DirecTV Ignores GOP Pressure, Kicks OAN Off Its Cable Lineup

Failures

from the performative-gibberish dept

Back in January DirecTV announced it would be kicking the fantasy and conspiracy channel One America News (OAN) off of its satellite TV lineup, removing the biggest distribution avenue for the “news” channel.

Despite the endless coverage the channel gets for its baseless conspiracies, it’s a channel relatively few people actually watch. DirecTV executives simply didn’t figure the controversy to income ratio was worth it, so they simply didn’t renew OAN’s carriage agreement when the time came.

OAN, of course, quickly tried to spin itself as a victim of partisan censorship, first by attacking a Black AT&T board member in “news” coverage that pretended DirecTV’s business decision was politically and racially motivated, and then by filing a lawsuit claiming that DirecTV was leveraging its “unchecked influence” as a failing satellite TV company to stifle a “family-run business.”

In the hopes of pressuring DirecTV further, OAN appears to have enlisted the support of six GOP Attorneys General. All six, with Texas AG Ken Paxton in the lead, wrote a letter to DirecTV claiming the channel’s decision was “clearly viewpoint discrimination and an attempt to silence conservative voices.”

Undaunted, DirecTV proceeded anyway and has informed consumers they’ll be losing the channel starting this week:

DirecTV plans to drop One America News Network on Tuesday, ignoring pressure to reverse course from the conservative cable outlet and its supporters.

The satellite TV giant has been notifying customers that it will no longer carry OAN or AWE, a high-end lifestyle channel also owned by Herring Networks Inc., after April 4. 

Again, not that many people watch the channel on a good day. As a struggling satellite TV provider that’s been losing subscribers for several years, DirecTV didn’t find the hassle worth it. Even if DirecTV had kicked the channel to the curb due to its viewpoints, there’s nothing illegal in that. It’s not legally or contractually obligated to carry any channels its executives don’t deem worth the hassle.

So in short, an ordinary business decision was rolled into the Trump GOP’s victimization complex and bunk narrative that they’re being somehow being “censored,” despite the fact you’re able to hear the party’s conspiracy theories everywhere, constantly, ad nauseum. Including on their own platforms and other, more popular, GOP-friendly cable “news” channels.

Much like the attacks on “big tech,” this isn’t really a debate about censorship or the contours of free speech. It’s about authoritarians who believe that private companies (cable and big tech alike) should be mandated to carry the kind of race-baiting, base-agitating propaganda authoritarians resort to when they know shifting demographics and reality aren’t working in their favor.

Filed Under: conspiracy theories, contracts, satellite tv
Companies: at&t, directv, oan, oann

Ted Cruz, Mike Lee Join Dumb, Baseless GOP Quest To Pretend OAN Was Unfairly Censored

Overhype

from the conspiratorial-gibberish dept

So we’ve already noted how OAN was booted off of the DirecTV lineup, severing a massive mainstream distribution avenue for the conspiracy and fantasy channel. DirecTV, recently spun off by AT&T, made the decision because the channel, despite all the attention, really wasn’t being watched very much.

Angry that a major source of GOP propaganda was no longer being pumped into millions of homes, both OAN and the GOP have been engaged in a silly quest to try and pretend that the decision was somehow unfair, censorial, or the result of partisan shenanigans.

First OAN had its anchors attack a Black AT&T board member and former Democratic FCC official, in a bizarre attempt to make it seem like DirecTV’s decision was politically and racially motivated. Then it filed suit against DirecTV, insisting that the dying satellite TV company was using its “unchecked influence and power” (lol) to “unlawfully destroy an independent, family-run business.”

Then six GOP AGs piled on, sending a letter to DirecTV accusing the company of trying to censor conservatives. It’s like a big tray of bullshit lasagna.

