White House renews fight against AT&T–Time Warner merger

The Trump administration’s campaign to block AT&T’s megamerger with Time Warner is still going strong. The Justice Department announced Thursday it was appealing a federal judge’s ruling blessing the $81 billion deal. The government argues the merger would hurt competition, limit consumer choices, and raise the cost of streaming TV and movies. AT&T became the biggest pay-TV provider in the United States with its acquisition of DirecTV in 2014. It claims about 25 million of the 90 million or so U.S. households that are pay-TV customers. Time Warner owns CNN, HBO, the Warner Bros. movie studio, Game of Thrones, coveted sports programming, and other popular shows.