DirecTV’s $11 billion controlling stake can shift to Liberty Medi...

which will decrease media consolidation and reduce vertical integration,” the agency said. Commissioners Jonathan Adelstein, issuing a partial dissent, and Michael Copps, concurring, noted that the deal reduces industry consolidation. “A little media deconsolidation is better than no deconsolidation at all,” wrote Adelstein. The only reason Copps didn’t vote “no” is that there’s “a measure of de-consolidation,” he said. The order approving the deal was issued Tuesday, letting staff adjust the text to reflect elements on which commissioners recently agreed, FCC officials said. Under the order, Liberty and DirecTV will have to adhere to most of the programming conditions the agency imposed in 2003 when the same stake in the satellite TV provider was sold to News Corp. by General Motors. Copps voted against that transfer. The 2003 conditions as recast address program access, program carriage, and provisions on regional sports network arbitration and retransmission consent arbitration, the commission release said. The conditions will apply for six more years, said an FCC official. Liberty has a year to sell or reduce its ownership to a “non-attributable level” in Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico or DirecTV operations there, the agency said. The FCC Democrats lamented the lack of a requirement that DirecTV carry signals of TV stations in all 210 TV markets by satellite. On its own, DirecTV will give all subscribers in all markets access to stations either by satellite or by selling them extra gear -- and that “amounts to a rural or undesired market tax,” wrote Adelstein. It was “approved by members of the commission who have often complained about video distributors requiring consumers to purchase expensive set-top boxes when cheaper alternatives could be made available,” he added. In exchange for the DirecTV holding, Liberty will return its stake in News Corp. to that company. So the companies could complete the asset swap Tuesday, FCC commissioners agreed to issue a release clearing the transaction (CD Feb 26 p1). A spokesman for Liberty didn’t return messages to comment on when the deal will close.