Now this week, Senators Mike Cruz and Mike Lee have tried their best to get their faces on TV as part of this stage play, penning a latter to AT&T accusing it of participating in a conspiracy with Dominion Voting Systems (which is currently suing OAN for spreading unfounded election fraud claims):

If you cannot see the embedded image, it’s a letter from Lee and Cruz to AT&T’s board of directors and reads as follows:

We write to you with grave concern for the future of journalism and political discourse in America. Specifically, the following facts have come to our attention:

1. One American News Network (“OANN”) is being sued for alleged defamation by Dominion Voting Systems.

2. Dominion Voting Systems is owned by Staple Street Capital.

3. William Kennard is on the executive board of Staple Street Capital.

4. William Kennard is also the Chairman of AT&T’s board of directors.

5. AT&T owns 70% of DirecTV, and controls two seats on DirecTV’s board of directors.

6. DirecTV has decided not to renew its contract with OANN.

These facts raise serious questions about the role of political influence in DirecTV’s programming decisions, as well as whether AT&T’s Chairman has allowed personal financial considerations to influence his oversight of a company in which AT&T holds a majority share–possibly in conflict with his fiduciary obligations to AT&T shareholders.

We request that you respond within 10 business days to the following question: Did any employee or agent of AT&T at any time convey or suggest to any employee or agent of DirecTV an instruction or request not to renew OANN?

We appreciate your urgent attention to this inquiry, and look forward to receiving your prompt reply.

In short, the dynamic duo imply that because William Kennard, the Chairman of AT&T’s board of directors, is also on the board of private equity firm Staple Street Capital (which owns Dominion Voting Systems), this must all be some grand conspiracy to kick OAN off of DirecTV, as if Kennard can single handedly determine all of AT&T’s business proposals by himself.

In reality, OAN was kicked off of DirecTV’s lineup because not that many people watch the channel. DirecTV was spun off by AT&T into a new joint venture with private equity firm TPG Capital, and the new leadership simply didn’t think the profitability to headache ratio was worth renewing a contract. That’s it.

Remember that AT&T not only funded the creation of OAN, reports suggest it came up with the idea. It only backed away from DirecTV because its bungled $200 billion megamerger spree left it desperate for cash. TPG came in, and the focus was obviously on greater fiscal responsibility.

Cable and broadcast executives aren’t the most ethical bunch. As your cable TV channel lineup makes pretty clear, they’ll air any old bullshit provided it makes them money and doesn’t get them into legal hot water. OAN not only wasn’t really particularly popular, its unhinged claims of electoral fraud and obnoxious COVID conspiracies made the channel not worth the trouble, even for them.

Even if DirecTV axed OAN because of its content, there’s nothing illegal there. There’s nothing requiring that DirecTV mandate viewpoint neutrality across its lineup. It’s the company’s prerogative as a business to do business with whoever they’d like, something the Conservative party, you might recall, used to prattle on about at great length about before their noggins were filled with Trump pudding.

An ordinary business decision got distorted into a grand conspiracy by the Trump GOP to agitate their increasingly conspiratorial base and feed the gibberish claim that the modern Trump GOP (whose rants, opinions, and conspiracies can be found absolutely everywhere, all the time) are somehow being unfairly silenced. It’s dumb victimization porn and propaganda all the way down.

Filed Under: cable news, cable tv, conspiracy theories, disinformation, election fraud, gop, mike lee, news, propaganda, ted cruz, trump, tv, william kennard
Companies: at&t, directv, oan, oann

Six Republican AGs Try To Pretend OAN Was ‘Censored’ By DirecTV

Politics

from the traditional-conservative-values dept

Last January DirecTV finally decided to kick fantasy and conspiracy channel One America News (OAN) off of their satellite TV lineup, likely dooming the “news” channel. It’s a channel relatively few people watch, and the company simply didn’t figure the controversy to income ratio was worth it, so DirecTV simply didn’t renew OAN’s carriage agreement when the time came.

OAN, of course, quickly tried to spin itself as a victim of censorship, first by attacking a Black AT&T board member in “news” coverage that pretended DirecTV’s business decision was politically and racially motivated. And last week, the company filed a lawsuit claiming that DirecTV was leveraging its “unchecked influence” to stifle a “family-run business”:

“This is an action to redress the unchecked influence and power that Defendants have wielded in an attempt to unlawfully destroy an independent, family-run business and impede the right of American television viewers to watch the news media channels and programs of their choice.”

