AT&T buys DirecTV

[rnatalli]

AT&T announces deal to acquire DirecTV - May. 18, 2014

Not sure what AT&T is thinking here as with how much they're spending, they could have put down tons of fiber which allows for higher bandwidth than satellite. May be good in the immediate future, but poor long-term planning if you ask me.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

The correct title should be AT&T to buy DTV (or even officially announced they want to buy them) - FCC/FTC/DOJ still need to approve such monster of the deal and I highly doubt it would be approved.

 

[agarwalro]

Not sure what AT&T is thinking here as with how much they're spending, they could have put down tons of fiber which allows for higher bandwidth than satellite. May be good in the immediate future, but poor long-term planning if you ask me.

Why compete with a better product when a corporation can "lobby" officials for friendly laws at the expense of tax payer needs and buy out the competition to create an oligopoly at worst.

 

[j_garcia]

They have to make some noise with Comcast and TW deal, otherwise they look like they're sitting around.

 

[herbu]

Why compete with a better product when a corporation can "lobby" officials for friendly laws at the expense of tax payer needs and buy out the competition to create an oligopoly at worst.

Whenever the government wants to own a business, I can't help but wonder how much non-user taxpayers will subsidize non-taxpayer users.

 

[Midwesthonky]

I can't blame AT&T. Their own effort has been fairly slow. This makes them the #2 provider in the US. Plus it gives them access to the NFL with the big contract the NFL has with DirecTV. Lots of value in that.

But long term? AT&T had better have a plan else they'll be throwing money away. The markets for internet, TV, and phone have been changing rapidly and only will be getting more convoluted. While I like DirecTV and use AT&T for internet, AT&T is already so big their customer service sucks royally and is only exceeded in worseness by Comcast, COX, and Time Warner.

 

[lsiberian]

If they can now offer the Sunday Ticket via UVerse it's a game changer. AT&T is already attempting to counter google with Fiber, but the cost of laying fiber is absurd IMO. Why should we invest in fiber when wireless networks can do the job at a fraction of the cost.