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WSJ Reports AT&T May Be Eying a $40B DirecTV Acquisition

Posted by timothy on from the you-are-my-eyeballs-my-only-eyeballs dept.

New submitter rcht148 (2872453) writes with this excerpt from The Verge:"If the idea of Comcast buying out Time Warner Cable to become the largest cable company in America wasn't enough to make you worry about media consolidation, news [Wednesday] from the Wall Street Journal just might. Reportedly, AT&T has approached DirecTV to begin 'possible acquisition' talks, a deal that the WSJ says could be worth over $40 billion. If it were to happen, it would give the combined company something on the order of 26 million TV subscribers, making it second only to the hypothetical Comcast/TWC combination of 30 million."

51 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. net neutrality by arbiterxero · · Score: 5, Insightful

    All the more reason net neutrality matters. A LOT.

    Hmmm, do I want the disney internet, or the work internet, or the Time-Warner internet, or the HBO internet...

    It will become mindless channels instead of the broad communication tool it is now

    1. Re:net neutrality by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      Net Neutrality is important, but lets not exaggerate what will likely happen. If you live in town, I doubt it will even effect you. If you live in the country however, and all your neighbors watch netflix, your internet connections going to suck on friday/saturday nights. I'm fairly certain that if they start using the issue to block your access to parts of the internet and create walled gardens, the FCC would step in, and if they didn't, it'd end up in front of SCOTUS as 1st amendment issue. I don't think there is anything the ISPs would find less palatable than SCOTUS rulings on their services. I suspect they'd bend over backwards to prevent it going that far.

    2. Re:net neutrality by unitron · · Score: 1

      DirectTV has no internet service and this would have no impact on that.

      Picture this--your home phone line is good enough for outbound internet traffic via a DSL type hookup and your download comes in much faster via satellite, so instead of cable TV you go ahead with DirecTV over the satellite dish you need for fast internet anyway, and ATT/DirecTV gets your money and Comcast/TWC doesn't.

      Because synergies

      (and any other buzzwords that happen to be lying around)

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    3. Re:net neutrality by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      How is this a 1st amendment issue? The com lines are not owned by the government, they are owned by private companies.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    4. Re:net neutrality by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      I don't believe directv itself provides any internet services. There's hughesnet, but I don't recall if they're a sister company or a parent company. Even if they are the same company these days, the service is crap anyways; it's horribly capped and the latency is awful, and I can't see a merger making it any worse.

      Anyways, IMO this only stands to harm pay TV content providers. And you know what? I say let it happen. The pay TV content providers have been fucking us over for decades and are THE biggest reason for cable price hikes. They are given government sanctioned monopolies over their content that they use to strong arm the rest of us, so let them see what happens when they get strong-armed by a worse monopoly.

      As for pay TV prices, I no longer give a fuck. I stopped watching pay TV last year. Popcorn time, sickbeard, and couchpotato will get you anything you want in that on-demand style; the later two via the pirate bay which has strongly withstood even the most demanding attacks by the **AAs.

    5. Re:net neutrality by Darinbob · · Score: 2

      Well, it sort of has HughesNet, not sure if that's really part of DirecTV or not. It's only 1-2Mbps though, with somewhat low daily bandwidth caps. Great for web browsing at home, not really viable for streaming.

  2. AT&T paying a fortune to John Malone AGAIN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    AT&T paid a fortune for John Malone's TCI, then sold it to Comcast.

    Now they're going to him a fortune again for DirecTV?

    Could this be the funding Malone needs for another run at Time Warner Cable?

    Stay tuned!

  3. Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by NotDrWho · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Want internet? You can have either Comcast or AT&T. Choose one.

    --
    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by CRCulver · · Score: 1

      As I've mentioned before in Slashdot threads on the poor quality and prices of internet access in the US, there has to be more to the story than lack of competition. In my town in Romania, I also have exactly two choices: UPC and RCS-RDS. And yet both offer an at least 400 megabit fiber optic conection (the latter just started offering gigabit) to your door for less than 20€/month. There's no throttling, you can torrent hundreds of gigabytes a month without anyone batting an eye.

