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ATT, DirecTV Mega-Merger May Go Through

Posted by timothy on from the so-long-as-the-destruction-is-creative dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Hot on the heels of Comcast's failed attempt to swallow up Time Warner Cable, AT&T's pursuit of satellite provider DirecTV is plowing forward. What would be the result of a wireline and cellular mega-monopoly buying one of only two subscription satellite TV providers? Has to be worse than a Comcast/TWC marriage ... at least there, the territories and services offered didn't overlap at all, but AT&T offers voice, data, and television in many markets already. Adding satellite would stifle competition for television services (and to a lesser extent, because satellite is only best suited for rural installations, data).

4 of 82 comments (clear)

  1. Has to be worse? by Yebyen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who is this anonymous reader who confidently asserts that it's worse?

    How can it be worse? I call bullshit.

    --
    Restating the obvious since nineteen aught five.
    1. Re:Has to be worse? by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Equally bad perhaps? Who cares, block it! The industry is already an oligopoly. Any merger of these companies is unwarranted.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Has to be worse? by geekmux · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Who is this anonymous reader who confidently asserts that it's worse?

      How can it be worse? I call bullshit.

      What does it matter when at the end of the day a suitcase full of cash and a few dozen lobbyists will trump every single anti-monopoly law we have in existence.

      In the end, we will have but 3 or 4 main players offering up damn near every service you use in your life. And you're going to take it and like it, no matter how much it cost, because a suitcase full of cash and a few dozen lobbyists guaranteed you have no one else to turn to for those services.

      Now let's sit back and enjoy the corporate overlord show. After all, there's not a damn thing you can do to change it.

      Think you can? Now I'm the one calling bullshit.

  2. Worse? Probably not! by King_TJ · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The thing with DirecTV is, they've never really been more than a minor player in the area of providing high speed internet service to customers.
    (Heck, these are the guys who still needed you to plug each satellite receiver into a phone jack so it could phone home to let you purchase pay-per-view programming, YEARS after everyone was otherwise rid of their dial-up modems.)

    I know for a long time, they were offering "TV and internet bundles" that simply partnered with AT&T to sell someone DSL service as the internet portion of the package.

    Yes, they sell satellite based broadband internet to people today ... but again, it's really just a niche market. Satellite based internet has such high latency, it makes it useless for online gaming (at least in many situations), and it's still pretty expensive if you're going to transfer a lot of data each month. Just like satellite TV, it loses signal in bad weather too.

    If AT&T buys them out, I can't really envision the negative impact? It sounds like you'd still get some sort of satellite television subscription while using the service, regardless of the company brand name on the system -- and AT&T would have no reason to cancel your ability to do satellite internet. (I think they have their own satellite offering right now? Or at least they did until recently. Maybe they'd transition you over to it?)

    And for those concerned that this would make their satellite connections more expensive? Dish Network has always been a little cheaper than DirecTV and you'd still be able to cancel and go with them instead, anywhere in the country.