CEOs of AT&T, Time Warner to sell merger to skeptical Senate

The CEOs, Randall Stephenson of AT&T and Jeffrey Bewkes of Time Warner, are due to appear Wednesday before a Senate antitrust panel whose Republican chairman and senior Democrat have said the proposed $85.4 billion merger of the communications giants would potentially raise significant antitrust issues.

The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust doesn't have authority to rule on the merger, but members are likely to use their platform to ask questions such as whether the companies would not share Time Warner content with other cable companies or online video providers.

The concern is that AT&T might try to make its broadband service stand out by tying it to Time Warner's programs and films, hurting consumers.

Because of Time Warner's shows and movies — including "Game of Thrones" and the "Harry Potter" films — and AT&T's ability to gather information about its tens of millions of customers, AT&T thinks it could do a better job tailoring ads and video to user preferences.