Feds push pause on Comcast, AT&T mergers

The Federal Communications Commission is pausing its internal “shot clock” for a pair of massive media mergers.

The agency issued a notice on Friday saying that the informal 180-day clock is being stopped, while courts settle a debate over a series of business deals that the companies say should be kept secret as regulators review their merger plans.

Comcast has a $45 billion bid to buy Time Warner Cable, and AT&T is making a $48 billion attempt to buy DirecTV.

{mosads}“[T]he commission would be advantaged by knowing the resolution of the pending Petition for Review before the transaction clocks reach the 180-day mark, which both are slated to do by the end of March,” the FCC said.

The move isn’t the first time the debate over the documents has forced the FCC to pause its clock, which is merely an informal tool to track a review’s progress.

Regulators previously paused it for more than a month late last year due to the back-and-forth around the documents. Around New Year’s, they also paused the clock in the Comcast-Time Warner deal for a few weeks over an unrelated claim that thousands of documents had been improperly withheld. 

The controversy in the courts centers on records of the companies’ deals with programmers like Walt Disney and Viacom, which they say should be kept confidential. A court sided with the companies in November, but that decision was quickly appealed to the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Arguments in the appeals court were heard in February.

The companies appeared unconcerned with the delay.  

“We understand the FCC’s decision to pause the informal review clock while the court continues to review a procedural matter related to the transaction,” Comcast spokeswoman Sena Fitzmaurice said in a statement

“We look forward to working with the government to complete the regulatory review process.”

The Comcast deal is currently on day 165 out of 180. The AT&T merger is on day 170.