Senate Judiciary Committee Slates Dec. 7 Hearing on AT&T-Time Warner Deal

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who had signaled he would be taking a careful look at the proposed AT&T-Time Warner merger, has provided some details on that review.

He has scheduled an oversight hearing for Dec. 7 at 10 a.m.

According to the committee, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes are scheduled to testify.

The hearing will "examine the impact of the proposed transaction on consumers, including the implications for competition and innovation in the creation and distribution of video content."

The annoucement of the hearing was actually a birpartisan one, including Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the committee; Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah); and subcommittee ranking member Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

On the senate side, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has already weighed in strongly against the deal, while fellow consolidation critic Al Franken (D-Minn.) has called for the "highest scrutiny."

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.