AT&T has won its most significant victory against the Trump administration’s effort to block its $80bn takeover of Time Warner after a US federal appeals court upheld a ruling that the merger would not allow the companies to unfairly raise prices on customers.
The three-judge panel backed a lower-court ruling that the rise of online streaming rivals like Netflix and Hulu has reordered the media industry, creating a new breed of competitors that would prevent the combined companies from becoming dominant in their markets.
The 35-page opinion issued on Tuesday also credited the companies’ commitment to avoid content blackouts in negotiations with rival distributors and called the challenges to the lower court “unpersuasive”.