A U.S. district court judge ruled Tuesday that AT&T’s planned $85.4 billion takeover of Time Warner could proceed despite the Justice Department’s antitrust objections. That decision paves the way for the new mega-company to become an immediate player for sports broadcast rights.
AT&T, which acquired DirecTV in 2014, can provide the telecommunications infrastructure, and Time Warner—which counts Turner Sports and HBO among its subsidiaries—has a ready-made platform and existing rights deals for the NBA, NCAA basketball, MLB, the UEFA Champions League and PGA golf, among others. That existing content appears not only on linear TV such as TBS and TNT, but also on OTT offerings such as NBA League Pass and Turner Sports’ new live sports hub, Bleacher Report Live.