Jeff Gamet

The US Department of Justice isn’t hip on the idea of AT&T and Time-Warner merging, so it’s contesting the government’s approval of the deal. The DOJ filed an appeal to overturn the merger approval over concerns it will reduce competition in the pay television market. Experts, however, don’t think there’s much hope for the appeal. CNBC said,

Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson told CNBC’s “Fast Money” that given how decisive [Judge] Leon’s ruling was, there aren’t a lot of obvious arguments the government can make for its appeal. He said, however, that the Justice Department may try push back on the idea that AT&T wouldn’t take into consideration it is an integrated company when it is negotiating programming agreements.

Of course, AT&T and Time-Warner say the merger won’t stifle competition. If the court moves ahead with the appeal and grants a stay that’ll put the whole deal on hold, so it’s a safe bet AT&T is going to fight this in a big way.

Jason Momoa, well known for his role as Khal in Game of Thrones, has been signed for the lead in Apple’s original TV series See. The show is a futuristic “world building drama” written by Steve Knight and directed by Francis Lawrence. Variety says Momoa’s character is “Baba Voss, a fearless warrior, leader and guardian,” which is pretty much what he’s known for playing. That said, Apple isn’t shying away from big-name talent for the shows in its upcoming television series lineup.

Netflix isn’t holding back on its original content and could spend US$13 billion this year on its shows and movies. To put that in perspective, Apple is moving aggressively with its $1 billion investment in original content and still well above more traditional content creators. David Z. Morris writing at Fortune said,

Netflix will spend $12-13 billion on original programming this year. That’s much more than the $8 billion it planned to spend as of October 2017. It would also be vastly more than legacy studios are spending: HBO spent $2.5 billion on content in 2017, and even CBS spent just $4 billion.

The streaming media company has plans for 82 feature films this year, and could be spending $22.5 billion a year on content by 2022. That moves the bar for Amazon, HBO, Hulu, and now Apple.