Washington — AT&T may bypass a telecommunications regulator by offloading a Time Warner broadcast station, analysts say, as the telecommunications company braces for what is expected to be a lengthy and tough antitrust review of its proposed $85.4bn deal to buy Time Warner. Dallas-based AT&T said the deal would need approval of the US justice department and the companies were determining which Time Warner US Federal Communications Commission licences, if any, would transfer to AT&T as part of the deal. Any such transfers would require the commission’s approval. AT&T has clashed with the commission in recent years on a number of fronts. An AT&T spokesman declined on Sunday to elaborate on whether the commission would need formally to approve the transaction. Comcast’s 2011 takeover of NBCUniversal — the last marriage of a distribution powerhouse with a major media and content provider, such as AT&T and Time Warner — was reviewed by the justice department and the commission. The commi...
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