directv and dish network rumored to be in merger talks!!!

[mikedz4]

Two days ago several sources reported dish network and directv to be in merger talks. When contacted by the media tuesday neither company would comment on the talks or if there were any. We all know that the government killed the merger 5 years ago.
Do you think the two companies will announce a merger? Will the government allow the merger this time? The only upside to a merger would be room for more hd channels and probably 100% coverage of all local markets in sd and hd plus hopefully the power to bargain with the tv networks to allow overlapping markets to see each other's channels.

 

[randyk47]

I don't know one way or the other if the companies are in merger talks but it wouldn't surprise me since they went down that road once before. I think the government would have a harder time not allowing the merger this time because of recent merger approvals in the communications industry. The "new" AT&T continues to acquire more and more companies and is looking more and more like the old Ma Bell of years ago. Sirius and XM are another case in point. Not sure of the upside as I can't say that mergers always wind up meaning better service to the consumer.

 

[atp1313]

Competition (without collusion) always leads to be a better overall free market experience for all end users. That said, what power do I have as an end user to support or interrupt this (possible) merger? At the end of the day, not much.

 

[Barry Erick]

With Sirius and XM merging, why not Dish and DirecTV?

 

[charper1]

why another new thread on the same topic already posted?

 

[meStevo]

I am a Sirius sub, and didnt care if the merger went through or not, it's just more music, so in a way I was for it. I had my NFL on Sirius and didn't care about the rest.

If I had Dish, I'd be hoping for a merger, for access to Sunday Ticket.

As a DirecTV sub, I really don't care. An approved merger would have all sorts of price controls in it, so not that concerned about pricing... and Dish won't really bring more channels to the table that I am interested in.

 

[Mr.HoggLegg]

Merger would be great for D* & E*! Not for Subscribers

Hey O!
Mergers of 2 companies where they are the only competetion only lead to MONOPOLIES!

Under present conditions, if D* and E* would want to increase the price of their services to whatever they would like, they would have to make an agreement on said price. If they did that, then they would be in violation of FEDERAL LAW! It's known as PRICE FIXING!

However, if they merge, then there is no competetion and they would be able to set their prices to whatever they like.

Unlike the situation with AT&T (Ma Bell) there are numerous other companies which are in competetion with AT&T.
It's expected that the FCC will be approving a merger between ALLTEL and VERIZON! There by creating a company with a larger cell phone subsrciber base than AT&T.
So AT&T will continue to be agressive in acquiring more local phone companies in the future. And I would expect that the FCC (because of the various phone companies) will continue approving their merger requests.

However, since there are only 2 competing satellite companies for TV broadcasting, their approval I would suspect will be under more extensive examination. I would also expect that different consumer watch dog organisations would be opposing any such mergers.

Hope everyone will have a Blessed Day!

 

[meStevo]

Hey O!
Mergers of 2 companies where they are the only competetion only lead to MONOPOLIES!

Under present conditions, if D* and E* would want to increase the price of their services to whatever they would like, they would have to make an agreement on said price. If they did that, then they would be in violation of FEDERAL LAW! It's known as PRICE FIXING!

However, if they merge, then there is no competetion and they would be able to set their prices to whatever they like.

Unlike the situation with AT&T (Ma Bell) there are numerous other companies which are in competetion with AT&T.
It's expected that the FCC will be approving a merger between ALLTEL and VERIZON! There by creating a company with a larger cell phone subsrciber base than AT&T.
So AT&T will continue to be agressive in acquiring more local phone companies in the future. And I would expect that the FCC (because of the various phone companies) will continue approving their merger requests.

However, since there are only 2 competing satellite companies for TV broadcasting, their approval I would suspect will be under more extensive examination. I would also expect that different consumer watch dog organisations would be opposing any such mergers.

Hope everyone will have a Blessed Day!

You have a kind of weak point... since the Sat providers compete with other forms of entertainment on your TV, the same way Sat radio competes with Ipods and other ways to get music... the only monopoly of concern here is over the rural customers with no other alternative. That is the single biggest hurdle to a merger. It would take some serious provisions to protect these people with few/no choices for a merger to happen.

The distribution method is irrelevant, it's the type of service that is offered. The distribution method in this case lends to an increased likelyhood of a merger/partnership due to similar infrastructure (compared to something like Cable).

 

[agregjones]

Hey O!
Mergers of 2 companies where they are the only competetion only lead to MONOPOLIES!

Under present conditions, if D* and E* would want to increase the price of their services to whatever they would like, they would have to make an agreement on said price. If they did that, then they would be in violation of FEDERAL LAW! It's known as PRICE FIXING!

However, if they merge, then there is no competetion and they would be able to set their prices to whatever they like.

Unlike the situation with AT&T (Ma Bell) there are numerous other companies which are in competetion with AT&T.
It's expected that the FCC will be approving a merger between ALLTEL and VERIZON! There by creating a company with a larger cell phone subsrciber base than AT&T.
So AT&T will continue to be agressive in acquiring more local phone companies in the future. And I would expect that the FCC (because of the various phone companies) will continue approving their merger requests.

However, since there are only 2 competing satellite companies for TV broadcasting, their approval I would suspect will be under more extensive examination. I would also expect that different consumer watch dog organisations would be opposing any such mergers.

Hope everyone will have a Blessed Day!

