AT&T disappointed with offers for struggling DirecTV

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Wasn't the orignal directv several different companies?.. i vaguely remember thar some channels such as HBO had to be subscribed from a different company...Rupert rolled in an unified everything by buying out pegasus I believe
In the beginning both DirecTV and USSB had FCC licenses for the 101 slot and USSB had contracts for HBO and some other stuff. They were two separate companies offering different programming. USSB folded and DirecTV got the channels well before Rupert came along.
 
In the beginning both DirecTV and USSB had FCC licenses for the 101 slot and USSB had contracts for HBO and some other stuff. They were two separate companies offering different programming. USSB folded and DirecTV got the channels well before Rupert came along.
There was something else called pegasud
In the beginning both DirecTV and USSB had FCC licenses for the 101 slot and USSB had contracts for HBO and some other stuff. They were two separate companies offering different programming. USSB folded and DirecTV got the channels well before Rupert came along.
This one

 
Ah the good old days when things like owning both content and distribution weren't allowed.
When was that? Time Warner Inc owned Time Warner Cable along with HBO, Cinemax, CNN, TBS, TNT and the rest until 2009. Cablevision owned AMC, IFC, WE, Sundance and MSG Networks until they spun off Rainbow Media in 2010. Comcast Sports Net Philly came into existence in 1997, can’t remember if Comcast owned PRISM prior to that. In the early 2000s Comcast acquired a good chuck of HTS and MSC, HTS was later rebranded Comcast Sports MidAtlantic.
 
There was something else called pegasud

This one

Pegasus was an intermediary (for lack of a better word) for those that lived in rural areas as part of and defined by the NRTC. They were the largest of the companies, but I believe there were others, if you lived in specific rural areas you had to pay Pegasus (or whoever) for your programming instead of directly to DirecTV.

The USSB was a satellite service that combined with DirecTV formed the DSS brand. USSB carried HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, TMC. Starz and Encore were the only movie channels DirecTV offered. USSB also had FXM, All News Channels and few other oddballs, in the really early days they also had the Viacom channels. It was a busy year for DirecTV. They took over USSB in December 1998 and then Primestar the following Fall.
 
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Prices will go up...depending who is running it..they could just drop sports
Prices will go up regardless ...
Directv subs can brace for more stations being blacked out due to negotiations (they are much worse than D* currently is and way worse than it use to be).
Weather he drops sports or not, it depends, seeing a lot of D* subs are there for the Sports, he might keep it.
 
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Prices will go up regardless ...
Directv subs can brace for more stations being blacked out due to negotiations (they are much worse than D* currently is and way worse than it use to be).
Weather he drops sports or not, it depends, seeing a lot of D* subs are there for the Sports, he might keep it.
Well its all about profit..sports is a big question mark...the viewership is falling
 
Seeking Alpha does a breakdown of how the sale of DTV might go, if Churchill Captial IV buys DTV.

AT&T: DirecTV Sale's Most Valuable Component Might Not Be The Cash (NYSE:T) | Seeking Alpha

"Assuming the sale goes forward, it is likely that AT&T will report a write-down of as much as $32.6 billion in connection with DIRECTV."

"Now, What's The Real Number?​

But that’s the minimum. More likely, the remaining $15 billion of value will reflect a considerable portion of intangibles and PPE, so I think the write-down will be even larger.

In the merger five years ago, AT&T reported DIRECTV at $12 billion in orbital slot FCC licenses and also reported that just the DIRECTV brand name was worth $1.4 billion. These two kind of go hand in hand, because presumably the name’s worth will expire with the last satellite, which is also when the orbital slots will become worthless.

If we assume these assets have lost half their value, then $6.7 billion of the sale price will be reflected in these two categories, leaving a goodwill write-down correspondingly larger. And that’s assuming they’ve lost half their value. In the final merger tabulation (the 2017 document) AT&T specifically broke the Trade Name value into two components; the $1.4 billion is the “indefinite lived” portion, while another $2.9 billion was already scheduled to be amortized. So AT&T might have anticipated the end of the satellites' life and the full $1.4 billion will be transferred. But let’s leave this here for now; there’s another, bigger number to consider.

DIRECTV owned $9.3 billion of Property, Plants and Equipment five years ago, as well as $2.4 billion of “Investments and other Assets.” AT&T made clear years ago that it wasn’t launching any new satellites, so presumably this PPE number has gone down as satellites have been retired, but with its ground transmission and operation facilities still intact, DIRECTV will presumably transfer another batch of several billion in this category with the sale as well.

In fact, it's theoretically possible some existing PPE from pre-merger AT&T will be going as well, since it is also transferring U-Verse customers in the deal, at least according to the reports.

If we cut the existing number in half to $5.85 billion, we’re at $12.55 billion. Let’s round that up to $13 billion to account for maybe some small U-Verse and permanent Trade Name value. At that point, only $2 billion of the transaction would be considered goodwill."
 
I haven't read all the posts in this thread but I don't see any mention of the Latin American side of DirecTV, which seems to be doing very well and could be spun off as a completely separate entity for some amount of $$. Not sure what DTVLA is worth these days but it doesn't seem to have deteriorated like the US side.


Seeking Alpha does a breakdown of how the sale of DTV might go, if Churchill Captial IV buys DTV.

