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.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday September 20 2019, @02:37PM (1 child)
Ahh...., I don't use Amazon Prime, but yeah that would definitely be annoying to me. I don't even like Netflix's auto-play previews for the shows I am actually looking at. They also have an auto-play advertisement for something on the main page. I give it a pass, because they're trying to keep thing fresh and the ultimate goal is to get people to watch interesting things on their site.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hendrikboom on Sunday September 22 2019, @12:42PM
I don't even like autoplay chaining me automatically from one episode to the next. It tries to void my decision to watch just one episode. On Netflix there's an option to turn it off. On Crave (which unfortunately has the license for Dr. Who at the moment) there isn't.