DirecTV Fights L.A. Dodgers Channel Antitrust Suit

DirecTV says it refused to pay top dollar for Time Warner Cable Inc.’s Los Angeles Dodgers channel because it had been “burned” earlier overpaying to air Lakers games, not because it was conspiring with others to get an edge on a competitor.

That’s the defense the biggest U.S. satellite-TV provider, now part of AT&T Inc., will use when it asks a judge to throw out a Justice Department lawsuit accusing it of scheming with competitors in 2014 to gain an advantage over Time Warner Cable in licensing negotiations.

The government says DirecTV was the ringleader of a conspiracy among ...