Trying to claim DirecTV, which itself is losing subscribers hand over fist to streaming, has “unchecked influence and power” is fairly amusing. In reality, DirecTV made a fairly boring business decision to not renew a channel very few people, despite all the sound and fury, actually watch:

Now Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has, for some bizarre reason, injected himself into the dispute. In a letter (pdf), Paxton and the GOP AGs of Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, and South Carolina demand DirecTV renew its carriage agreement with OAN, and insist the decision to kick the conspiracy channel to the curb is “clearly viewpoint discrimination and an attempt to silence conservative voices”:

“My fellow attorneys general and I strongly recommend that you reconsider your present course and renew your contract with OAN in April. Your failure to do so will not only cause you to lose millions of dollars in business, but also drive many millions of Americans to simply cancel your services outright, as President Trump and other leading figures have already called for.

I’m old enough to remember that a core GOP platform used to be that government shouldn’t involve itself in routine business decisions without exceptional cause. Yet here, six AGs took the time to take DirecTV to task simply for booting a channel from its lineup that not many people watched.

As with most modern GOP claims of this type, it’s largely performative victimization porn to keep the base angry. What the Trump GOP routinely calls “censorship” is usually just baseline levels of accountability for dumb behavior (like, say, falsely claiming in “news reports” that COVID was created in a South Carolina lab). The real goal here, as it is with the Section 230 fracas, is really to mandate that the internet and cable programming be inundated with alternative reality propaganda favorable to the GOP.

As we’ve noted previously, while AT&T originally funded and came up with the idea for OAN, the company was forced to spin DirecTV off in partnership with TPG Capital, which was likely less interested in catering to conspiratorial GOP gibberish — at least when it wasn’t making them money. Cable and broadcast executives will air anything that makes money if they can legally get away with it.

Even if this was a viewpoint-based decision by DirecTV, there’s absolutely nothing requiring that DirecTV maintain anything resembling “viewpoint neutrality.” There’s just no foundation for any complaint here. There’s nothing illegal. Again, it was a boring business decision made because the channel wasn’t making DirecTV money in ratio with the headaches (like the lawsuits over bogus claims of election fraud).

Paxton and his friends are clearly upset that the ongoing effort to create an entire alternate reality news ecosystem saw a minor setback with OAN being dumped from DirecTV, relegating the channel out of the mainstream and back into a highly competitive scrum of conspiratorial influencers and other gibberish-spewing Trump orbit hopefuls.

Of course, the Trump base will never see alternative viewpoints pointing out Paxton’s involvement here is self-serving, performative bullshit, which is the entire point of the propaganda ecosystem folks like Trump and Paxton are hoping to embolden and protect as they foist their authoritarianism on the planet.

Filed Under: disinformation, gop, ken paxton, lawsuit, propaganda, radicalization, speech, trump
Companies: directv, oan, oann

Cable TV Companies Lost Nearly 5 Million Subscribers in 2021

Broadband

from the too-little-too-late dept

Remember when the cable and broadcast industry insisted that “cord cutting” (ditching traditional cable TV subscriptions) wasn’t actually a real trend? Or how, once they finally acknowledged it was a real thing, insisted that it was just a temporary fad that would abate once Millennials started having babies?

Years later and amazingly enough the very real trend shows absolutely no sign of slowing down. According to the latest data from Leichtman Research Group, major U.S. pay TV providers lost 4,700,000 subscribers in 2021. Just slightly less than the 4,870,000 subscribers they lost in 2020.

As has been consistently true in recent years, the losses have been much worse for satellite TV providers (Dish Network, DirecTV) that generally aren’t bundled with broadband in the way cable TV often is:

Top cable providers had a net loss of about 2,695,000 video subscribers in 2021 – compared to a loss of about 1,940,000 subscribers in 2020.

Other traditional pay-TV services had a net loss of about 2,890,000 subscribers in 2021 – compared to a loss of about 3,845,000 subscribers in 2020.

Cable broadband continues to be financially shielded by the fact that the dominant cable TV companies (Charter/Spectrum, Comcast) enjoy a growing monopoly over fixed-line broadband access, with 83 million Americans still living under a broadband monopoly. Said monopoly means they can simply extract any lost TV revenues through things like sneaky fees or bullshit broadband usage caps.

The 7 biggest U.S. cable TV providers now “only” have a grand total of around 41.3 million video subscribers. Consider, for context, that Netflix now has about 37 million in the U.S. alone. And the trend the cable industry spent years trying to deny (in a bid to justify high prices and inflexible cable bundles) continues on with only a very tiny slowdown.

