FCC sets review teams for AT&T-DirecTV, Comcast-TWC-Charter deals

FCC general counsel Jonathan Sallet will ride herd over a steering committee charged with reviewing merger applications from AT&T (NYSE: T)-DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) and Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA)-Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC)-Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR), the agency said.

Wireline Competition Bureau chief Julie Veach will be part of a steering committee that also includes Media Bureau chief Bill Lake, International Bureau chief Mindel de la Torre and Wireless Telecommunications Bureau chief Roger Sherman.

Jamilia Ferris will join the office of general counsel and lead the working team reviewing the AT&T-DirecTV transaction, where she will be joined by deputy Elizabeth Andrion of the Office of Strategic Planning & Policy Analysis. Ferris returned to government service after a stint in the private sector. From 2010 to 2013, she served as chief of staff and counsel to the assistant attorney general of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

Hilary Burchuk will lead the working team reviewing the Comcast-Time Warner Cable-Charter Communications proposal with assistance of deputy Bill Dever of the Wireline Competition Bureau.

Both committees will report to the steering committee, which will be overseen by Sallet.

Further appointments include William Rogerson, a former chief economist of the FCC and now a professor in Northwestern University's Department of Economics, who will serve as senior economist overseeing the review of both proposed transactions. Shane Greenstein, a professor in the Management and Strategy Department at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University as well as Kellogg chair of Information Technology, was named senior economic consultant for both transactions.

For more:
- see this FCC press release

Related articles:
AT&T-DirecTV deal will be hot topic as moguls gather in Sun Valley
Comcast-TWC would control 29% of the U.S. pay TV market, nearly 36% of broadband: report
AT&T defends DirecTV acquisition to Congress, can't promise lower prices