The U.S. Department of Justice filed court papers Thursday that show a settlement was reached with AT&T and DirecTV in a collusion lawsuit that dealt with antitrust allegations related to the distribution of the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA.
But nowhere in this agreement does it require the channel be carried by any competitive satellite or cable company that has been holding out.
The Dodgers’ fourth season without full local distribution of SportsNet LA will continue, to the chagrin of the team and the channel’s primary operator, Charter Communication.
The attorney general filed the complaint last November against DirecTV Group Holdings LLC and AT&T, calling DirecTV a “ringleader” in illegally sharing information with three rivals that “corrupted” the SportsNet LA carriage negotiations “and the competitive process that the Sherman Act protects.