losing money. Investors want this to happen. It would probably mean pac 12 net would no longer be on dish. Just a guess.

The fact that DirecTV is a money losing albatross is pretty sweet for fans of Pac-12 teams.

With all due respect, a highly unlikely scenario. AT&T has spent over $100B acquiring DirecTV and Time Warner, in order to build a content rich, network flexible entertainment juggernaut. DirecTV brought content, and subscriber scale, which directly reduces acquisition cost per subscriber, a key factor in third party content acquisition and retention.

And since AT&T doesn't have the fiber-to-the-home footprint of Verizon's FIOS, it's key that they control DirecTV's satellite network, in order to move their video service delivery OFF their copper, fiber-to-the-node terrestrial network in order to free up the bandwidth to offer higher speed broadband. Hence the announcement that U-Verse is being discontinued and video service is being moved to the DirecTV network.

In short, not gonna happen.

Satellite will see the same fate as cable.

Outside of hardcore football fans wanting Sunday NFL ticket, I don't get subscribing to satellite.

https://www.cnet.com/news/at-t-directv-reportedly-looking-at-merger-with-dish-satellite/

Marty said:

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With all due respect, a highly unlikely scenario. AT&T has spent over $100B acquiring DirecTV and Time Warner, in order to build a content rich, network flexible entertainment juggernaut. DirecTV brought content, and subscriber scale, which directly reduces acquisition cost per subscriber, a key factor in third party content acquisition and retention.

And since AT&T doesn't have the fiber-to-the-home footprint of Verizon's FIOS, it's key that they control DirecTV's satellite network, in order to move their video service delivery OFF their copper, fiber-to-the-node terrestrial network in order to free up the bandwidth to offer higher speed broadband. Hence the announcement that U-Verse is being discontinued and video service is being moved to the DirecTV network.

In short, not gonna happen.

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Agree.

If Dish buys Direct, and plays the Pac-12Networks throughout its whole system, then Tennis Larry becomes Exhibit A of: "Sometimes it's better to be lucky, than good".

Fyght4Cal said:

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If Dish buys Direct, and plays the Pac-12Networks throughout its whole system, then Tennis Larry becomes Exhibit A of: "Sometimes it's better to be lucky, than good".

You got that right. Might as well hope for a merger.

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Marty said:

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With all due respect, a highly unlikely scenario. AT&T has spent over $100B acquiring DirecTV and Time Warner, in order to build a content rich, network flexible entertainment juggernaut. DirecTV brought content, and subscriber scale, which directly reduces acquisition cost per subscriber, a key factor in third party content acquisition and retention.

And since AT&T doesn't have the fiber-to-the-home footprint of Verizon's FIOS, it's key that they control DirecTV's satellite network, in order to move their video service delivery OFF their copper, fiber-to-the-node terrestrial network in order to free up the bandwidth to offer higher speed broadband. Hence the announcement that U-Verse is being discontinued and video service is being moved to the DirecTV network.

In short, not gonna happen.

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It's probably unlikely to happen, but you're ignoring the fact that DirecTV is bleeding subscribers like crazy (almost 800k last quarter alone, guidance is over 1m loss this quarter). Additionally, their OTT "skinny bundle" offering AT&T Now (f/k/a DirecTV Now) is also losing subscribers, and may have been fraudulently reporting their subscriber numbers to sweeten acquisition offers.

You're also ignoring the fact that there is now an activist shareholder (Elliott Management) with a $3.2bn stake in the company agitating for AT&T to refocus on it's core telecom business.

So, unlikely to happen under this management regime -- but that could change. That's assuming they can find a buyer for it, which I'm not so sure they can. They bought DirecTV at the absolute PEAK of the linear tv market.

oskidunker said:

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Fyght4Cal said:

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If Dish buys Direct, and plays the Pac-12Networks throughout its whole system, then Tennis Larry becomes Exhibit A of: "Sometimes it's better to be lucky, than good".

You got that right. Might as well hope for a merger.

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What would be really funny (funny, as in f'n fantastic) is if the spread of the P12N coincides with the rise of Cal Football. We become the featured team in a new marketing blitz.

You do realize the link doesn't remotely suggest that it is discussed, right? The first says there are no discussions and merely links to a "report" by Seeking Alpha. The latter is a three sentence "this could happen" piece again without any sort of sourcing.

Yes, ATT has an activist shareholder. And yes, The current composition of phone, dtv and HBO is odd. Having said that, Verizon is doing fine without being a content provider and dtv does offer some things as noted above. The biggest thing driving the activist is dtv doesn't really fit with hbo, so ATT needs to decide if it is a content provider or a utility company.

One can only hope.

AT&T is reportedly exploring a sale of DirecTV:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/18/media/att-directv-spinoff/index.html