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Forums - Gaming Discussion - AT&T buys DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

Mr Khan on 18 May 2014
VanceIX said:
Mr Khan said:
The only way this'll effect my family (who i no longer live with anyway) is that their package deal between DirecTV and their Verizon home phone/DSL will probably go bye-bye (or not, given regional monopolies, its not like my parents could choose AT&T for home phone or DSL ever).

The only loss of competition is in areas lucky enough to be wired for AT&T's fiber-optics network, Uverse, since Uverse TV could compete with DirecTV. Anywhere not wired for Uverse is basically not effected competitively.

True, although a large portion of the southeastern states have U-Verse availabilty, so it's gonna hit us (I live in Florida) pretty hard. 

 

Although the two products are not directly competitive in a lot of cases. Satellite sort of remains "poor man's cable" to a certain extent, so DirecTV could be AT&T's down-market alternative even in areas where Uverse is offered.



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VanceIX on 18 May 2014
Mr Khan said:
VanceIX said:
Mr Khan said:
The only way this'll effect my family (who i no longer live with anyway) is that their package deal between DirecTV and their Verizon home phone/DSL will probably go bye-bye (or not, given regional monopolies, its not like my parents could choose AT&T for home phone or DSL ever).

The only loss of competition is in areas lucky enough to be wired for AT&T's fiber-optics network, Uverse, since Uverse TV could compete with DirecTV. Anywhere not wired for Uverse is basically not effected competitively.

True, although a large portion of the southeastern states have U-Verse availabilty, so it's gonna hit us (I live in Florida) pretty hard. 

 

Although the two products are not directly competitive in a lot of cases. Satellite sort of remains "poor man's cable" to a certain extent, so DirecTV could be AT&T's down-market alternative even in areas where Uverse is offered.

Good point. It'll all depend on how ATT handles the pricing. Most areas only have three or so television network providers, and if ATT controls two, there's a good chance they'll raise prices on DirecTV, if only to push more customers to U-Verse. 



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Mystro-Sama on 18 May 2014

I hate when big companies acquire other companies...



kupomogli on 18 May 2014
BasilZero said:
Wow, what is up with all these buy outs/mergers this year.

Comcast buys out Time Warner

Google/YouTube buys Twitch

and now THIS :O

I wish I could buy something.  I think I'll buy a Humble Daily Bundle.  Discuss.



MoHasanie on 19 May 2014

I love big takeovers. The most interesting this year is Pfizer's $100b offer for AstraZeneca.



    

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MoHasanie on 19 May 2014
painmaster212 said:
Who would have thought AT&T would have that kind of money to invest/spend! I wonder what they hope to achieve with this purchase?

3 years ago they tried to buy T-Mobile for $39bn and it was blocked. 



    

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Proxy-Pie on 19 May 2014

What's with all the buyouts?



soulfly666 on 19 May 2014

I cancelled DirecTV in January after my bill crept up to just under 100.00 from about 70.00 USD with no change in services or reasonable explanation in a matter of 3-4 years. If someone can find a way to start a company that can legally stream sports, these cable companies will all crash and burn. With how far Netflix and Hulu have come it is the only thing keeping them in business.  That's def the only reason I was a customer for 6 years.  I get more than enough TV from streaming services, but I will certainly admit it does suck not being able to watch sports...And it is super noticeable after only a few months...



PigPen on 19 May 2014
Darc Requiem said:
PigPen said:
Darc Requiem said:
PigPen said:

I like that that happened.  I don't like either of them.  Now it's just one.


Because even less competion is a good thing....


One is phone and the other cable.  Right


I lived in Lousiana for two years. I had three options. AT&T U-Verse, Cox Cable, or Direct TV. Cox was expensive as hell. U-Verse was reasonable. Now what do you think happens to their pricing when one of the options goes away? You think AT&T is going to lower U-Verses pricing now that they've gobbled up a competitor.


That shows how little I know.  I live in New Jersey and I've never heard of U-Verses or Cox Cable.  I known about Direct TV.  We have Comcast & Infinity Cable (They're two different cable companies owned by the same people) and Verison Fios Cable.  With AT&T, I didn't know that.



BlkPaladin on 19 May 2014

ATT seems more interested in DirecTV's other venture and not DirecTV itself, HughesNet which owns direcTV also is a satellite internet provider for those who cannot get either Cable or DSL, I used to have it until my phone company updated its line a few years back so it can offer DSL, its a decent service. They probally want it to beef up their U-verse internet/TV infrastructure.