DirecTV on the brink?
March 10, 2020
By Chris Forrester
An unconfirmed report in the USA Today suggests that “DirecTV’s days are numbered” and that owner AT&T says that it is no longer actively marketing the DTH/DBS pay-TV and multichannel service.
Instead AT&T is focusing on its online pay-TV services.
The newspaper quotes John Stankey, the president of AT&T speaking at an investor conference, saying that DirecTV would still be offered in rural and less-dense suburban areas. “But in terms of our marketing muscle and our momentum in the market, it will be about software-driven pay-TV packages.”
Phillip Swann, a well-regarded market observer of the US pay-TV market, believes that when the current NFL exclusive DirecTV deal expires, AT&T will either sell DirecTV or shut it down.
Indeed, rival satellite pay-TV platform Dish Network, owned by Charlie Ergen, has himself intimated that a merger between his Dish Network and DirecTV is “inevitable”.
Swann says that a combined all-satellite service from DirecTV and Dish would have around 25 million subscribers and be a powerful force in the industry.