US: DirecTV wants DOJ antitrust case blacked out

The Justice Department can’t prove that information-sharing between DirecTV Group Holdings and three other content distributors violated federal antitrust law, the company said in a court filing.

Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald should dismiss the government’s lawsuit because it doesn’t “allege any traditional theory of antitrust liability, DirecTV said in a motion Jan. 10. Instead, it’s based on “narrow and generalized allegations of ‘information sharing.’ ”

The government sued DirecTV and AT&T in November for talking with competitors about getting the exclusive rights to broadcast Dodgers games in Los Angeles. DirecTV, AT&T, Cox Communications Inc. and Charter Communications allegedly exchanged non-public information about their ongoing negotiations to show the Dodgers Channel offered by Time Warner Cable in order to gain bargaining leverage, the Justice Department said.

The case covers conduct that took place before mergers among four of the companies involved. Time Warner Cable was bought by Charter Communications last year. DirecTV was bought by AT&T in 2015. Neither Cox nor Charter was named in the suit.

Full content: Bloomberg

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