TWX Time Warner Inc. New

By Deepa Seetharaman 

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. -- AT&T Inc. will launch a $35-a-month "mobile-centric" video service next month, Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said Tuesday, pointing to it as an example of how prices won't rise as a result of the carrier's $85.4 billion deal to buy Time Warner Inc.

The upcoming over-the-top video service is part of the carrier's effort to access cord-cutters, which is the rationale for the deal, said Mr. Stephenson, speaking at the WSJDLive conference in Laguna Beach, Calif. along with Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes.

"If there was ever an environment that was begging for innovation, it was this environment," Mr. Stephenson said. Mr. Bewkes added: "We would say and we've been saying it since 1995, every channel in the country should look like HBO or Netflix -- there's no reason we can't."

The two executives played down concerns that the merger wouldn't get regulatory approval. The deal faces possible opposition from U.S. antitrust authorities and objections by lawmakers as well as media and telecom rivals.

Tuesday, Mr. Stephenson said he wasn't surprised by the concerns and described them as "uninformed comments." He pointed to the upcoming $35-a-month service, which will have more than 100 premium channels. "That's not a medium for raising prices," he said.

"Anybody who characterizes this as a means to raise prices is ignoring the basic premise of what we're trying to do here," he said.

AT&T reached an agreement to buy Time Warner for $85.4 billion last week in a deal that would transform the phone company into a media giant that produces and distributes content. It will unite AT&T's millions of pay-TV and wireless customers with Time Warner's stable of media properties, including the prized HBO premium network, cable networks TBS and TNT, and the Warner Bros. film and TV studio.

Tuesday, Mr. Stephenson said Time Warner's strategy to distribute its content "widely and broadly" would continue under AT&T.

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 25, 2016 14:59 ET (18:59 GMT)

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