DTV and Dish Network Discuss Merger Talks Again

[CSM]

Probably save a lot of money on advertising too. When's the last time you saw an ad for Directv? They have to figure at this point the customers willing to consider satellite TV already know Directv and Dish exist.

Are you talking DTV Satellite advertising? DTV has been advertising for DTV over the Net.

 

[jcrandall]

If it is just Dish Network TV Service, I doubt it would be much of a issue with the Government.

If it is for all of Echostar (Boost, 5G Spectrum, etc), that would make it more problematic, it gets the FTC, DoJ and the FCC more involved, for one example, the FCC has limitations on Dish/Echostar about the ability to sell the spectrum.

But again, looking at what AT&T did to DirecTV, I am amazed they are so willing to doing this dance again

I think this is a good assessment of how the FTC would look at this. The TV landscape has change, no concern of consumer issue in DirecTV and Dish merging or an acquisition. Mobile, on the other hand, T-Mobile couldn’t acquire Boost as part of the Spring acquisition due to anti-consumer concerns with only three major players. That said, Boost is not a major player and Echostar execution has been a mess. But the potential concern of AT&T getting Boost would be the same as T-Mobile, nothing has changed there.

If DirecTV acquires Dish, I could see Echostar living on as a wireless only company and continuing trying to grow Boost until the money runs out. The money they get for dish prolongs that. Could see that type of deal being looked at as pro-consumer so to speak, doubt the FTC would stand in the way.

 

[Bruce]

Officials at Dish Network and DirecTV are downplaying reports of a possible merger of the two satellite television platforms, according to several sources who spoke with The Desk on background this week.

In this case, it appears the information for Bloomberg’s weekend scoop came from some at Dish Network, a high-level DirecTV executive told The Desk over the weekend. The executive, who agreed to speak with The Desk on condition of anonymity, said they were “not aware of any conversations with Dish” about a merger, adding they would “definitely be in those meetings” at some point.

The executive said the conversation was “probably casual banter…that someone at Dish decided was newsworthy.” Efforts to reach Dish for comment were not successful.

Rumor mill again swirls around unlikely Dish-DirecTV merger

Officials at Dish Network and DirecTV are downplaying reports of a possible merger of the two satellite television platforms.

thedesk.net