AT&T is seeking to use FCC’s recent approval of AOL takeover of T...

AT&T is seeking to use FCC’s recent approval of AOL takeover of Time Warner to aid company’s crusade against govt.’s cable ownership limits and attribution rules. In letter to U.S. Appeals Court, D.C., which is reviewing ownership limits, AT&T argued that FCC’s approval buttressed company’s claim that Commission’s cable attribution rules were “arbitrary, capricious and unlawful” because they applied “to ownership interests that have merely the potential to lead to influence, rather than only to those interests that actually confer influence or control over programming decisions of a third party.” AT&T said FCC, in okaying AOL-Time Warner deal, concluded that AOL’s nonvoting interest in DirecTV was not attributable and thus did not have to be shed by AOL, after applying “the very standard that it had disavowed” in AT&T’s case. AT&T declared that its minority, nonvoting stakes in Time Warner Entertainment (TWE) and other MSOs, like AOL’s stake in DirecTV, shouldn’t be attributed to it because it had no influence or control over their programming decisions. Because of FCC’s interpretation of attribution rules, AT&T must shed its stake in either TWE or in Liberty Media and other programmers because it otherwise would exceed cable ownership cap.