It is a story that simply won’t go away, and is trotted out regularly. But perennial gossip about a possible merger between arch pay-TV rivals DirecTV and Dish Network was given added fuel by a comment made at Friday’s Goldman Sachs’ Communicopia Conference by DirecTV’s CEO Michael White deserve attention.

White told analysts that consolidation could benefit consumers, and argued that soaring programming costs and carriage fees to popular channels were growing “at an unsustainable rate”.

He also added that while EchoStar was making a serious play in terms of wireless spectrum, but he doubted whether DirecTV would ever want to compete in that space, and added that it probably made more sense for DirecTV to partner with a [broadband/wireless] partner.

Also talking a merger up is Bernstein Research’s Craig Moffett, who said if Mitt Romney gets into the White House, there could be a merger proposal in the new president’s in-tray “within a year”. But even with President Obama’s re-election “we’ll bet they’ll try it before four years are out.”

Ten years ago (in October 2002) the FCC blocked a merger between EchoStar and DirecTV on the basis that any such merger would stifle competition and innovation and lead to higher prices for consumers. Today, thanks to vastly improved services from the telcos and the older-established cable MSOs, plus new entrants such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon and others, the competition arguments could not be made.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Virgin Orbit raises $10m in emergency funding
2. African Space Agency created
3. SES vs Intelsat back in court
4. UK Spaceports determined to succeed
5. Airbus flies high with Zephyr HAPS
6. Bank: Australia linear TV “shows weakness”
7. Intelsat left SES “on the hook” for C-band costs
8. Bank: Viaplay de-risked for Q4
9. Bank: “Video Games will rebound in 2023”

Categories: Blogs, Broadcast, DTH/Satellite, Inside Satellite, Pay TV