At&t Pay Tv unit under financial fire

[Tampa8]

"AT&T’s stock ended its steady march higher Tuesday, dropping 4% after a respected Wall Street analyst downgraded the telecom and media giant’s shares and called its pay-TV unit a “cancer.”

AT&T Stock Drops On Downgrade To “Sell” By Wall Street Analyst – Update

AT&T stock dropped 3% after a respected Wall Street analyst downgraded its shares and called its pay-TV unit a "cancer."

deadline.com

 

[JZ4K]

You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all the people all the time.

 

[CycloneSat]

Not surprised.

 

[CSM]

New Stankey interview.

As DirecTV tanks, AT&T says it will “re-bundle” TV with HBO Max

 

[Claude Greiner]

They need to sell Directv to anyone but Charlie Ergen.

F dish

 

[TheRatPatrol]

They need to sell Directv to anyone but Charlie Ergen.

F dish

Any suggestions?

 

[Bruce]

Any suggestions?

Who would want it?


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[AZ.]

Who would want it?


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Apple to start with....Amazon maybe,....How about Netflix....All have deep pockets and a few have huge amounts of cash in hand!....If I tried Im sure I could come up with more.

 

[Bruce]

Apple to start with....Amazon maybe,....How about Netflix....All have deep pockets and a few have huge amounts of cash in hand!....If I tried Im sure I could come up with more.

So you are writing that those companies would buy DirecTV just because they have cash on hand?

What business sense would they have in buying a company that is slowly dying at a loss of a million subs a quarter.

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[AZ.]

So you are writing that those companies would buy DirecTV just because they have cash on hand?

What business sense would they have in buying a company that is slowly dying at a loss of a million subs a quarter.

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Each one would enhance what the deliver already.....Not only could they sell satellite service they could have a streaming service....Its a no brainer

 

[Joe h]

The problem isn’t directv, the problem is nobody wants AT&T’s tv service in any shape or form. I have no doubts that hbo max will be dead on arrival. Everyone will think you need to be an AT&T customer, and maybe 5% of their current wireless subscribers will check it out for a couple days, then forget it existed. And then they’ll be back to name changes and price increases, the go to strategy of this dinosaur company.

 

[CycloneSat]

The problem isn’t directv, the problem is nobody wants AT&T’s tv service in any shape or form. I have no doubts that hbo max will be dead on arrival. Everyone will think you need to be an AT&T customer, and maybe 5% of their current wireless subscribers will check it out for a couple days, then forget it existed. And then they’ll be back to name changes and price increases, the go to strategy of this dinosaur company.

You may be on to something.

 

[Juan]

Nope

Apple to start with....Amazon maybe,....How about Netflix....All have deep pockets and a few have huge amounts of cash in hand!....If I tried Im sure I could come up with more.

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[JohnL]

Today, Linear TV is a tough sell. In the not to distant future Linear TV will be staging a come back. Streaming is becoming more and more fractured, between more and more players. Currently TV Streaming services is becoming more and more expensive with less and less content.

It won't be long before people start to realize a Linear TV Service subscription will provide more content at a lower price point than subscribing to multiple Streaming Providers (Hulu, CBS All Access, Disney, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go.....).

John

 

[Radioguy41]

Apple to start with....Amazon maybe,....How about Netflix....All have deep pockets and a few have huge amounts of cash in hand!....If I tried Im sure I could come up with more.

Netflix has deep debt, not deep pockets, and what little cash they have is being spent on new content tryouts for their streaming service. Netflix debt has grown from $10.36 billion last year to $12.43 billion as of September 30th. If those numbers don't start reversing soon, Netflix will become just a memory. The other two would have no reason to buy it. The only viable possibility, as I see it, would be Dish simply because Dish is already in the business. The problem with Dish merging with DTV is the hardware, infrastructure, and transponder leases. In order to pare costs DTV customers would eventually have to be transitioned to Dish hardware and that would be a huge expense and take a long time to accomplish. Frankly, and I've said this before, Charlie can just outwait them and save the headaches. Eventually, with AT&T at the helm, DTV will become worthless, get thrown on the scrapheap, and become a huge tax writeoff making for a lot of unhappy investors.

 

[Yespage]

Why should Charlie buy Directv if he can just watch it die and absorb the subscribers?

 

[CSM]

Why should Charlie buy Directv if he can just watch it die and absorb the subscribers?

Good point. However, doesn’t DTV have better PQ than Dish? You‘re right DTV wouldn’t have to merge with Dish just get DTV’s customers and their satellites. Would. Dish having DTV’s satellite’s give Dish DTV’s PQ? I forgot if DTV’s dishes are compatible with Dish’s equipment? On the other hand, if Dish wants to go all Internet streaming with SlingTV wouldn’t Charlie want to sell Dish?

 

[NashGuy]

Today, Linear TV is a tough sell. In the not to distant future Linear TV will be staging a come back. Streaming is becoming more and more fractured, between more and more players. Currently TV Streaming services is becoming more and more expensive with less and less content.

It won't be long before people start to realize a Linear TV Service subscription will provide more content at a lower price point than subscribing to multiple Streaming Providers (Hulu, CBS All Access, Disney, Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO Go.....).

In the end, the shift away from linear channel TV to on-demand TV isn't *mainly* about cost. Sure, to begin with, some folks quit cable/satellite TV and just paid for, say, Netflix and Amazon Prime to save money.

But the bigger picture is that a larger and larger portion of Americans' viewing hours are shifting over to on-demand streaming services, including among those households that have *both* cable TV and one or more streaming service. A bigger and bigger portion of the series and movies that get awards nominations, online buzz, and are talked about by your friends, family and co-workers is stuff that exists exclusively on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, etc. And with the launch of Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Peacock, that will become even more true. Stranger Things and The Crown and The Handmaid's Tale and Fleabag aren't available on any linear cable TV channel.

You're wrong when you say that streaming services offer "less and less content". It's true that Netflix is losing some key titles (Friends, The Office, Parks & Rec, etc.) to *other* streaming services. But the reality is that each year, we see a higher and higher number of hours of new original content exclusive to streaming services, not available on any linear TV channel. That number will really explode in 2020, as the streaming wars heat up.

What's happening is that linear channel cable TV service increasingly appeals only to sports junkies and news junkies, because live sports and live news/political opinion/talk (Fox News, MSNBC, CNN) are really the only things that cable TV exclusively offers or does better than the streaming services. (And remember that all the premium cable TV channels like HBO and Showtime are also available as on-demand streaming services, so they don't really count in either category.)

 

[CSM]

Capital Markets analyst Brandon Nispel thinks AT&T will see further declines in DTV and AT&T TV. He also thinks HBO/Max won’t be successful because of Game of Thrones has ended and Disney+’s pricing.

AT&T stock extends decline after KeyBanc warns of 'further deterioration' in video

 

[Juan]

Except he seems to be dropping sports channels

Why should Charlie buy Directv if he can just watch it die and absorb the subscribers?

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