ACA: AT&T/DirecTV Needs Fair Pricing Conditions

The American Cable Association is telling Congress it thinks the government needs to put conditions on the AT&T/DirecTV deal to decrease the incentive of DirecTV-affiliated programmers from charging higher prices to their rivals, which include hundreds of ACA members.

That is according to the written testimony of Ross Lieberman, senior VP of government affairs for hearings on the proposed deal in both the House and Senate June 24.

Lieberman cited ACA's concern over consolidation in general, including the proposed Comcast/Time Warner Cable deal and Comcast/Charter system swaps.

"Congress and the Federal Communications Commission ('FCC') need to ensure that consumers who reside in markets served by smaller multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs) will not lose any competitive options or see their prices increase as the consolidation wave continues," he said.