AT&T To Buy DirecTV For $50B

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AT&T is digging deep in the ol' couch cushions to buy DirecTV.

AT&T could close a deal to buy DirecTV for roughly $50 billion in as little as two weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The purchase would allow AT&T to expand its television footprint in the US, an attractive move for the telecommunications company, who, like its competitors, continues to compete with cable companies for customers who want bundled services for TV, broadband, wireless and home phone.
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Just as the world realizes that cable subscriptions are leveling off before the eventual plummet.
 
how nice, we'll have Comcast and AT&T as internet providers, and Comcast and AT&T as television providers how sweet we have so many choices!
 
It is very interesting how our government was so anti-monopoly (broke up AT&T into the baby bells) in the 20th century and so pro monopoly is the 21st.
In the 21st, they turned a blind eye to AT&T buying up all the baby bells and reforming the AT&T monopoly. Comcast buys up all the other smaller (competing) cable company; our government says "Meh"
 
Dr. Righteous said:
It is very interesting how our government was so anti-monopoly (broke up AT&T into the baby bells) in the 20th century and so pro monopoly is the 21st.
In the 21st, they turned a blind eye to AT&T buying up all the baby bells and reforming the AT&T monopoly. Comcast buys up all the other smaller (competing) cable company; our government says "Meh"
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Still cracks me up .. http://www.gametrailers.com/videos/9b35wz/cingular---at-t-merger-explained
 
As much as I want to care, I can't seem to as I do not subscribe to satellite TV or anything like that. Cable TV has not been a part of my house for years now as I cannot justify paying a package price when I would only watch 2 channels. With the continuing popularity of streaming, I wonder whether this could be a nasty $50B mistake.
 
And of course tom wheeler is going to give his shit-covered seal of approval.
 
You can't get sports in good quality through streaming, so there is always still that market. I like DirecTV, but I don't think this merger would bring anything positive to the table.
 
xIronCrossx said:
You can't get sports in good quality through streaming, so there is always still that market. I like DirecTV, but I don't think this merger would bring anything positive to the table.
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Until Pay per view moves onto live streams. I don't understand why they haven't already. Other then the fact that internet speeds are nerfed or however you wish to phrase it.
 
jon666 said:
Until Pay per view moves onto live streams. I don't understand why they haven't already. Other then the fact that internet speeds are nerfed or however you wish to phrase it.
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I don't get why it's so expensive either. The satellite TV is much cheaper over in Europe and you don't have to go through tons of hoops to watch certain sports.(Soccer is scattered across like 3 or 4 different channels, not all on providers either.
 
At&t internet speeds suck. They should use that money to roll out fiber.
 
I predict a huge turnaround for DirectTV's ratings now that they've merged with a Customer Service landmark like AT&T.
 
Yikes, the consolidation continues. We're going to be all out of choices soon.
 
Sounds like the US is turning into Canada, where Rogers and Bell provide service and own the media outlets as well.
 
Sounds like I'll be ditching my DirecTV then. I've been down the AT&T road and refuse to deal with them in any fashion anymore.

As much as I like my DirecTV, especially during the NFL season...I'm pretty sure I can deal without it. Especially since FiOS is so good in my area.
 
We are so screwed. :(

Comcast will SQUEEZE online content providers driving the prices as high as cable service.
They already held up Netflix that can be directly compared to the mob's "protection" racket.
Pay us or something BAD will happen.
 
morgwon said:
At&t internet speeds suck. They should use that money to roll out fiber.
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HAHAHA... you actually think that would improve anything?

AT&T "rolled out fiber" where I live a few months ago. There max speed I can get from them is 15Mb.

My cable is currently a 25Mb connection, and if i wanted to pay more, I could get 50Mb.
 
jon666 said:
Until Pay per view moves onto live streams. I don't understand why they haven't already. Other then the fact that internet speeds are nerfed or however you wish to phrase it.
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Its starting to. The WWE launched the WWE network and is now the primary way to watch WWE Pay Per Views. Actually Dish and DirecTV through a hissy fit and are now refusing to carry WWE PPV because fans can sign up to WWE network for 10 bucks a month, get all 12 PPVs AND thousands of hours of other content on demand.

