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FCC Approves AT&T's DirecTV Purchase
An anonymous reader writes: The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has granted approval to AT&T to purchase DirecTV for $48.5 billion. AT&T will become the largest provider of cable or satellite TV in the U.S., with 26.4 million subscribers. "Adding TV customers gives AT&T more power to negotiate with big media companies over prices for those channels. The deal also combines a nationwide satellite TV service, the country's largest, with the No. 2 nationwide wireless network as time spent on mobile devices increases." The FCC did put conditions on the deal: AT&T must make fiber internet service available to 12.5 million people, offer cheaper internet plans to low-income customers, and not mess with the internet traffic of online video competitors.
Goodbye DirecTV/AT&T!
I'm not even going to wait for the first shoe to drop. I am now devoting some actual time to finding a valid replacement for DirecTV that will still give me access to all the shows I like: Mr. Robot, The Americans, Silicon Valley, Veep, Halt and Catch Fire, and various shows about catching gold and crabs. Right now Sling TV from Dish Network looks like the best offer.
But just fuck AT&T. I've been a customer at one level or another for going on two decades now. I thought DirecTV was a sneaky asshole with their never ending un-announced rate increases on everything for no good reason, hundreds of channel slots wasted on non-stop infomercials, shopping channels, etc.
I can't imagine what good ol' AT&T has in store for the millions of innocents that just want decent TV at a decent price. The horror.
Less competition, higher prices.
Problem isn't DirecTV itself, it's already better than than any cable company. The problem is with the state of the media companies; crap shows, crap lineups, bundled packages, restrictions on what providers can do with the content, etc.
I read someone else's comment that said that companies should be required to complete the past-due, public-benefit conditions made for their previous mergers before merging again. I like that idea. Maybe if we repeat that enough then it will start to become a real criteria.
Just getting by with Netflix and Amazon Prime?
I haven't had a full cable TV package for at least 6 years and I really can't say that I miss it.
I suppose there are some shows that I might be missing out on... but they eventually make it to Prime or Netflix and then I can just binge them. And if they don't, I never saw them in the first place so I can't miss what I never had...
Recently when CenturyLink offered me a bundle deal with my gigabit Internet it almost doubled the price... I opted to just pay the full price for the Internet. I don't understand why people would pay $100 extra a month for hundreds of channels they will never watch...
When will channels just be offered a-la-cart?
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
Unless they specify what cheaper is, and what speed of Internet qualifies as worthy of the price they charge, this will still be screwing over low-income customers. I've seen these cheaper plans from other companies that were required by deals and they suck. 384 Kbps for $18.91 per month is bullshit. If it wasn't illegal to share Internet with neighbors I could supply 100 families with Internet at that speed with my overpriced $60 tube. For Comcast you must "Have at least one child eligible to participate in the National School Lunch Program" to qualify for their low income Internet. And most people know what “up to 5 Mbps” means... Crap!
So they are going to cover New York, Los Angeles and Chicago and leave everyone else with dsl and dialup at the same prices they charge for fiber Got it!
Seriously I can already get fiber through the city whats taking att so long to catch up? And I still have 0 wired options at home other than dialup.
Minimum threshold fixed. Thanks!