Direct TV and Dish plans to merger

The two largest satellite television companies in the country are planning about joining forces as a way to combat the pending merger of the country’s two biggest cable companies. 

These two companies in the year 2002 also had tried to merge, but could not succeeded. One reason why merger could not reach to conclusion was federal government objections.  But Dish this time has been saying that times have changed, and the company has a point. 

The satellite-TV industry is only part of a broader world of pay television, which includes cable companies and telecom providers. This pay-TV universe has begun to lose ground to Internet-based television. Last year was the first full year in which the total number of people paying for some kind of television service declined, a phenomenon that can be explained primarily by the Internet, which offers close to the same thing at a fraction of the price.

Reasons are still plentiful to be wary of what would amount to a massive consolidation of the companies that offer pay television. Dish and DirecTV have already noted that, unlike their friends in the cable industry, they don’t have a potential chokehold on Internet TV. While you can bundle satellite TV with Internet service, it’s either through partners or, in Dish’s case, through satellite-based Internet, which it acknowledges is no substitute for real Internet service. “While dishNET Satellite will support video streaming, it is best to limit these activities to short video clips,” the company helpfully explains on its website.

Source: http://cablequest.org/news/international-news/item/4501-direct-tv-and-dish-plans-to-merger.html
Source: http://cablequest.org/news/international-news/item/4501-direct-tv-and-dish-plans-to-merger.html