Community Media Groups and Common Cause Ask the FCC to Stop the AT&T DirecTV Deal

The Alliance for Community Media, the Alliance for Communications Democracy and Common Cause asked the Federal Communications Commission to block the deal for AT&T to acquire DirecTV.

The groups say the deal is misguided and will further hurt local media and PEG channels throughout the US. In their joint petition to deny, the groups outline both the flaws of the transaction and the inability of AT&T to support public interest requirements such as PEG Access channels. “Having justified its promotion of state video franchising laws with the promise that it would bring landline, cable-based competition to incumbent cable operators, AT&T through this transaction now apparently seeks to renege on that promise by fleeing to DIRECTV’s DBS service. The Commission should not reward that bait-and-switch.” The groups argue that AT&T would better serve consumers by improving the quality of its U-verse video service, or by investing in broadband buildout rather than further reducing video competition.