AT&T has completed its spinoff of DirecTV after six years of mismanagement in which nearly 10 million customers ditched the company's pay-TV services.
AT&T bought DirecTV for $49 billion ($67 billion including debt) in July 2015 even though DirecTV and other traditional TV services were already losing subscribers in the face of competition from online streaming. Customer losses were inevitable but DirecTV's losses under AT&T ownership went far beyond anything experienced by other major TV providers.
AT&T revealed the spinoff plan in February and announced the deal's completion yesterday. AT&T partnered with private-equity firm TPG to create a new company called DirecTV, which "will own and operate the DirecTV, AT&T TV, and U-verse video services previously owned and operated by AT&T," the announcement said.
AT&T will no longer run DirecTV, perhaps allowing it to succeed under better management. But AT&T will own 70 percent of the new company's stock, with TPG owning the other 30 percent. AT&T will receive $7.1 billion in cash to help pay down its debt, which consists of $160.7 billion in long-term debt and $19.5 billion of debt maturing within one year. TPG paid $1.8 billion for its 30 percent stake.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday August 04 2021, @02:04AM (5 children)
TV is doomed - rotten to the core and ruined by decades of insane advertisement, and dumber and dumber shows. I wouldn't watch it if it was free, and neither would all the people who switched to better and cheaper alternatives.
AT&T might have mismanaged DirecTV, but it's like saying they rode the clutch on a Yugo: yeah, the clutch disk might be ruined, but it doesn't really matter since it was a Yugo.
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Wednesday August 04 2021, @03:04AM (4 children)
I don't know what percentage of TV was ads when I was a kid, but it seems to be _much_ higher these days. On the rare occasion that there is something on Free to Air that I want to see, the ads drive me away.
I really don't know how anyone could watch that for hours on end every day.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @03:27AM
I am big fan of NPR and been so for decades, but it now probably devotes as much time for ads as commercial stations.
The funding model, even for public broadcast, has changed a lot.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @03:34AM
And all the ads about drugs and insurances and mail-order frying pans - i.e., catering to geezers presumably because they are the ones still watching "TV".
(Score: 5, Informative) by deimtee on Wednesday August 04 2021, @08:09AM
What is as annoying is how they butcher the old shows to fit more ads in their half hour. You will never see an uncut episode of Get Smart or F-Troop on either FTA or cable.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday August 04 2021, @02:20PM
It's worse than that.
After a long string of ads, they will overlay the program you're watching with logos, and characters walking out onto the screen to advertise some other ad filled show on their network.
That's why I gave up cable TV, and that was long after I had a TiVo.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @02:30AM
Bad news for at&t is good news for humanity. Even for dogs and cats.
(Score: 2) by drussell on Wednesday August 04 2021, @03:37AM
Shaw pretty much totally killed and obliterated what once was the awesome StarChoice system...
Embrace, pretend to extend, then horribly extinguish?!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 04 2021, @06:19PM
probably some way to embezzle, or a kickback to the then CEO or something. of course these Suited Whores are dumber than they think a lot of times.