      Now, perhaps this is because EU funds may have been available to lay new fiber all over the country, even in less densely populated and less affluent areas. Is there no comparable funding in the US, and if not, what is the political obstacle? I had thought that the old Universal Service Fund had been updated to help provide wider access to the internet.

    2. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by hendrips · · Score: 1

      I would speculate that the low speeds, at least, occur because Americans simply don't care. Yes, yes, I know that plenty of American Slashdotters care. But competition tends to make companies better at producing what customers demand. If there isn't sufficient demand for a product, such as gigabit internet, then no amount of competition will cause companies to start producing that product.

      Now, that's not an absolute statement, and low demand isn't the same thing as no demand. If Google wants to provide Kansas City with gigabit internet on its own initiative at a low, possibly subsidized, price as a publicity stunt, I'm sure plenty of people will sign up. And better marketing and public awareness might raise demand for better internet speeds. But my guess is that most Americans are satisfied with the internet speeds, or at least not upset enough to do anything about it (remember, Slashdot isn't America). My own city actually has heated competition between three different ISP's. It's led to lower prices, which customers obviously want, but not faster speeds, which customers don't seem to care about.

      That's my pet theory, at least.

    3. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by smooth+wombat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Is there no comparable funding in the US, and if not, what is the political obstacle?

      Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, the U.S. government gave out billions of dollars to companies to lay fiber all over the country for the expected increase in internet usage. They were trying to give a boost to the thousands of ISPs we had at that time by taking over some of the cost of the upgrade.

      Tens of thousands of miles of fiber were laid and then nothing. It was at this same time The Great Consolidation started to take place and over the next decade we went from thousands of providers to a literal handful. All that taxpayer money that was given to companies to lay fiber went wasted because after it was laid, the money that was left over was used by companies to buy up competitors rather than upgrading backend services to provide higher speeds.

      The result is what you see today. 3 or 4 providers covering the country with the vast majority of people having only 1 or 2 providers to choose from, both offering the same high prices for the same slow speeds.

      The difference between your country and ours is that private industry is supposed to react to consumer demand by providing better products/services at lower prices than their competitor. In reality, millions of dollars each year are spent bribing elected officials and those involved with decision-making of rules and regulations to prevent real free market principles from taking hold.

      To be perfectly blunt, the way things are now in this country, with businesses holding sway and able to get elected officials to do their bidding, is not too far off from the way things were done in your country, and most of Eastern Europe under Soviet rule, in the past. What the people want is becoming less and less relevant with those who have the power and influence dictating how things will be.

      --
      We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
    4. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

      So, in most markets that's the way it works (telco and cableco). Even if there are resellers, prices are about the same (like gas stations)...

      The problem is ISPs are also content distributers, so they want to prevent Netflix and such from competing with their own services (or TV channels), hence why Comcast was able to force Netflix to pay them...

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
    5. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by BradMajors · · Score: 2

      The United States does have a "plan": http://www.broadband.gov/plan/...

      Billions in government money is available for expanding broadband.

    6. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by swb · · Score: 1

      Newer infrastructure?

      In most cases, US high speed internet is an "extension" (or bastardization, if you will) of older, pre-existing infrastructure. DSL is built out on top of POTS, and pretty much everything else that isn't fiber to the home is built out on the cable television infrastructure.

      My guess is that most of the communications infrastructure, especially Internet connectivity, dates from the mid-1990s at the earliest. It was purpose built, brand-new using modern technologies rather than adapting the crap infrastructure already present in many US cities that dates from the 1980s at latest.

    7. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by CRCulver · · Score: 1

      My first broadband connection in Romania in the 2000s was DSL built on top of either phone or cable television infrastructure, I forget. But by the middle of the first decade of the new millennium, there was a large and successful push for laying fiber. Except for a few small ventures like Google and Verizon working in some limited areas, that push never happened in the US.