Filed Under: broadband, cable tv, cord cutting, pay tv, satellite tv
Companies: charter spectrum, comcast, directv, dish

Conspiracy Channel OAN Pouts More, Sues DirecTV For Kicking It To The Curb

Legal Issues

from the good-luck-with-that dept

Back in January DirecTV finally decided to axe OAN, the conspiracy and fantasy channel, from its cable lineup. The decision came just three months or so after a blockbuster report showed that AT&T not only helped fund and set up the “news” outlet, but it came up with the idea. OAN has been notorious for spreading false claims ranging from non-existent election fraud to the false claim that COVID was developed in a North Carolina lab as part of a government plot.

OAN didn’t respond well. It first freaked out and had its “reporters” attack a minority AT&T board member in a bid to try and make it seem like the decision was both racial and political. Now OAN has filed a lawsuit against DirecTV, in which it (of course) plays the victim:

“This is an action to redress the unchecked influence and power that Defendants have wielded in an attempt to unlawfully destroy an independent, family-run business and impede the right of American television viewers to watch the news media channels and programs of their choice,”

Accusing DirecTV, the fading satellite TV remnants of AT&T’s bungled media and video ad strategy, as having “unchecked influence and power” is pretty funny just as a baseline. AT&T’s been losing subscribers to streaming hand over fist, and is likely facing a short remaining life span. AT&T/DirecTV didn’t violate its carriage contract with OAN, it simply chose not to renew it, which is its right.

While Dallas-based AT&T executives did originally fund and come up with the idea for OAN, things have shifted dramatically for AT&T and DirecTV since OAN’s creation several years ago. The company’s $200 billion acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner flamed out spectacularly, forcing it to sell much of the assets to recoup its massive debt load as it backed away from its TV and video advertising ambitions and refocused on telecom.

That included selling off DirecTV into a new joint venture with private equity firm TPG Capital, which now has a 30 percent stake. With TPG Capital in the mix the company was simply less tolerant of the propaganda patty cake OAN is playing in ratio with the money they made off the extremely limited number of people that actually watched channel.

In the suit, OAN tries to claim that because OAN and the Herring family of channels still have an ad contract with AT&T’s former ad-arm Xandr (recently sold to Microsoft after AT&T bungled that at as well), it believed its carriage contract would be renewed. But again, there’s nothing illegal here.

As countless other U.S. cable programming makes clear, most cable and broadcast companies couldn’t care less about ethics, and would air pretty much anything they could get away with if it made them money, so the idea that DirecTV was somehow being vindictive or political doesn’t make sense, and OAN’s case doesn’t seem likely to gain much traction.

Filed Under: cable, carriage, channels, disinformation, propaganda, television, tv
Companies: at&t, directv, oan, oann

AT&T/DirecTV Implosion Could Give Apple NFL Sunday Ticket

Failures

from the yeah-that-didn't-work dept

It’s really hard to overstate what a colossal failure AT&T’s $200 billion acquisition of Time Warner and DirecTV was. And if you’re an AT&T executive with a bruised ego in the wake of the implosion, the hits just keep on coming.

The megadeals were supposed to cement AT&T as a powerhouse in media and video advertising with HBO and the NFL as cornerstones. Instead, terrible leadership and hubris resulted in more than 50,000 layoffs, the closure of numerous loved brands (Mad Magazine, DC’s Vertigo imprint), the loss of millions of TV subscribers, and a mountain of debt AT&T’s still trying to climb its way out of.

Paying off that debt involved offloading a lot of acquired assets for a song. It has also involved AT&T spinning off DirecTV in a new partnership with private equity firm TPG Capital. One of DirecTV’s flagship properties has been the exclusive deal to distribute out of market NFL games via NFL Sunday Ticket.

But with that deal expiring in 2022, and DirecTV still hemorrhaging cash (not only from the megamerger spree but because of the continued pace of cord cutting), the rights will soon be up for auction. And two of the top suitors for the properties will be Apple or Disney:

Apple is exploring an audacious plan to scoop up the NFL’s available rights with a single, multibillion-dollar deal, sources tell Front Office Sports.

The NFL is currently fielding offers for three assets: an equity stake in NFL Media, the “NFL Sunday Ticket” package for out-of-market games, and livestreaming games on mobile devices. 

