New York Post

How do you solve a problem like CNN? Top executives at AT&T, in the midst of acquiring Time Warner, are scratching their heads trying to figure out how to curry favor with the White House at the same time CNN’s journalists are putting the president under the Klieg lights. Indeed, Time Warner-owned CNN’s tense relationship with the Trump administration worsened earlier this week with a high-profile dispute between adviser Kellyanne Conway over whether she was being banned from the cable news channel. Then on Tuesday, “The Lead” anchor Jake Tapper conducted a tough interview with Conway over claims that the media underreported terror attacks. While AT&T boss Randall Stephenson has not tried to tone down CNN’s reporting, according to sources, the tension between the news channel and the White House concerns him.

Beltway buzz is now centered on who will replace Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, the former cable lobbyist who has been in the job for three years.

On Dec 1, Chairman Wheeler will be feted in Washington, DC, by the Federal Communications Commission Bar Association as communications professionals and lobbyists will be dissecting his tenure and gossiping about his successor. Among the names being floated are Ajit Pai, the current Republican FCC commissioner; David Fellows, a former CTO at Comcast and AT&T and a co-founder of Layer 3 TV, a cable company in Denver (CO); and Jeffrey Eisenach, the Trump-appointed consultant named to the transition team, according to several FCC watchers. When asked for comment about the possible contenders, including the possibility that he might lead the federal body, Eisenach told The Post, “No comment. It wouldn’t be productive.”

Apparently, AT&T has agreed with the feds on the conditions paving the way for it to buy DirecTV. AT&T worked out the plan with the Justice Department. Agreeing to comply means the Department of Justice will likely clear the AT&T deal in October.

The Federal Communications Commission still has not ruled on the merger. The move will allow AT&T to add DirecTV’s 20 million satellite-TV subscribers to its 5.7 million U-Verse TV service subscribers, which currently spans 22 states.

Verizon Wireless is very interested in buying Dish Network’s spectrum, The Post has learned.

A top Verizon executive told a group of insiders that the country’s No. 1 wireless carrier was eyeing the lucrative spectrum owned by Charlie Ergen’s satellite-TV company, a banker with direct knowledge of the conversation said.

Analysts have estimated Dish’s spectrum could be worth as much as $17 billion. A second source close to the companies said the two companies have held informal, early talks about the spectrum.

Haim Saban’s efforts to sell Univision Communications included talks with billionaire investor Carlos Slim Helú, The Post has learned. Mexico-based Slim, one of the wealthiest persons in the world, whose holdings include media assets, is said to be weighing a bid for the large Spanish-language TV network, according to sources.

“Carlos Slim could just come in and buy the whole thing,” said one source close to the owners, although foreign nationals are limited to holding 25 percent of US media companies.

Slim, worth $68 billion, couldn’t be reached for comment. Comcast and Netflix were also approached about buying the property, according to the source. Both parties declined comment, but insiders at both companies suggested there was no interest. Univision has been a big beneficiary of retransmission dollars paid by distributors to carry broadcast networks.

In 2007, Univision’s network earned just $37.5 million; it is projected to net $249.5 million in 2014, according to SNL Kagan. Univision ranked third in the 18- to 49-year-old demographic among all broadcast networks in the week of June 10, but as more Americans identify as Hispanic, media companies have been ramping up their own offerings.

Liberty Media chief John Malone looks as if he wants to snatch his cable crown back from Comcast’s Brian Roberts.

Malone’s plans to spin off Liberty’s cable broadband holdings into a separate public company, not merely a tracking stock, has set off speculation that he’s seeking to emulate Roberts’ empire building.

The tip-off came earlier when Malone shelved plans to issue a tracking stock to spin off Liberty’s 26.4 percent stake in Charter, the fourth-largest cable company, according to National Alliance Securities’ analyst Robert Routh. That the tracking stock is being replaced with an asset-backed security has Routh thinking the spun-off entity -- to be named Liberty Broadband Group -- can conveniently merge with Charter itself.

That’s when the fun would begin. A Liberty-controlled Charter could set about replicating Roberts’ success with his Comcast-NBCU combination, Routh said, by checking any interest that Fox Broadcasting, Time Warner or Viacom might have in reprising the role of NBCU.

Apparently, Gov Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and other New York state leaders are planning to tie Comcast’s $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable up in knots. Changes to state rules that would give cable regulators more power were put on the table during closed-door budget talks two days ago, sources said. In addition to giving New York State’s Public Service Commission (PSC) added bite, the rule change would put the onus on Comcast to prove that its mega-merger with TWC is in the public interest, the sources said. This guilty-until-proven-innocent new rule is quite a change from the current rule, which requires the PSC to show why any acquisition fails the public interest test. Gov Cuomo is discussing giving the PSC much greater oversight of the proposed cable combo, making it almost impossible to finalize, the sources stated. “This could essentially kill the deal,” one source said. If the change is OK’d, it would be in line with similar rules gas and oil companies must follow, said a Cuomo administration official.

The future of TV viewing is coming into view -- and it’s all about streaming.

Less than 24 hours after Dish Network signed a groundbreaking deal with Disney that gave the satellite TV service the building blocks of an Internet TV operation, a second company waded into the sector. Verizon is looking to sign deals with content partners to bring a mobile Internet TV service to its FiOS customers, CEO Lowell McAdams said.

CBS, while happy with the current cable ecosystem, is also eyeing new and appropriate ways to add revenue, CEO Leslie Moonves said. “Everybody’s talking about over the top,” he said. “We’re talking about it with many of the [pay TV distributors] we’re in business with.” The race to own the entertainment space on the Web is being waged by a host of other players as well, including Sony, Microsoft and Amazon.