AT&T Should sell DIRECTV to DISH
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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Yeah, but if you live on a farm in Buckknuckle County, Nebraska where there aren't any broadband providers, then all those streaming services don't really help you.
I understand what you're saying -- all the streaming services definitely HAVE changed the competitive landscape for satellite TV. But, at least for the next few years, there are still going to be several million Americans who won't have access to decent, affordable broadband (HughesNet doesn't count) and won't have access to any other form of pay TV than satellite TV. Someone needs to speak up for Farmer Bob and Cowgirl Jane. If DTV and DISH are allowed to merge, then they should have to agree to some sort of price caps for the next several years to keep the combined company from abusing their monopoly position in rural areas.
Yep look at all of the rural complaints the UFC has gotten sense exclusively going to streaming. Hell they had to throw the PPV back on DirecTV commercial accounts because none of the bars has any streaming capabilities! The government should not allow a Dish and DirecTV merger to happen!
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It’s not completely who has the larger installed equipment base. It’s also which is the better technology, which is more cost effective going forward, including equipment costs. By the time any such merger would be considered, I expect the number of subscribers to be a lot closer.
IOW, I think Dish customers would revolt over losing equipment they like for equipment that is, quite frankly, inferior. And DTV customers would likely be pleased with the increased functionality and simplicity. Hate aside.
Satellite TV is not dead. Some may be undervaluing the one stop shop approach, with one EPG, one remote, one system. AND an in home DVR with few limitations.
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IOW, I think Dish customers would revolt over losing equipment they like for equipment that is, quite frankly, inferior. And DTV customers would likely be pleased with the increased functionality and simplicity. Hate aside.
Satellite TV is not dead. Some may be undervaluing the one stop shop approach, with one EPG, one remote, one system. AND an in home DVR with few limitations.
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i think that the more convincing argument (at least to THE DoJ and FCC) was the fact that both companies were incurring big losses and it was feared that one or both would go under without a merger.
I’m sure Tesla would be an acquhire if Apple bought it.
As a lifelong dtv subscriber, I hope Google never obtains it. They’d find a way to show thirty second ads after every Channel turn.
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It will be a cold day in hell before I do anything with Dish Network ever again.
Yes I agree AT&T should be sold, but NOT to Dish.
With my credentials and 22 year history in the satellite industry, mark my word I will personally fly to Washington DC and speak before Congress along with a dozen other retailers.
I will do everything in my power to de rail a Dish Network buyout of Directv. They hate my at Dish now, wait till they hear what I have to say.
If I can de rail a merger, I would consider the 2.8 million dollar debt they owe to my company paid in full
But one thing to consider, Charlie tried to buy Directv about 16 years ago. Whether he was serious or not, I remember being a Dish retailer at the time and for that one year, Directv was in a holding pattern and we steam rolled them sighing up new customers, and switching customers ahead of the pending merger.
Just the news of Dish buying Directv was enough to get people to switch.
Charlie May be an a$$hole and treat his employees and retailers like crap, but he knows what he is doing.
Of course Charlie is going to be a buyer, he is all in buying Directv up until the time comes for him to sign the check.
This is just another opportunity for him to peek into the books at Directv and boost his failing satellite business for a year.
It really wouldn’t surprise me, if Charlie trades AT&T all that 5g spectrum he will never use for Directv. After all, all AT&T seems interested in these days is wireless and providing home internet service.
The other issue is I don’t know who would want to buy Directv or Dish for that matter with the failing state the entire industry is in today.
I will say this, I don’t think Dish can build out their 5g network and buy Directv at the same time
Yes I agree AT&T should be sold, but NOT to Dish.
With my credentials and 22 year history in the satellite industry, mark my word I will personally fly to Washington DC and speak before Congress along with a dozen other retailers.
I will do everything in my power to de rail a Dish Network buyout of Directv. They hate my at Dish now, wait till they hear what I have to say.
If I can de rail a merger, I would consider the 2.8 million dollar debt they owe to my company paid in full
But one thing to consider, Charlie tried to buy Directv about 16 years ago. Whether he was serious or not, I remember being a Dish retailer at the time and for that one year, Directv was in a holding pattern and we steam rolled them sighing up new customers, and switching customers ahead of the pending merger.
Just the news of Dish buying Directv was enough to get people to switch.
Charlie May be an a$$hole and treat his employees and retailers like crap, but he knows what he is doing.
Of course Charlie is going to be a buyer, he is all in buying Directv up until the time comes for him to sign the check.
This is just another opportunity for him to peek into the books at Directv and boost his failing satellite business for a year.
