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posted by martyb on Friday September 20 2019, @03:19AM   Printer-friendly
from the nuke-it-from-orbit-it's-the-only-way-to-be-sure dept.

AT&T Explores Parting Ways With DirecTV:

Telecom giant considers fate of DirecTV satellite unit as cord-cutting saps subscriber base

AT&T Inc. is exploring parting with its DirecTV unit, people familiar with the matter said, a sharp reversal from Chief Executive Randall Stephenson's strategy to make the $49 billion bet on the satellite provider a key piece of the phone giant's future.

The telecom giant has considered various options, including a spinoff of DirecTV into a separate public company and a combination of DirecTV's assets with Dish Network Corp., its satellite-TV rival, the people said.

AT&T may ultimately decide to keep DirecTV in the fold. Despite the satellite service's struggles, as consumers drop their TV connections, it still contributes a sizable volume of cash flow and customer accounts to its parent.

AT&T acquired DirecTV in 2015 for $49 billion. The company's shrinking satellite business is under a microscope after activist investor Elliott Management Corp. disclosed a $3.2 billion stake in AT&T last week and released a report pushing for strategic changes. Elliott has told investors that AT&T should unload DirecTV, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported.

Related: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=19/09/18/1656205

Like Blockbuster, DirecTV, Dish, etc. are extremely slow to catch onto the whole Netflix/Amazon Prime Ad-Free, pick-what-I-want-to-watch model.


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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday September 20 2019, @06:17AM (1 child)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 20 2019, @06:17AM (#896411) Journal

    They needed to capitalize on what they do really well, which is reach very remote areas that land based services will not service. That's not a trivial market.

    Maybe not a trivial market in the number of potential customers.
    What about their purchasing power?

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  • (Score: 2) by VLM on Friday September 20 2019, @11:18AM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday September 20 2019, @11:18AM (#896456)

    Well, those are exactly the people who aren't going out to the club on saturday night because the closest club is 500 miles away, so ... Ditto pro sports, etc.