I want to know what actually becomes part of the sale of DISH to Directv. Does it include the satellites themselves? Does it include the uplink centers? Does it include the satellite receivers themselves? At one time the receivers were made by Echostar. Then DISH became the name on the receivers. But Echostar made receivers for Europe too at one time I thought. I think for the foreseeable near future, both companies will still operate till they decide which receivers they will go with and which gets thrown out.
I remember back in 2002 the first time they tried to merge they had plans to download software so either companies' receiver could work with either Directv or DISH signals. They even had a big dish that had lnbs for all the western satellites like 110,119 and 101. That was before eastern arc was added in 2008. So I see a transition that will take a long time and I think many of the subs that are on the fence, will just churn rather than change out everything for a different satellite service and especially if it is higher than they are paying now. So this will lead to more churn and losses.