Could AT&T buy Directv from Liberty?

[uncrules]

Prove it.
And leave the hbo and friends out, I hate movie channels for extreme repition.

I was talking about just the movie channels as far as the 90% number and I, and many others like the movie channels so you can't leave them out when discussing viable HD channels to add.

I'll grant you that the non movie HD channels won't be at the 90% level. However, they will show enough to warrant being added. Especially ESPNU, the channel I want the most. ESPNU has shown many college football games in HD this year and they will continue to do so once college basketball rolls around.

I agree with you that channels that have no HD content shouldn't be added. MTV, VH1, CMT and Fuel are the biggest wastes of bandwidth. Cartoon Network isn't that much better. Aside from the Clone Wars I'm not aware of any other HD programming they have. But I think that there are enough channels out there that carry a decent to good amount of HD content to warrant being added to use up the rest of D*'s available bandwidth.

Slighty off topic, there are those that say the HBO/Max channels are being delayed due to technical issues since HBO wants them delivered in MPEG4. I don't buy that excuse since Dish, U-Verse and FiOS all carry some of those MPEG4 channels from HBO and they don't have any issues. So D* can get off their butt and add them. If the true excuse is carriage agreements then that is lame too. D* announce in the middle of last year that they would be adding more HBO/Max and it has taken over a year to agree to terms? IF so then that sounds like the influence of Malone making D* take a tighter line with negations then they did last year when they added tons of HD, before Malone had any say so. This is why I want somebody beside Malone running D*.

 

[Van]

I was talking about just the movie channels as far as the 90% number

If thats the case then they'll exhuast their library in two months and you'll get alot more repeats of the same stuff than you do now.

 

[slimoli]

Lets hope AT&T doesn't buy out DirecTV. For one, AT&T's HD channels are compressed and so many people have said its not as good as their previous cable or sat provider. If AT&T takes over this might happen. Besides, I hate AT&T. Their service is terrible. We were going to have their Uverse internet installed one time and they failed to show up 2 different times in 2 different days. On top of that their customer service is bad. You have to go through all these weird automated voice things and its annoying.

I agree 100%. ATT is the Walmart of communications. Cheap service to cheap people. Cheap quality on everything they do. If it happens, expect the return of HD-light and a bunch of new channels that nobody cares about.

 

[Jimbo]

I agree 100%. ATT is the Walmart of communications. Cheap service to cheap people. Cheap quality on everything they do. If it happens, expect the return of HD-light and a bunch of new channels that nobody cares about.

Nice SLAM with your very BROAD brush your using there calling the employees CHEAP.

I'm sure where you work, not EVERYONE is a cheap lazy employee that you make EVERYONE at att out to be. !sadroll

 

[slimoli]

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anybody. I just agree with DJ Matt's comment that "ATT service is terrible". I had bad experiences with ATT and don't like it's U-Verse service with a lot of restrictions if all you want is HD channels and programs. I wish I could have FIOS instead.

 

[Albie2]

I have a hard time seeing the business case for it. Buying out Liberty would be a serious expenditure of cash/stock for an enterprise that presumably would be used to fill in the holes from U-Verse coverage. While that is most of the country right now it could conceivably be whittled down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50% of the U.S. I doubt they would offer DBS service as competition for U-Verse considering the amounts of cash they are expending on it.

 

[Jimbo]

Sorry, I didn't mean to offend anybody. I just agree with DJ Matt's comment that "ATT service is terrible". I had bad experiences with ATT and don't like it's U-Verse service with a lot of restrictions if all you want is HD channels and programs. I wish I could have FIOS instead.

I have a hard time seeing the business case for it. Buying out Liberty would be a serious expenditure of cash/stock for an enterprise that presumably would be used to fill in the holes from U-Verse coverage. While that is most of the country right now it could conceivably be whittled down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 40-50% of the U.S. I doubt they would offer DBS service as competition for U-Verse considering the amounts of cash they are expending on it.

Slimoli,
If you look around you will find many that don't like at&t and plenty that do.....
Even in this thread you'll see it half and half.

Albie,
at&t has been using DBS for several years now to fill in the gaps (been with Dish Network for how long now ?), they simply looked at D* being the better option at this point and will do the same they did with DISH , with D*.

Jimbo

 

[NutFlush920]

Well I went out and bought 100 shares of at&t today to cover all the bases. I now have 100 shares of DTV and T. Time to sit back and let the $ roll in (I hope).

 

[Albie2]

Albie,
at&t has been using DBS for several years now to fill in the gaps (been with Dish Network for how long now ?), they simply looked at D* being the better option at this point and will do the same they did with DISH , with D*.

Jimbo

I don't argue that they use DBS to fill the gaps, but right now they just partner with them, which makes a lot of sense. I just don't see the business case for the amount of money/stock it would take to actually buy out Liberty. Why expend that much on top of what they are already outlaying for the U-Verse project when you can partner up. That way they don't have to explain to shareholders the mounting losses as your DBS customer base shrinks so the U-Verse can grow.