U.S. Said to Seek Sale of CNN or DirecTV in AT&T-Time Warner Dealbr The Justice Department has called on AT&T and Time Warner to sell Turner Broadcasting, the group of cable channelsbr that includes CNN, as a potential requirement for approving the companies’ pending $85.4 billion deal, people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday.br As originally envisioned, combining AT&T and Time Warner would yield a giant company offering wirelessbr and broadband internet service, DirecTV, the Warner Brothers movie studio and cable channels like HBO and CNN.br If the Justice Department formally makes either demand a requisite for approval, AT&Tbr and Time Warner would almost certainly take the matter to court to challenge the government’s legal basis for blocking the transaction.br The Justice Department would have to argue that AT&T would have an incentive to withhold Turnerbr channels like CNN or its NBA on TNT from rival broadband distributors like Verizon or Comcast.br But with those discussions, I can now say that the timing of the closing of the deal is now uncertain.”br Executives at both AT&T and Time Warner have privately expressed bewilderment about the request from the Justice Department.br The demands set up a potential battle over the fate of the long-in-the-works dealbr that would create a colossus straddling the worlds of media and telecommunications at a time when upstarts like Netflix are disrupting traditional players in both industries.br Because the proposed deal is a “vertical” merger — meaningbr that neither company competes directly against the other — they believe there is little legal basis to block it.