It really wouldn’t surprise me, if Charlie trades AT&T all that 5g spectrum he will never use for Directv. After all, all AT&T seems interested in these days is wireless and providing home internet service.
The other issue is I don’t know who would want to buy Directv or Dish for that matter with the failing state the entire industry is in today.
I will say this, I don’t think Dish can build out their 5g network and buy Directv at the same time
"Passing Justice's antitrust review was considered the most difficult hurdle in the merger process since the tie-up combines the nation's only two satellite radio players. However, the agency concluded that satellite radio competes with conventional radio and digital devices like Apple's (AAPL, Fortune 500) iPod."
XM-Sirius merger gets Justice Department approval. - Mar. 24, 2008
Wow. Lots of good points raised here. And as you say, if not DISH buying DTV (or vice versa), then whom? What third party would want to acquire either, or both, satellite TV businesses?
Nobody!
I don’t even think Dish wants to buy Directv.
The satellite transponder space is not an issue, both companies “if” they wanted to can provide locals in every DMA.
Granted 4K is going to take off in a few years, but it’s going to be a long till every Dish or Directv subscriber would be converted to 1 platform or the other.
Dish and Directv never really made a push to get everyone on a Dish500, Dish 1000, or slimline Dish. They waited for customers to eventually upgrade for HD programming or waited for them to eventually churn.
The “only” and I mean only advantage for Dish to buy Directv is to get rid of the competition.
We are not talking a $15 satellite radio subscription here, and I don’t think there was many customers flip flopping between Sirius and Xm.
The biggest issue today between the 2 providers is customers flip flopping when their promotion is over. Tens of millions of dollars are spent each year on promotional credits, equipment and install costs so people can switch between Dish Network and Directv.
If Dish bought Directv, you have accomplished 2 things.
1) you eliminated part of the churn issue.
2) you saved tens of millions of dollars switching people between providers.
3) you got greater power with the content providers.
For any cable or satellite company to be successful you need fast, reliable internet.
AT&T thought they had this issue solved, but unless there is fiber in your backyard, their coverage sucks.
Dish “thinks” the answer is 5G, and they are right. 5G will bridge the gap, but it’s only a solution for the 12 or so million Dish network customers.
If Dish thinks they are going to build this so called 5G network and AT&T and Verizon is going to watch then poach their customers, they are living in a pipe dream. The cellular market is saturated also, a 4th or 5th major provider is not coming to appear over night and steal the show.
Dish needs internet for their customers, but there are not enough Dish customers who don’t already have an internet solution for their so called 5G network to become profitable.
So what does this all mean?
Satellite Tv is going to suck for the next few years. Both Dish and Directv are going to stop dumping millions in advertising and promotions and focus on retention.
Both companies will easily drop 3-4 million customers, but once the customer base stabilizes both companies are going to make more profit then ever before in the history of Dish or Directv.
The problem with streaming is only going to get worse, but AT&T, and Comcast did get 1 thing right. They are buying up the content provider such as NBC and Time Warner.
Once you control the content providers, you then can control the streaming providers and it’s going to become cheaper to go with streaming from your cable provider such as Directv, Comcast, Dish and spectrum then it would from Netflix, Hulu and the other dozen wanna be streaming providers.
You think Comcast, AT&T and Spectrum want to sell you “internet only” they want bundles and they want your video business.
Your already seeing this with Spectrum and Comcast allowing Roku to be able to be used as a receiver instead of a traditional box.
Sounds fine to me. There's no need for two satellite companies and they have plenty of competition from Internet-based services.
Despite all the whining most Americans can get access to a decent enough Internet connection that can stream HD and even 4K videos if they want. The amount of the population that has access to potato quality Internet only is very, very small. There will always be a need for alternative means to serve that little niche living on the fringe of civilization until fast Internet connectivity becomes as ubiquitous as electrical outlets and even the most remote folks have it, but even though we're not there yet connectivity has improved so much that it's already resulted in an insufficient customer base to support two companies.
The majority of the American population now has access to a provider that offers a 1 Gbps speed tier and they can subscribe to that speed if they want it.
Despite all the whining most Americans can get access to a decent enough Internet connection that can stream HD and even 4K videos if they want. The amount of the population that has access to potato quality Internet only is very, very small. There will always be a need for alternative means to serve that little niche living on the fringe of civilization until fast Internet connectivity becomes as ubiquitous as electrical outlets and even the most remote folks have it, but even though we're not there yet connectivity has improved so much that it's already resulted in an insufficient customer base to support two companies.
The majority of the American population now has access to a provider that offers a 1 Gbps speed tier and they can subscribe to that speed if they want it.
