The Comcast merger is likely to be seen as a test case for how regulators will look at a potential merger between AT&T and DirecTV. Comcast’s argument has been that the merger doesn’t violate antitrust laws because Comcast and Time Warner Cable don’t compete in the same markets. AT&T may make a similar pitch: It already has a partnership with DirecTV to offer services in markets where its U-Verse digital TV and Internet service doesn’t currently reach.

But technologically speaking, the situations are not entirely parallel. DirecTV already has a major competitor in Dish Network, while AT&T’s U-Verse, launched in 2006, is still in its relative infancy. A merger is not likely to set off as many regulatory red flags as combining the country’s two largest cable-TV providers, said John Barrett, a consumer analytics analyst for Parks Associates, a market research firm that specializes is consumer technology. “My suspicion is that it’s going to be treated a little differently,” Barrett told IBTimes. “Because there are two satellite companies and AT&T is kind of a new entrant in the pay-TV market, I suspect there would be fewer eyebrows raised over that kind of a merger than Comcast and Time Warner.”

From the article, "AT&T-DirecTV Merger Rumor: Satellite Customers Vow To Flee If Companies Join Forces" bv Christopher Zara.

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