Rapid changes in media fueled by increased use of artificial intelligence and streaming services require a “cautious humility” from antitrust enforcers as they assess whether mergers in the industry are threatening competition and consumers, a senior U.S. Justice Department official said.

“We cannot and should not try to resolve every issue or commercial complaint that arises in markets,” Charlie Beller, a deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust, said Monday at the National Association of Broadcasters annual conference in Las Vegas. “Nor should we assume that every competitive concern must be addressed through federal antitrust enforcement.”

Instead, regulators should be “exercising judgment about where federal enforcement will be most impactful, rather than simply reacting to the loudest or most well-funded voices,” Beller said, according to a copy of his prepared remarks seen by Bloomberg. He added that government should look for ways to allow competition to evolve.

Without mentioning any companies by name, Beller’s comments seemed to justify decisions on several recent mergers where the Justice Department declined to intervene.

In a recent transaction involving companies providing stock photography, Beller said, “developments in AI capabilities during the pendency of the investigation had a meaningful impact on how we assessed likely competitive effects.”

The Justice Department recently cleared the merger of Getty Images Holdings Inc. and Shutterstock. By contrast, the UK’s antitrust authority said the deal will harm news organizations that use stock photography and has proposed the companies sell Shutterstock’s entire editorial business to gain approval for the acquisition. The UK authority is expected to reach a final decision on the deal by June.

Beller’s remarks offer a stark contrast to the position of antitrust enforcers during the Biden administration, who argued that technology companies had long received a free pass by arguing in favor of light touch regulation to avoiding unnecessary restraints on innovation.

In U.S. media, while local broadcasters remain “an important part” of the industry’s ecosystem, the market has become more competitive in recent years, as shifting technology allows content to reach consumers in new and different ways, Beller said. Private businesses also have an interest on “issues that fall outside the scope of federal enforcement priorities,” Beller said. “We are seeing this play out in real time.”

The Justice Department opted against taking action on the $3.5 billion merger between broadcasters Nexstar Media Group Inc. and Tegna. Satellite television company DirecTV and a group of states have sued over the deal, winning a federal court order that bars the companies from integrating, even though the deal closed last month.

On live events, Beller said the Justice Department is focused on “whether the process by which those prices are set remains competitive,” he said. “Are multiple parties able to bid? Are there constraints that limit participation or distort outcomes? The goal is not to regulate prices, but to ensure that they are the product of a competitive process.”

The Justice Department is investigating sports leagues, including the National Football League and Major League Baseball, over possible competition problems in how it licenses broadcasts of games.

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