    8. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by AnontheDestroyer · · Score: 1

      I would LOVE 2 choices. I only have 1. All the more reason these companies should be busted the hell up instead of merged,.

    9. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by swb · · Score: 1

      But what was the telecommunications infrastructure like before Ceausescu was deposed? I would guess that individual phone lines were something of a luxury, especially outside core urban areas. Was there even a cable television infrastructure before the 1990s?

      Of course, I'm not justifying what feels like underinvestment in US infrastructure, but somehow it seems more likely you'd end up today with something much more modern in a place like Romania which likely had a pretty old and small telecomms buildout until the 1990s.

    10. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by CRCulver · · Score: 1

      The point is that there have been two major waves of infrastructure investment in recent years in Romania while in the US there has only been one and then apparently companies got lazy and began to abuse their monopolies/duopolies.

      Americans sometimes claim that firms have not laid fiber because they are still coasting on the telephone lines and cable television connections. However, the 1990s saw Romania build up telephone lines and cable television connections, and broadband internet was originally provided through these. After 2005, there was then a major and broadly successful push to replace those cable and POTS DSL internet connections with fiber.

    11. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by antdude · · Score: 1

      For Internet, I only have one fast affordable one: Cable. No DSL, fiber, etc. I can go back to dial-up, satellite, etc. but why?

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    12. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by swb · · Score: 1

      My only guess (outside of pure rent-seeking monopoly behavior) would be just scale -- 250M people versus 20 million people, 9 million km^2 vs. 238,000 km^2, and the US only has about 1/3 of the population density.

    13. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by CRCulver · · Score: 1

      While population density might explain the dearth of fiber in rural areas of the United States, it does not explain the lack of fiber in many US metropolitan areas. "pure rent-seeking monopoly behavior" is probably all that it comes down to.

    14. Re:Pretty soon we'll all have exactly two choices by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Ah, EU funds. We don't have much public funding of anything in the US really, even our bridges fall down. Too many people in power think that market forces should control everything and can solve any problem. And in this case, it's mostly right, as long as you live in a major metropolitan hub rather than a small town,rural area, or in the poor parts of town.

  4. Oligopoly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Is the word of the day. Until some kind of real regulation/legislation occurs high price and low service compared to the rest of the developed world will continue to be the mantra of the US Television and Internet market.

  5. Both have better TV then comcast by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 2

    DirecTV and Uverse have better TV then comcast.

    Comcast can't even show all there IN MARKET RSN HD feeds or other stuff like BTN ALTs in HD or Premier League Extra Time as real channels.

    Comcast is liveing in the past with loads of older boxes they still have HD boxes out there don't even have HDMI out on them.

    1. Re:Both have better TV then comcast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      That may be true (I happen to agree with you that it likely is), however this is not about TV. This is about competition and removing it.

      If AT&T buys out DirecTV that creates one more super-monopoly and reduces choices even more, thereby allowing everyone to raise prices and reduce quality. Nothing about this is good for consumers.

    2. Re:Both have better TV then comcast by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      Well Dish and directv need to do something if comcast and TWC meager happens.

    3. Re:Both have better TV then comcast by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/then

      http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/than

    4. Re:Both have better TV then comcast by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      DirecTV and Dish though have relatively little clout when it comes to negotiating with major content providers, and there have been disputes in the past, the satellite companies have put their foot down and have channels drop off the air rather than pay higher prices. But eventually they give in to reality and pay the higher prices and pass most of it along to customers. Still cheaper than cable though.

      So one possible benefit is that the combined ATT/DirecTV might be able to force more concessions.

  6. This is LESS worrying than Comcast by mi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the idea of Comcast buying out Time Warner Cable to become the largest cable company in America wasn't enough to make you worry

    That idea is very worrying — because it is about two competitors merging. However, with both of them being very-very cozy with the governing party, the merger is all but decided, unfortunately.

    If it were to happen, it would give the combined company something on the order of 26 million TV subscribers

    That's a lot, but less than the other combo and, more importantly, TV is not primary line of business for AT&T...