BS!!!! We're within 15 miles of the capital of one of the largest states in the US and the best we get is 10 down and .6 up. That's just not us, that's everybody around here. For those who live right closer to the city and are fortunate to get an excellent wired connection the very fastest they can get is 100 down. And then there's a lot more people who get nothing at all except satellite of a bar or two of wireless from a far off cell tower.
I agree with everything you say....But holding Apple stock and them sitting on piles of cash do nothing for the investor!
The stats that say 80+% of the US has access to gig has been shown to be completely wrong. The ISPs self report and overstate their footprint. The FCC and congress are currently trying to figure out how to get real numbers.
Microsoft says its data shows FCC reports massively overstate broadband adoption – TechCrunch
I am not believing we are near any type of buyout or merger. If there were a buyer other than DISH I can go with At&t would sell. And the posts about this wouldn't be about the technologies meshing or not but it would be about the bottom line/money/gaining customers are spot on. And I do not for a second believe Cable's own numbers on how many have fast or maybe even any internet.
I could substitute the arguments at the time about the talks of XM and Sirius merging for what I see in posts here. If eventually at sometime At&t does not have a buyer anyone who wants satellite service will be praying they get taken over by DISH. Many lessons were learned in Sat radio situation that apply here.
1. At some point it became apparent there were not enough consumers wanting satellite radio to make them profitable. We will reach that for Sat TV.
2. It is a fallacy (and always has been and I always agreed with Ergen on this) that Satellite radio are true competitors of themselves the real competitor is technologies in the case of radio terrestrial. For Sat TV it is Cable. While not quite as definitive for a couple of reasons Cable is much more a competitor of Directv or DISH than they are of each other.
Who gains more, DISH if Directv goes away or DISH if Cable goes away? Not even close. Cable is the true competitor.
3.Many areas have only one choice for Cable. So Sat technology is the only real competition. Now add that there are still huge areas where there is either no cable available or it isn't fast for true streaming of all TV and again Satellite is alternative. Go back to my #1 and what is better for consumers no Satellite TV available because two companies can't make enough profit or one thriving Satellite company?
4. I have had Satellite radio since it's inception. (XM) After all the hand-ringing of one Sat radio company It is a thriving better company now with far more choices and entertainment than with two. I actually can make better deals now because they are not flirting with not making a profit.
SiriusXM has far more subscribers than the two companies when they were separate. They have more than DISH and Direct combined by millions.
It's because Charlie has always been correct on this, the two sat companies are not the true competitors.
I could substitute the arguments at the time about the talks of XM and Sirius merging for what I see in posts here. If eventually at sometime At&t does not have a buyer anyone who wants satellite service will be praying they get taken over by DISH. Many lessons were learned in Sat radio situation that apply here.
1. At some point it became apparent there were not enough consumers wanting satellite radio to make them profitable. We will reach that for Sat TV.
2. It is a fallacy (and always has been and I always agreed with Ergen on this) that Satellite radio are true competitors of themselves the real competitor is technologies in the case of radio terrestrial. For Sat TV it is Cable. While not quite as definitive for a couple of reasons Cable is much more a competitor of Directv or DISH than they are of each other.
Who gains more, DISH if Directv goes away or DISH if Cable goes away? Not even close. Cable is the true competitor.
3.Many areas have only one choice for Cable. So Sat technology is the only real competition. Now add that there are still huge areas where there is either no cable available or it isn't fast for true streaming of all TV and again Satellite is alternative. Go back to my #1 and what is better for consumers no Satellite TV available because two companies can't make enough profit or one thriving Satellite company?
4. I have had Satellite radio since it's inception. (XM) After all the hand-ringing of one Sat radio company It is a thriving better company now with far more choices and entertainment than with two. I actually can make better deals now because they are not flirting with not making a profit.
SiriusXM has far more subscribers than the two companies when they were separate. They have more than DISH and Direct combined by millions.
It's because Charlie has always been correct on this, the two sat companies are not the true competitors.
I agree, I don’t think we are close either. More than likely this was a rumor started to boost the stock price.
However the 2 companies are direct competitors. All day long Directv and now AT&T will sign you up as an exclusive retailer.
Then you got the fact that AT&T is purposely playing games with Dish when it comes to HBO.
Guaranteed subscribers my A$$, Directv is going down and they are taking Dish with them by taking away HBO.
As far as the Sirius argument, radio is radio. Most people signed up for whatever radio came factory installed in their vehicle.
The only true competition was in the after market radios, and that was only based on who had the better deal at the time.
Radio is radio.
