. The decision prompted the merging companies to go to court to block the move on grounds that the information contained confidential pricing and strategy information.
Arguments from each side were heard on 20 February, but according to an FCC document filed late last week, the court has not yet issued its decision.
The FCC sets a non-binding time limit of 180 days within which to complete a merger review; in the cases of AT&T and DirecTV, and Comcast and TWC, the process will reach the 180-day mark at the end of March.
"At this time, we believe it is prudent to pause the informal 180-day transaction clocks," the FCC said, because knowing the outcome of the court case will benefit its investigations, it said. "The Commission reserves the right to restart the clock as it believes will best serve the public interest an d it intends to provide further guidance as it becomes appropriate."