On the PS3/PS4 there is a live event app, where you can purchase some PPVs for streaming. It will come eventually, but the big companies will go down kicking and screaming.
 
cyclone3d said:
HAHAHA... you actually think that would improve anything?

AT&T "rolled out fiber" where I live a few months ago. There max speed I can get from them is 15Mb.

My cable is currently a 25Mb connection, and if i wanted to pay more, I could get 50Mb.
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That's because AT&T's U-verse regardless of all the hooplah is still a DSL based technology. "Oooh it has fiber to the node!!!" Well unless the node is my house, that only means that instead of me worrying about distances to a central office, the central office is replaced with a box somewhere 'near" to me. Sure they can do some other things with it to boost speeds beyond conventional DSL speeds, but not much more. It still uses the same copper wires on the line, to the copper wires that are in your house (which are probably as old as your house), yup all these same copper wires that not too long ago AT&T claimed copper couldn't handle the telephone service anymore and they want to shut it down.
 
cyclone3d said:
HAHAHA... you actually think that would improve anything?

AT&T "rolled out fiber" where I live a few months ago. There max speed I can get from them is 15Mb.

My cable is currently a 25Mb connection, and if i wanted to pay more, I could get 50Mb.
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I have FTH and went with AT&T when we first moved in and the fastest I was able to get was the 18Mbps speed. I had a co-worker who was on their old copper lines that was able to get their top speed which I think is/was 24Mbps. After many issues with the gateway router thing they make you use I called it quits with them and went with DirecTV and Cox. I pay for 25Mbps down and 6Mbps up with Cox and lets just say I never see those numbers, they are much higher than that for 2 bux more than I was paying with AT&T. This possible merger will not be good IMO.
 
sfsuphysics said:
That's because AT&T's U-verse regardless of all the hooplah is still a DSL based technology. "Oooh it has fiber to the node!!!" Well unless the node is my house, that only means that instead of me worrying about distances to a central office, the central office is replaced with a box somewhere 'near" to me. Sure they can do some other things with it to boost speeds beyond conventional DSL speeds, but not much more. It still uses the same copper wires on the line, to the copper wires that are in your house (which are probably as old as your house), yup all these same copper wires that not too long ago AT&T claimed copper couldn't handle the telephone service anymore and they want to shut it down.
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Exact DSL is 2 wires.
There is only so much data you can get down 2 wires over distance, and usually 10 m/bit is what you get. If you are close to the hub, maybe higher but not by much.

Couple months ago literally a team of AT&T sales people came to my front door and tried to convince me to go with AT&T U-verse. They had the same success the Watchtower cult does when they come to my door. When I confront them with the truth they run like hell. ;)
One of them was telling me their service was fiber optics.
I kept telling him "No, it is DSL". After about the 3rd time I corrected him one of the others spoke up and said "Well, it is fiber to the hub station but it is DSL to the homes.
The funny thing was they kept saying "you neighbor Mr. Black has it and loves it".
I finally said, "Yeah, I've known him for 15 years. He doesn't know the internet from a hair net. I on the other hand am a systems engineer and I know what the hell I'm talking about".
At that they packed up their little push marketing presentation and left.
I didn't want to be mean or disrespectful to them but for them to assume I was some fool they could sell to was a mistake on their part.
 
They had the same success the Watchtower cult does when they come to my door.
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haha.. when they come to my door i answer it wearing only my boxers and holding a beer.. they are usually happy to leave quickly
 
As someone who cares more about price than performance for Internet I was paying 35.00 a month for 25Mbps Uverse and that's the speed I was getting.

I just moved into a new home and it was a freaking clusterfuck. ATT sent 3 people out to set me over a 4 day period of time and nobody was able to connect service this was after literally hours of phone calls to various inept reps. The last tech out told me my old Uverse "modem" wasn't compatible in my my new home because the max speed is only 15Mbps and had me call and order a new one that was supposed to be overnighted to me. After 2 days and no new modem I called and they not only have no record of an order being placed they are now backordered for a week on the modems.

I canceled the service, contacted Comcast who at no additional charge overnighted me my setup kit, 15 min on the phone with the rep and my self install kit I was up and running the NEXT DAY. 12 month promotional price is 35.00 a month for 50Mbps and I'm getting 60 peak speeds.

