Report: AT&T, DirecTV Merger Likely To Be Approved By Justice Dept. With No Conditions

It’s been over a year since AT&T and DirecTV publicly announced their intention to become one big happy mega-media company, and the two are clearly getting a little restless waiting for their approvals. However, it looks like they are about to get the green light they so badly want.

Bloomberg News has the scoop (as they did for the Comcast/TWC merger), and the business news site is reporting that the Department of Justice is ready to give this one the go-ahead.

Media mega-mergers have to be approved by two agencies: the Antitrust Division at DoJ, which scrutinizes them for competitive concerns, and the FCC, which scrutinizes whether they are going to harm or to promote the public interest.

According to Bloomberg, this merger’s now officially cleared one of those hurdles, as DoJ officials have closed their investigation without even demanding any conditions be applied to the merger.

The final decision over whether or not to approve the merger has not yet been made, and representatives for the DoJ declined to comment to Bloomberg about the matter.

Just because the Justice Department is not imposing conditions, however, does not mean none will be imposed. The FCC still has to do its work, and AT&T has made a massive pile of promises to that agency about benefits the merger could deliver, including increasing their GigaPower footprint, increasing competition with Comcast, and increasing broadband penetration in underserved, rural areas.

AT&T Said to Win Antitrust Approval for DirecTV With FCC Pending [Bloomberg]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist

Dunkin’ Donuts Working On Ditching Styrofoam Cups Nationwide By 2016

Soon these cups will belong to the non-recyclable past. (m01229)

While Dunkin’ Donuts previously announced it would comply with a new law in New York City banning styrofoam cups and containers, which goes into effect today, the company might bring its new plastic, recyclable cups to the rest of its locations across the country as well.

Replacing the familiar styrofoam (actually expanded polystyrene, for you sticklers) cups in NYC wasn’t easy for the company, the Huffington Post reports, going through tests of double-layered paper cups and others in an attempt to find something cheap and disposable.

The company finally settled on beverage containers made from polypropylene, a type of plastic that’s recyclable, unlike styrofoam. Those cups might be the future for Dunkin’ Donuts stores across the country, as a company rep told HuffPo that they’re being tested in select locations in Massachusetts, Vermont and California right now.

Dunkin’ is also eyeing other alternatives with the goal of phasing out styrofoam completely in 2016. That would save the country’s landfills a lot of waste, as HuffPo notes that the company sells 30 cups of coffee every second.

The Dunkin’ rep says that the company will settle on a replacement for styrofoam by the end of 2015, and in the meantime, Dunkin’ will “continue to evaluate and test all available cups until we believe we have found the best solution based on cost, performance, commercial viability and environmental impacts.”

Dunkin’ Donuts Is Phasing Out Styrofoam Cups [Huffington Post]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

AT&T, CBS Make Nice And Sign New Contract, Avoiding Network Blackout

(So Cal Metro)

In a nice change for consumers, a content company and a distribution company managed to save everyone the rigamarole of a blackout and a finger-pointing yell-a-thon when they instead settled their differences and negotiated a new contract hours after the old one expired.

The Wall Street Journal reports that representatives from CBS and AT&T negotiated through the night to come to an agreement that will keep CBS’s broadcast networks, as well as the Showtime premium channel, available for U-Verse subscribers.

Had the late-night talks not been productive, approximately 2.5 million of U-Verse’s six million subscribers would have lose their local CBS affiliates, and millions more would have lost Showtime. Happily for all involved parties, that didn’t have to happen.

Negotiations had been taking place since March, according to the WSJ, but stalled out as CBS called out AT&T for being more focused on its planned acquisition of DirecTV than on its existing TV contracts.

The detailed terms of the agreement have not been released, because contract carriage fee agreements never are. However, the deal will put extra CBS networks on U-verse subscribers’ screens in 2016, including Pop, CBS Sports, and the Smithsonian Channel.

CBS, AT&T Reach New Distribution Deal [Wall Street Journal]

by Kate Cox via Consumerist