Associated Press

Associated Press

NEW YORK

AT&T is following in the footsteps of its rival Comcast in snapping up its own entertainment conglomerate – in this case, Time Warner. But what’s happened in the aftermath of Comcast’s 2011 purchase of NBCUniversal may cast a shadow over AT&T’s deal.

Like that earlier transaction, the $85.4 billion combination of AT&T and Time Warner would create a giant new company that not only produces movies, TV shows and sports and news programming but also delivers them to viewers.

Time Warner owns popular channels such as HBO, CNN, TNT and TBS, plus Warner Bros. movies such as the Harry Potter and DC Comics superhero franchises, while AT&T has its mobile network and its DirecTV service.

AT&T says it is looking for ways to provide innovative new services, which means leveraging Time Warner’s offerings to attract customers, analysts say. But doing so might easily limit consumer choice should AT&T decide, for instance, to withhold certain shows from its rivals or to grant better access to AT&T customers.

Because AT&T is effectively buying one of its suppliers, not a rival, the deal doesn’t directly limit competition, and the company argues that regulators should approve it, possibly with conditions to protect consumers. That’s what happened in the case of Comcast and NBC.

Many of the government’s restrictions were designed to prevent Comcast, a giant cable company and internet-service provider, from favoring its own video offerings over those from online TV rivals like Netflix or, on the other hand, keeping its programming from other cable or satellite TV companies.

Comcast says that since 2011, there has been only one violation of the more than 150 federal conditions placed on its deal for NBC. The conditions expire in 2018.

But those conditions have been problematic, public interest groups and some competitors said last year during Comcast’s aborted attempt to acquire Time Warner Cable.

AT&T is trying to spin its deal as consumer-friendly.

While the company says that adding Time Warner will help it “differentiate” its service – which suggests exclusive or special stuff – it also says it plans to keep Time Warner’s model of “distributing its content as widely as possible.”

Regulators would probably not want AT&T to keep Time Warner’s movies, shows and sports from competitors (which would also leave consumers with fewer options). As with Comcast, the concern is that AT&T will favor its own video.