    That said, with Internet-speeds continuing to rise — net-neutrality or not — it will only become easier to deliver content over it. Netflix may have made a special deal with Verizon, but smaller IPTV providers (like KartinaTV used by my relatives to watch channels from the former USSR and Israel) are doing just fine without any special arrangements.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:This is LESS worrying than Comcast by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

      but all of that TV eats your CAP fast. Also what makes you think comcast will not play fair with online TV when they have there own TV system to sell you. they may even have be like buy TV and get a bigger cap on the internet.

    2. Re: This is LESS worrying than Comcast by beanpoppa · · Score: 1

      This is more worrying. The Comcast/twc merger is not really a merger of competitors. They generally serve separate and distinct markets. If I am unhappy with comcast, I cant switch to twc. But I can (generally) switch to directv or dish, or possibly at&t uverse or verizon fios.

    3. Re:This is LESS worrying than Comcast by litehacksaur111 · · Score: 1

      Please don't try and tell us that somehow the republicans are such saints in this. At least the democrats have tried to pass net-neutrality rules which would put an end to the content based discrimination nonsense.

    4. Re:This is LESS worrying than Comcast by unitron · · Score: 1

      If the idea of Comcast buying out Time Warner Cable to become the largest cable company in America wasn't enough to make you worry

      That idea is very worrying — because it is about two competitors merging. However, with both of them being very-very cozy with the governing party, the merger is all but decided, unfortunately.

      If it were to happen, it would give the combined company something on the order of 26 million TV subscribers

      That's a lot, but less than the other combo and, more importantly, TV is not primary line of business for AT&T...

      That said, with Internet-speeds continuing to rise — net-neutrality or not — it will only become easier to deliver content over it. Netflix may have made a special deal with Verizon, but smaller IPTV providers (like KartinaTV used by my relatives to watch channels from the former USSR and Israel) are doing just fine without any special arrangements.

      Of course they're cozy with the governing party.

      And if the other party takes control they'll be cozy with them.

      You bribe whomever can do something for you in return.

      And you pay something to their enemies to keep them around in case the people in power get too greedy and need replacing with someone who'll give you more bang for your bribe buck--that way the the people in power know not to get too greedy lest they kill the goose which is laying the golden eggs.

      --

      I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.

    5. Re:This is LESS worrying than Comcast by mi · · Score: 1

      Please don't try and tell us that somehow the republicans are such saints in this

      I was not talking about Republicans. I was talking about the Administration currently in charge — in whose power it is to block the merger. Famously, Obama "has pen and phone", but would not use it. Considering the two companies' support for Democratic Party, it is not difficult to see why. Saint or not, if Bush was of similar disposition, Enron might still have been around...

      At least the democrats have tried to pass net-neutrality rules which would put an end to the content based discrimination nonsense.

      Even if such rules were desirable (and I doubt it), I don't see, how a free country can legally impose them.

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    6. Re:This is LESS worrying than Comcast by mi · · Score: 1

      Of course they're cozy with the governing party.

      And if the other party takes control they'll be cozy with them.

      You are implying sheer cynicism and I wish, it were this simple. It is not — the media-holdings of both companies are, quite (in)famously Illiberal. The National Review article I linked to has the detail. The sole Democrat fighting the merger is a clown...

      --
      In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  7. Direct TV owns spectrum by freddieb · · Score: 2

    Direct TV owns plenty of spectrum. That's probably what ATT wants and probably would preclude the FCC granting such an action.

  8. Dear AT&T by slapout · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Dear AT&T,

    How about using some of that money to improve your current service?

    --
    Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    1. Re:Dear AT&T by slapout · · Score: 1

      Dear AT&T,

      Because you would stop losing customers. Commercials with people from a low rated comedy show will only get you so far.

      --
      Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
    2. Re:Dear AT&T by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      Combine the suck factor of both and whip into a frothy mix, and you'd probably still have less suck than comcast. A lot of time the price increases are because the prices that content providers charge for channels is going up.

