News Corp. is urging the Federal Communications Commission to act quickly on its request to be released early from merger conditions imposed on its acquisition of satellite operator DirecTV four years ago, Multichannel News says. News Corp. argues the basis of the merger conditions disappeared in February, when it transferred 40% of its stake in DirecTV to Liberty Media. Pay TV distributors took the media conglomerate to arbitration to settle disputes over access to its TV stations and regional sports networks, Multichannel says. During arbitration, the FCC banned News Corp. from withholding TV signals and the RSNs from the pay TV providers, which explains why News Corp.’s request to remove the conditions is opposed by small cable operators.
—Christopher Perez