Apple wants to bundle them all into one sweeping deal, said sources. That would instantly make the tech giant, which has long avoided sports, one of the NFL’s biggest business partners. 

Again, AT&T’s entry into the media and video ad market was supposed to cement it as the preeminent name in media, sticking it to the traditional tech giants AT&T has long had a fraught relationship with. Instead, AT&T’s still scrambling to get its head above water and companies like Apple and Disney are becoming the very thing AT&T telecom executives dreamed they could be.

Not only does this deal probably bruise the ego of telecom executives that hungrily eyed media expansion but lacked the competency to execute, the broader, more competent distribution of live sports over the internet is likely to only accelerate the cord cutting shift away from traditional TV services (especially services like Dish and DirecTV, which will soon be on life support).

Filed Under: failed merger, football, pay tv, streaming, tv
Companies: apple, at&t, directv, disney, nfl

DirecTV, Roku Give RT The Boot

Content Moderation

from the ministry-of-truth dept

DirecTV has announced that the company will be removing Russian government-backed news outlet RT from the company’s satellite TV lineup in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. According to a company statement, DirecTV was already contemplating ditching RT and other channels from the company’s lineup in a bid to lower costs, and simply expedited the decision.

The move comes just a few months after the channel also decided to give conspiracy and propaganda outlet OAN the boot, which itself came not long after press reports revealed that former full DirecTV owner, AT&T, had not only funded the creation of the network, but came up with the idea.

Neither move likely happens if rightward-lurching, Dallas-based AT&T executives remained fully in charge of DirecTV. After AT&T’s disastrous $200 billion effort to dominate the TV and video ad sector with its acquisition of DirecTV and Time Warner, the company has been in full retreat for the last few years, recently spinning off DirecTV in a joint deal with private equity firm TPG Capital.

It’s clear at this point that TPG doesn’t make as many decisions based on random hubris, and it’s been reflected in the direction DirecTV has been headed when it comes to its tolerance for controversial propaganda posing as a news network (even though the company itself may remain doomed as a relic of the traditional television era all the same).

DirecTV was joined by Roku, which also announced it would be removing the channel from their channel list:

Roku and DirecTV were two of the largest providers to carry the channel in the US, along with Dish Networks. When contacted on Tuesday about whether it also planned to drop the channel, Dish spokesperson Caroline Krause told The Verge: “Our thoughts are with all the people of Ukraine, and particularly with our team members in the country. We are closely monitoring the situation.”

Both decisions came in the wake of the EU’s announcement that it would be banning Russian government-backed RT and Sputnik from EU member countries entirely both online and via traditional media (Twitter quickly complied). The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences simultaneously announced that it would be kicking several RT-affiliated executives off of its board of directors.

While RT and Sputnik do occasionally stumble into actual news, both outlets have largely served one function over the better part of the last decade: downplay, ignore, or deny Russia’s increasingly aggressive behavior, whether it’s shooting down airliners, poisoning opponents on foreign soil, hacking elections, waging sustained propaganda campaigns, or invading democratic neighbors.

For a while, the fact that the United States also has a rich history of violence and propaganda (both government and corporation-supported) — seemingly allowed folks to downplay or ignore the role RT and Sputnik play in spreading Putin fan fiction. But as in so many other arenas, Russia’s violent bombing of Ukrainian civilians has completely shifted the tolerance equation.

Filed Under: russia, russian propaganda, satellite tv
Companies: directv

OAN Throws A Hissy Fit After Being Axed By AT&T, DirecTV

Failures

from the good-luck-with-that dept

Last week, we noted how AT&T-owned DirecTV had decided to axe OAN, the conspiracy and fantasy channel, from its cable lineup. The decision came just three months or so after a blockbuster report showed that AT&T not only helped fund and set up the conspiracy theory spewing “news” outlet, but it came up with the idea. OAN has been notorious for spreading false claims ranging from non-existent election fraud to the false claim that COVID was developed in a North Carolina lab as part of a government plot.

Of course things have shifted dramatically for AT&T since OAN’s creation several years ago. The company’s $200 billion acquisitions of DirecTV and Time Warner flamed out spectacularly, forcing it to sell much of the assets to recoup its massive debt load as it backed away from its TV and video advertising ambitions and refocused on telecom. That included selling off DirecTV into a new joint venture with private equity firm TPG Capital, which now has a 30 percent stake.

