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AT&T/TW, Cimemoi at Odds Over Proposed Amicus Brief Against Merger

AT&T and Time Warner are battling an independent programmer's attempt to urge a federal court to block AT&T's buy of TW. In an opposition (in Pacer) filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, AT&T/TW said Cinemoi's…

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proposed amicus curiae brief opposing the merger is based on grounds -- harm to independent programmers -- the government isn't raising, and Cinemoi shouldn't be allowed to introduce after the close of evidence, a claim DOJ declined to assert. It said Cinemoi is trying to add factual assertions to the trial record that haven't been tested by deposition or trial examination. In its proposed docket 17-cv-02511-RJL amicus brief (in Pacer) filed Friday, Cinemoi said New AT&T's centralized power would exacerbate the uphill battle indie programmers have in getting carriage on MVPDs' systems since New AT&T would have even more motivation to restrict such indie networks' access to viewers so as to benefit TW programming. Cinemoi said the court should permanently enjoin AT&T/TW.