AT&T: DirecTV Sale's Most Valuable Component Might Not Be The Cash (NYSE:T) | Seeking Alpha

"Assuming the sale goes forward, it is likely that AT&T will report a write-down of as much as $32.6 billion in connection with DIRECTV."

"Now, What's The Real Number?​

But that’s the minimum. More likely, the remaining $15 billion of value will reflect a considerable portion of intangibles and PPE, so I think the write-down will be even larger.

In the merger five years ago, AT&T reported DIRECTV at $12 billion in orbital slot FCC licenses and also reported that just the DIRECTV brand name was worth $1.4 billion. These two kind of go hand in hand, because presumably the name’s worth will expire with the last satellite, which is also when the orbital slots will become worthless.

If we assume these assets have lost half their value, then $6.7 billion of the sale price will be reflected in these two categories, leaving a goodwill write-down correspondingly larger. And that’s assuming they’ve lost half their value. In the final merger tabulation (the 2017 document) AT&T specifically broke the Trade Name value into two components; the $1.4 billion is the “indefinite lived” portion, while another $2.9 billion was already scheduled to be amortized. So AT&T might have anticipated the end of the satellites' life and the full $1.4 billion will be transferred. But let’s leave this here for now; there’s another, bigger number to consider.

DIRECTV owned $9.3 billion of Property, Plants and Equipment five years ago, as well as $2.4 billion of “Investments and other Assets.” AT&T made clear years ago that it wasn’t launching any new satellites, so presumably this PPE number has gone down as satellites have been retired, but with its ground transmission and operation facilities still intact, DIRECTV will presumably transfer another batch of several billion in this category with the sale as well.

In fact, it's theoretically possible some existing PPE from pre-merger AT&T will be going as well, since it is also transferring U-Verse customers in the deal, at least according to the reports.

If we cut the existing number in half to $5.85 billion, we’re at $12.55 billion. Let’s round that up to $13 billion to account for maybe some small U-Verse and permanent Trade Name value. At that point, only $2 billion of the transaction would be considered goodwill."
 
They were probably planning on shutting down "TV Now" once they had "TV" up and running for a while.

It would be a lot easier for them if they sold AT&T TV along with Directv and Uverse, as that way they could sell the whole thing instead of a minority share if that's what potential buyers wanted. The only reason they have been talking about selling a minority share is if they want to keep AT&T TV so it can be negotiated as part of Directv's subscriber count.
 
They think that AT&T TV is the future of the company. They spend a lot of money advertising that service, but very little for DirecTV, which they are desperately trying to sell.
 
Now AT&T wants to borrow more money for 5g.

AT&T Is Said to Seek $14 Billion Loan From Banks for 5G Airwaves - Bloomberg


Also Swanni noticed this in the AT&T TV and AT&T TV Now merging

AT&T TV-AT&T TV Now Merger: 4 Reasons Why - The TV Answer Man!

4. AT&T is close to selling DIRECTV and U-verse.

Buried in AT&T’s fine print at its web site today is a new line that says, “AT&T TV not available to DIRECTV and U-verse TV customers.”


That is quite a difference from AT&T’s earlier position which was to convert DIRECTV and U-verse subscribers to AT&T TV because it’s a cheaper platform to operate. The only reason to change that position, in my humble opinion, is that you no longer feel comfortable transferring subscribers from DIRECTV and U-verse to AT&T TV. And you would no longer feel comfortable doing that because the new owner (s?) of DIRECTV and U-verse want to keep their subscribers where they are.

Yes, AT&T is trying to sell the two TV services, according to multiple news reports. If a deal is done, or close, AT&T would have to start separating itself from the duo and focus on AT&T TV, which is unlikely to be part of the sale.
 
Based on your linked article and looking a ATT TV’s website, it has a couple of things wrong.

ATT TV non-contract service does not include the ATT TV device but you can buy one. That is different from the previous ATT TV Now service where you couldn’t buy one at all nor did one come with the service.

ATT TV has both a contract 2-year service and a non-contract service with differing prices for the subscription levels offered. The non-contract has 3 levels available, the contract has more levels, notable Total and Premier. The contract service comes with one ATT TV box for ‘well qualified subscribers’ and also offers additional ones with 0% financing or upfront payment.

IMO, ATT TV insists on offering the most confusing mish-mash presentation compared to any other streaming service. This has been true since day one and continues unabated.

Note that the current contract offering does not include the $200 rebate of just yesterday therefore it is also a cost increase without saying so. :(
 
Glad I didn't bother trying AT&T Now out like I planned to.

I’m just the opposite. I signed up for it at the Max level which is a really good deal. And at least for some unknown period, I can keep the deal.

And here’s the saddest part of the ATT TV fiasco. It is a great service with good channel selections, a really good app for it, best PQ and Audio and they’ve managed to market it so well they keep losing customers by the droves. This newest twist on their incompetent marketing of it isn’t going to change that IMO.
 
I’m just the opposite. I signed up for it at the Max level which is a really good deal. And at least for some unknown period, I can keep the deal.

And here’s the saddest part of the ATT TV fiasco. It is a great service with good channel selections, a really good app for it, best PQ and Audio and they’ve managed to market it so well they keep losing customers by the droves. This newest twist on their incompetent marketing of it isn’t going to change that IMO.
How does it do on data. I assume you would be hitting caps fairly quick.
 

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