Though the delivery method is different by region, we live in what amounts to a national market. DirecTV doesn't have different price plans for different regions. This means they don't compete with just Dish but with every cable company. Market pressures apply across cable, fiber and sat. The argument that combining Dish and DirecTV would represent a monopoly falls on deaf ears. Some rural areas do not have multiple offerings, but the same can be said in ANY industry. Is it illegal for a small town to only have one gas stations because that represents a localized monopoly? No.

Price fixing is only possible where all players in a market collude to set prices unnaturally. Because of the national market that these sat companies represent, it would require the cable companies to conspire with them.

Consumer watchdog organizations have had considerably less impact in FCC hearings. These watchdogs have been, in recent times, protecting the rights of cable and terrestrial radio companies more than specifically helping consumers. Forced duopoly was a flawed concept from the beginning. If one of the two goes under, would the government force the sale of its assets to a different party, in effect setting them up for failure too?

 

[mikedz4]

I didn't see another thread on this topic so sorry about that. If there is another thread please point me there and merge them.

 

[atp1313]

If one of the two goes under, would the government force the sale of its assets to a different party, in effect setting them up for failure too?

Who knows, they might force the non-bankrupt company to close up shop to avoid the illusion of a tacit monopoly.

 

[Claude Greiner]

You cannot compair a satellite radio merger to a satellite Tv merger!

With Sirius and XM, your dealing with just about 2 identical services that are priced within a few dollars of each other.

Satellite Tv on the other hand is alot more complicated!

 

[uncrules]

I didn't see another thread on this topic so sorry about that. If there is another thread please point me there and merge them.

There's a couple of topics on this in war zone.

 

[joedekock]

With Sirius and XM merging, why not Dish and DirecTV?

Because unlike radio, satellite's competition is restricted by cimmunities. (at least it is in my state). The cable companies have contracts with local municipalities so they are the only one's offered in that community. I can't get comcast in my area because Charter has the contract with my town.

Because satellite communication is governed by the FCC, local towns and townships cannot have ordinances or contracts with them.

Here in Michigan, the state law was changed a couple years ago to allow U-Verse to go into the communities as well. But the cable companies put up a huge fight over it.

It is only in my opinion anyway that the FCC would see it the way I do. I could be wrong.

 

[DodgerKing]

I am a Sirius sub, and didnt care if the merger went through or not, it's just more music, so in a way I was for it. I had my NFL on Sirius and didn't care about the rest.

If I had Dish, I'd be hoping for a merger, for access to Sunday Ticket.

As a DirecTV sub, I really don't care. An approved merger would have all sorts of price controls in it, so not that concerned about pricing... and Dish won't really bring more channels to the table that I am interested in.

You may not care, but it is more than just more music. It is more sports. Now both Sirius and XM subs can have access to all sports.

 

[Matt9876]

The merger wasn't good for the consumer 5 years ago and with the way everything seems to be headed now I doubt it would serve the consumer very well now.

It may look good on paper but it would be a huge mess with conversions needed to merge both satellite providers.

 

[Van]

Look at the sprint / nextel merger, it was approved even though they said it would take 10 years to completely merge both sides. Would this be a monopoly? I think so because there is no other dbs provider for the United States unless Canada and the US worked out some kind of agreament to allow the bell to start providing service across the border.

Cable companies charge diferent rates, and they dont have to follow the same rules that DBS does inregards to providing locals from a dma over a set area. The merger if its allowed to go through could actually be of benefit to the consumer wether rural or city as it would give the new company better lobbying power to go against the cable lobbyist's and to fight unfair taxes as well as the restrictions on locals.

 

[mikedz4]

why are comcast, time warner, att, verizon being allowed to buy out the other provider's? Comcast/att should have never been allowed to merger, neither should comcast/time warner been able to buy out adelphia. Pretty soon there will be one cable and one telephone provider. Personally I believe if dish/direct were to try to merge if they pounded it home that they needed to merge to survive and compete and threw in some restrictions (like maybe they could show community programming on the merged company, promise to serve all local markets within a certain time frame, price caps for 5 years) then maybe the government would allow it.

 

[GeorgeLV]

Two days ago several sources reported dish network and directv to be in merger talks. When contacted by the media tuesday neither company would comment on the talks or if there were any. We all know that the government killed the merger 5 years ago.
Do you think the two companies will announce a merger? Will the government allow the merger this time? The only upside to a merger would be room for more hd channels and probably 100% coverage of all local markets in sd and hd plus hopefully the power to bargain with the tv networks to allow overlapping markets to see each other's channels.

“In terms of the merger with EchoStar, we really have nothing new to say,” Carey said. “I don’t know whether The Journal needed to fill a page or what, but I have nothing. There’s really nothing.”

DirecTV’s Carey Disses Dish Merger Talk - 8/7/2008 2:35:00 PM - Multichannel News

 

[Jimbo]

why are comcast, time warner, att, verizon being allowed to buy out the other provider's? Comcast/att should have never been allowed to merger, neither should comcast/time warner been able to buy out adelphia. Pretty soon there will be one cable and one telephone provider. Personally I believe if dish/direct were to try to merge if they pounded it home that they needed to merge to survive and compete and threw in some restrictions (like maybe they could show community programming on the merged company, promise to serve all local markets within a certain time frame, price caps for 5 years) then maybe the government would allow it.

Comcast and AT&T Merged ?
When did this happen ?

Jimbo