Advanced Television

DirecTV and DISH to merge?

June 4, 2012

There’s another suggestion floating around from DTH satellite giant DirecTV that a merger with rival Dish Network is a logical next step for the broadcasting pair.

DirecTV’s CEO Mike White, speaking at a media conference in New York June 1st, said that there’s a lot to be said for a merger. He stated: “There is a strategic logic to having one satellite company servicing a country like the United States, and certainly if I look at where content costs are, there is probably more of a case for that.”

He declined to go into more detail, and said it wasn’t useful to speculate, but this is now exactly what the market will start doing!

It is not the first time that the two DTH broadcasters have attempted a marriage. Back in 2002, a scheme was mooted, but fell foul of the Federal Communications Commission which ruled it as anti-competitive. A similar proposal today is likely to be viewed more favourably.

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