The U.S. Justice Department has stepped into the Dodgers’ SportsNet L.A. three-year distribution quagmire by filing a lawsuit Wednesday against DirecTV, and new parent company AT&T, calling it a “ringleader” for unlawfully “orchestrating information sharing agreements” with competing cable companies.
The 57-page suit filed in U.S. District Court in L.A., alleges DirecTV exchanged “competitively sensitive information” with Cox Communications, Charter Communications and AT&T as negotiations were taking place after the Dodgers and Time Warner Cable launched the channel in February, 2014.
Since that time, AT&T, which controlled its U-verse TV service, has purchased DirecTV and has an industry-leading 25.