DTV & DISHTV, Wife said she heard they are merging next week on CNBC today?

[LQQK]

Today at 10:30 a.m. ET on CNBC, Hamid Akhavan, Echostar CEO, Will answer questions about the DTV-DISH TV merger.

 

[MikeD-C05]

So Directv after absorbing much of DISH's debt of $9.5 billion and only paid $1 for DISH and Sling TV then ATT sold it's 70% majority to TPG and now they are owners of both Directv and DISH. Then Echostar will receive $2.5 billion buyout from TPG that they will use to pay on their upcoming debt payment for Nov. 15. So Neither ATT or Echostar will receive any monthly profits anymore from the combined company. But Charlie found a way to continue his build out and stay on track to keep Boost afloat.

But it is contingent on DISH DBS stockholders taking a $1.57 billion hair cut on their stock and they have to convince them to be stockholders of the new merged company. Also federal regulators have to approve the entire deal as well. But I had read that DISH stockholders were already mad when they merged with Echostar a month or so back. So I don't know how they will take this hair cut.

But it looks like Echostar will still make the receivers, so there is that revenue coming in. I take it they can slam a Directv name on the receiver instead of DISH. It sounds like they will be using the idea of smaller programming packs like DISH and Sling Tv have and it also sounds like they might be interested in using the DISH plus receiver, so they can combine all the streaming apps in one interface with the sat receiver.

I just wonder if TPG will keep some of the DISH tech people to go to the new company and help with the running of the new combined company.

 

[vlad_]

Yeah, you've probably done that for the last time.

Squeezed in one more switch under the wire.

YTTV.

And DirecTV is now charging $200 for new/returning subscribers for the install.

No mention of a charge for the install this morning.

I did look into YTTV, one very important channel missing, Lifetime. Gotta keep the Mrs. happy!

 

[Jay50]

Is this true?

It is absolutely true. DirecTV bought Dish today (Monday, Sep. 30) for a symbolic $1 (not a typo). They will assume Dish's 9.8 billion debt. All of this requires regulatory approval. You can read about it in the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com). What the impact on employees, tech support and their customers will be, I have not heard anything. Certainly, they must have discussed that. The acquisition might increase their leverage when negotiating with content providers. So, the impact on us as customers is currently unknown. The Sirius-XM merger seems to have gone well. Perhaps this will, too.

 

[Bruce]

Squeezed in one more switch under the wire.


No mention of a charge for the install this morning.

That was posted here it was changed back to a free install with the 2 year contract.

 

[vlad_]

(snip)
What the impact on employees, tech support and their customers will be, I have not heard anything. Certainly, they must have discussed that. The acquisition might increase their leverage when negotiating with content providers. So, the impact on us as customers is currently unknown. The Sirius-XM merger seems to have gone well. Perhaps this will, too.

Anytime competition is reduced, prices do not remain the same or decrease, they always go up. At least that has been my experience.

 

[vlad_]

Just received an email from DirecTV showing the price $30.47 higher per month than what I was told over the phone when I placed the order. Customer service could not explain how the phone rep got to the price that I was quoted.

Install cancelled, looks like I'll stay with Dish and the retention deal that they offered.