Fuck ATT and if they take over DirecTV and I have even a hint of a problem I'll drop DirecTV in a heart beat.
 
I dont know anything about AT&T internet and have been a directv subscriber for almost 10 years now. I can't say I am looking forward to this.

And for DSL, my DSL is 40MB down and 5MB up. The fastest cable is 50MB down and if you don't have cable TV, the price is garbage. DSL aint all bad. I believe my internet is faster than a lot of peoples
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Exact DSL is 2 wires.
There is only so much data you can get down 2 wires over distance, and usually 10 m/bit is what you get. If you are close to the hub, maybe higher but not by much.
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Yeah, so cable is also two conductors.
 
fyi Uverse is fiber, either straight into the home in new housing or to a node and uses the last 1/4 or so of telephone line.

fttp is getting 300mbit and gigabit speeds

fttn is going to push 75-150mbit

thats VDSL, yeah it still uses copper, but guess what ethernet cables are just copper. from what i've seen most lines support ~50mbps(depending on the equipment on the street), at the house. if your house wiring is shitty, at&t installs cat5 wiring to the modem. if youre using coax thats bad as the modem and boxes dont play nice. also if the line to the node hasnt been conditioned it WILL cause issues.

ADSL is the old tech, which some places only have because some cities/counties dont let AT&T place the infrastructure.
 
50 Billion, for a satellite TV company?

Have you been smoking crack AT&T, or is there some sort of hidden agenda going on?
 
This is.. just.. wow. I had no Idea that AT&T had over 50B sitting in the mason jar labelebed "buy something big".

You know what I find odd. How is DirectTV worth 50 BILLION? That seems like a high valuation to me.

If it isn't that means that our rural community NEEDS good services. (Wired broadband anyone?) and it would knock that footprint of direct TV way down.
 
kattana said:
haha.. when they come to my door i answer it wearing only my boxers and holding a beer.. they are usually happy to leave quickly
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A friend of mine used to answer the door wearing a pentagram necklace and screaming, "Satan eats your children!" Their reactions never failed to elicit much laughter...

All of these mergers and acquisitions are happening at a time when forecasts show diminishing demand for video services of this style. I understand there is a move toward consolidation to reduces costs and shore up service offerings, but I wonder if the end result will not be more too-big-to-fail companies.

Economies of scale work in manufacturing and to some extent in service businesses, but it is also possible to grow so large that you are unmanageable. When that point happens, I suppose they will resort to the same practices as the MPAA/RIAA and use legal measures to forestall adapting to changing market conditions. In light of this, it is no wonder that net-neutrality is really turning out to be net-neutering...
 
Parja said:
Yeah, so cable is also two conductors.
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Cable is shielded medium. Totally different dynamics.

DSL has to work on technology a that has not changed much in 100 years hence it's limitations.

P.O.T.S.

Plain
Old
Telephone
System
 
I must say I made a mistake going with AT&T. Since their DSL uses a "node" system, they told us we were literally the last house in the node's reception range, but we still went with it anyways. Our internet is often terribly slow, our TVs are always freezing while trying to watch live shows and it's just a mess. Looks like i'm going to Comcast.
 
LOL at someone who said that streaming services are growing. They are... you are correct.

Until AT&T and Comcast own the internet and just plain extort... errr... offer them "direct connections".

Its not the network, infrastructure (at least in our urban areas), it is all a bunch of bullshit.

It is the cable companies also being the ISP. The internet is threatening their bloated cable packages. If ESPN ever gets the balls to just go straight streaming sub the cable companies are done. The need to evolve, instead they are just trying to beat the issue with money.
 
xIronCrossx said:
I don't get why it's so expensive either. The satellite TV is much cheaper over in Europe and you don't have to go through tons of hoops to watch certain sports.(Soccer is scattered across like 3 or 4 different channels, not all on providers either.
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We have a much, much higher greed multiplier here.
 
XvMMvX said:
If ESPN ever gets the balls to just go straight streaming sub the cable companies are done. The need to evolve, instead they are just trying to beat the issue with money.
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The cable companies will either throttle ESPN streaming into oblivion, or they will just give up on cable TV and double the subscription price for internet. We'll still be left holding our dicks.
 
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