  9. A poem comes to mind... by mu51c10rd · · Score: 1

    This is how the internet ends...
    This is how the internet ends...
    This is how the internet ends...
    Not with a bang, but with a whimper.

  10. Re:Good, we don't need those satellites by Megane · · Score: 1

    Ha ha, that's funny. But seriously, AT&T has been selling DirectTV for years as part of the "triple play" option for the areas it doesn't have Uverse for whatever reason. I guess they got tired of selling so many DirectTV subscriptions.

    --
    #naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
  11. I have both by unixcorn · · Score: 1

    I have been planning to cancel my directv subscription for months. I have an antenna and use my Roku or AppleTV boxes for other content. If I cancel, I save $150 per month. While some here predict that a merger will kill the internet, I believe the internet has already won the content delivery wars, providers simply haven't received the message. How many network feeds like ESPN, HGTV or even Disney for $150 per month? Based on the cost of Netflix and Amazon Prime, I am guessing quite a few. Goodbye Directv, hello choice.

    1. Re:I have both by Darinbob · · Score: 1

      I dropped DirecTV last week, but it was only $70 for me, and a bargain compared to the competition. Still too much though given that most shows I watched have ended and I was down to only 2 shows watched regularly.

  12. As a DirecTV subscriber... by PRMan · · Score: 2

    As a happy DirecTV subscriber for over 14 years who has a lifetime ban against AT&T (and really has no desire to work with multiple-time Worst Company in America holder Comcast), these actions will absolutely ensure that I become a cord-cutter.

    --
    Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
  13. Oh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

    I love DirecTV too much to let it be ruined by AT&T!!!!!!!!!!

  14. Nooooooo by sootman · · Score: 1

    ooooooooooooooooooooo!

    It's bad enough that TiVo is mostly gone -- even the plain-vanilla DVR that comes with DirecTV is decent and is WAY better than the shit that comes with U-Verse. My sister has U-verse and hates it. I tried it for a month when AT&T upgraded my internet connection (DSL to fiber-to-the-curb) and I also hated it. It so is ungodly bad in so many ways I can't even begin to list them all. On top of the horrible UI, my sister came back from a 2-week business trip to find that her DVR lost all of its shows. And that has happened to her a few times since then.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
    1. Re:Nooooooo by nytes · · Score: 1

      It used to take around 25 button pushes to turn closed captions on or off on U-verse. I'd like to know how they came up with their usage scenarios when designing this that interface.

      Thankfully, they've added a shortcut that reduces it to around six button pushes, but still... Why does it only take one button on my DVD player?

      --
      -- I have monkeys in my pants.
  15. The Three Stooges by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Oligopolies almost always suck. They use the excuse of "economies of scale", but in practice the lack of incentives under an oligopoly is a much bigger drag than lack of economies of scale. The few players in the market tend to mutually settle on a uniform mediocre or low product and service level and each grow complacent because customers have to choose between Larry, Mo, or Curly: all 3 suck and switching from say Mo to Curly still leaves you with an idiot running the show. (I'm not talking about service, not entertainment level.)

    Conservatives like to talk about government inefficiency due to lack of competition, but oligopolies are not far behind, but conservatives don't want to prevent oligopolies because that's "regulation". I find it hypocritical.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  16. Re:Just Another Sign That U-Verse Is A Failure by Malizar · · Score: 1

    I would have to say I am happy with my U-Verse service at home. I was with TWC before, and they REALLY sucked. I had to reset my internet router multiple times a day, they sent technician after technician out to find the problem, and no luck. I switched to U-Verse and my internet has been down for about 15 minutes in the last 2 years.

  17. God noooooooooo! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

    I wish this were a modern web site where we could paste reaction gifs like Michael Scott screaming calmly, "No! God no! No! God no! Nooooooooooo"

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  18. Utopia! by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    What kind of Utopia do you live in? Two choices!

    Where I am from you can have either Bell or Rogers. Choose one. Both offer exact same packages.

    I know there is a kang and kodos joke in here someplace...

    https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t...