Court backs broadcasters, likely accelerating FCC review of AT&T-DirecTV merger

The pace of the Federal Communications Commission’s review of AT&T’s proposed $49 billion takeover of satellite television giant DirecTV should soon accelerate.

On Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued a long-anticipated ruling in a dispute between the FCC and TV programmers, including CBS Corp., 21st Century Fox, Walt Disney Co. and Viacom Inc.

The testy dispute did not delve into whether the FCC should allow two huge media mergers to go forward. Rather, the programmers’ case became something of a sideshow, complicating the government’s processing of information that it had sought in its merger reviews.

In a win for broadcasters who sued the FCC last fall, the appeals court on Friday ruled that the FCC’s demand that CBS, Disney, Fox and the other programmers reveal sensitive contract information to third parties was flawed.

The FCC had sought the information as part of its review of two media mergers announced last year: AT&T’s application to acquire DirecTV and Comcast Corp.’s now scuttled bid for Time Warner Cable.

Even though the FCC set up a mechanism to protect confidential business information from being widely disseminated, broadcasters worried that their rivals were taking advantage of the situation to gain easy access to sensitive details about affiliate fees and other contract points.

Although observers believe the government ultimately will approve the sale of DirecTV, based in El Segundo, within the next few weeks, opposition has been building.

Streaming service Netflix and the Writers Guild of America, West, this month argued that the merger would not be in the public interest. Both urged the government to require conditions if it approves the combination.