Starz Acquisition LLC (NASDAQ:STRZA) is not in support of the recent plan by AT&T Inc (NYSE:T) to purchase Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX). This was expected to take place on Wednesday. The provider launched claims that the megadeal would have resulted in AT&T Inc moving away customers from Starz and directing them instead to its own channels.
It was in October that this $85 billion deal was officially announced. It was expected to give AT&T immense control over numerous coveted media assets and companies.
A new study for Starz was conducted recently and an economist called Jeffrey Eisenach forwarded a number of arguments. According to him, if only AT&T would be allowed to move ahead with its plan, it would have worked to the great disadvantage of Starz. It would as a matter of fact feel the incentive to proceed and push customers towards HBO in opposition to the Starz was well as the rest of the independent channels. Starz is widely known to air shows such as the “Outlander” and the “American Gods.”
Eisenach asserted that AT&T would succeed at that by eliminating marketing support for Starz and that would in return complicate matters on the part of the customers. They would encounter difficulties whenever it came to either dropping the channel or signing up.
This study did not take a strong stand on whether or not the Justice Department needed to impose conditions or just stop the deal with immediate effect.
AT&T took issue with the study’s conclusions that it could steer consumers away from Starz.
AT&T expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with the conclusions arrived at by the study. It wasn’t ready to admit that it had plans underway to move customers away from Starz. However, this a matter that is sparking mixed reactions among most of the interested parties.
Through an email statement, a spokesperson working with AT&T opined, “This conclusion doesn’t square with the facts. We fully expect the DOJ (Justice Department) to base its analysis on the facts and the law, as it always does, and not the work of HBO’s competitors.”