ATT paid about 60B assuming DirectTV 20B debt. A company that was valued at about 25B$ a year or two before the acquisition was purchased at almost triple its value ... Now when they are trying to pawn it off to someone else, obviously it is not making them money, the satellites are aging, the technology is dying, it has a high install cost, maintenance cost and has consistently overspent on IT which is at best a cosmetic value but has burnt a big hole in their pockets. Now ATT expects to lose subs, infact, they have expressly asked their call center staff to shed subs on promotional pricing .... ... it was an opportunity to figure out how to make money before the promotion ends by making it cost effective. By raising prices and driving off customers .. it affects the economy of scale first and has a cascading effect on advertising due to dwindling viewership. Higher prices for the remaining subs because the content costs are now spread out over fewer subs. It is a vicious cycle. It’s better for DIsh to acquire the Directv customers organically and within 4-5 yrs they will be able to capture atleast 10 M subs and will leave the DirectV valuation almost as a junk asset to be lapped pennies on the dollar ( that is if someone wants to take them over) ... it was a jinxed company from the time of Howard Hughes ....
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UVERSE costs about 50$ PM basic, 60$ for U200?? with contract and ETF while ATT TV streaming starts at 50$ PM for 50 channels Spectrum basic video is 45$ pm No contracts / ETF
Streaming over UVERSE internet or Cable internet is fraught with flaky bandwidths due to neighborhood demand surges (mostly Cable but to a less extent VDSL) and home wifi load and interference ( Cable & VDSL) ; No ICC for both; NO EAS, No CC, not much of anything except programming and video quality for VDSL & OTT service way lower than a cable / sateliite product. So what is ATT banking on? the customer to flip a coin and choose the lesser of evils??
If ATT is banking on surviving through tyranny, it awaits the fate of the DeathStar.
It was a great company that thrived on innovation , but as it grew in size, its mindset was more bureacratic, less nimble while there were so may changes that offered to increase value to the subscriber, but all it cared was financial wizardry giving a $hit about its customers.
Rural customer are too few. Dishes are about as useful as f1s now. If we had converted dtv to all 4K service (which nobody has) that’d be a hot product people would want. But I just comment here, that’s all.
DIRECTV WILL ALWAYS BE AVAILABLE IN RURAL AREAS. It is a great product and people in the sticks may never have fast enough internet for an OTP solution
@xug correct, streaming product......AT&T TV Launched today in 9 markets. AT&T TV will replace Uverse and DTV as all you need is internet service.
Directv will never be sold to DISH. They want no part of that, and AT&T isn't going to just sell all that monthly revenue. Justice Department would never let it happen anyway. AT&T will organically move all those that can over to a streaming product, and then let the rest die off. They will have met the goals they set at the onset of the purchase.
I agree with @10C3Coxs. DirectTv really can't be worth much to Dish. The simple fact is that people are shedding dishes in both companies. It's not abut the customer service. Why spend $100.00+ dollars and have a dish on your house when you can get Netflix on demand at $30 dollars as long as you have internet at home. Which if you can afford DirecTV or Dish. You probably have high speed internet. Most people are finding out that they can satisfy their TV craving with an low pay solution such as netflix and the many other companies. And I really believe you will see the day when they just let you watch a channel over the internet for free and live off the commercial advertising money. There will always be a need for a few dishes on houses. But for Dish (Board Of Directors) to think they are going to have a Return on Investment with that much money would be as foolish as what T thought they could accomplish. Just my thoughts.