Turner Was Ready to ‘Go Dark’ on Dish With NCAA as Leverage

• Turner chief testifies in U.S. antitrust lawsuit against AT&T

• U.S. characterizes Turner sports as must-have programming

Time Warner Inc. was ready to pull programming from Dish Network Corp. during heated negotiations over fees in 2015, and used some of its most-watched sports events as leverage, according to evidence in the government’s lawsuit against Time Warner’s sale to AT&T Inc.

Time Warner has the rights to broadcast the men’s college basketball tournament known as March Madness and was in the midst of negotiations with Dish over fees and other terms for Time Warner programming. The talks were hard fought, and ...