So the recent decision to axe the channel from the DirecTV lineup likely had more to do with TPG Capital not wanting to be associated with the venture than AT&T (whose Dallas-based executives remain largely cozy with insurrectionists and right-wing conspiracy theorists). But the channel apparently thought attacking AT&T board members would be their best path forward, with channel hosts now asking viewers to “find dirt” on AT&T board member William Kennard:

“Besides begging OAN viewers to ?blow up? AT&T?s phone lines with demands that they keep his channel, Ball also called on them to send them any salacious information about the conglomerate?s chairman.

?If you have any dirt on Mr. Kennard, I?d love to see it and put it on this program,? the Real America host exclaimed.

?You bring me concrete evidence of whatever it may be: cheating on his taxes, cheating on his wife, saying racial slurs against white people,? Ball added, unsubtly referencing the fact that Kennard is Black. ?Whatever it may be. Find it for me. Bring it, and we will air it.”

Granted there are plenty of executives and board members at AT&T that OAN could have singled out. But Kennard is not only Black (some race-baiting motivation for the target audience), he’s a Democrat who was Federal Communications Commission chairman during the Clinton administration (letting them pretend they’re the victim of partisan politics). That’s a far more compelling narrative than the truth, which was that AT&T’s new partner TPG Capital likely didn’t want the brand association or legal liability OAN creates, especially for a company like DirecTV that has lots of other things to worry about (like surviving the streaming revolution).

OAN is obviously panicked because while the channel is still carried on a few providers (like Verizon’s FiOS TV), DirecTV made up the vast, vast majority of its outreach footprint, giving it perceived legitimacy as a “news” organization. Without a sugar daddy like AT&T propping up the organization with favorable carriage deals, the “news channel” is forced to heavily rely on the Internet for distribution, leaving it mired in a highly competitive scrum of conspiratorial influencers and other gibberish spewing Trump orbit hopefuls.

Companies: at&t, directv, oan

DirecTV Finally Dumps OAN, Limiting The Conspiracy And Propaganda Channel's Reach

Failures

from the good-luck-out-there dept

Back in October, reports emerged indicating that AT&T had not only funded much of the creation of the popular conspiracy and fantasy channel OAN, AT&T executives had actually come up with the original idea. The channel, which routinely traffics in false election fraud, COVID, and other right-wing conspiracy theories, had seen most of its reach come courtesy of a partnership with DirecTV. As of last week, DirecTV executives informed OAN it wouldn’t be having its contract renewed:

“The satellite-TV provider has notified OAN?s owner, Herring Networks Inc., that it plans to stop carrying the company?s two channels when their contract expires. Herring Networks also owns AWE, a lifestyle channel that stands for ?A Wealth of Entertainment.”

What changed? After its disastrous $200 billion Time Warner and DirecTV megamerger spree resulted in layoffs, lost customers, and general carnage, AT&T had to not only backtrack from its ambitions to be an online video and ad giant, it had to sell anything that wasn’t nailed down to recoup the massive debt created from the deals. That included spinning off DirecTV into its own, new entity in a partnership with private equity firm TPG Capital. While AT&T still has a 70% stake in the venture, it now has other executives with a vested interest in calling the shots.

I’d wager that while Dallas-based right wing AT&T executives had no problem being associated with the conspiracy theory channel, AT&T’s new partners at TPG likely weren’t keen on the bad press. Especially in the wake of last October’s reporting so closely linking AT&T to a channel that routinely traffics in dangerous gibberish like claims that COVID was created in a North Carolina lab.

As of last year, estimates pegged OAN’s total subscriber count (people who have the channel in their cable lineup) at somewhere around 23 million, far lower than Fox News (78.6 million) or even Newsmax (58.2 million). But estimates of how many people actually watch the channel consistently is notably lower than that:

Without DirecTV’s help, the channel’s reach is curtailed even further. Now the channel is only carried by a small handful of cable TV providers, the biggest being Verizon’s FiOS TV. Granted the channel’s gibberish still gets traction online as part of the far right propaganda ecosystem (which includes both sharing by people who believe what the channel has to say, and outrage retweets from those who don’t) but in terms of traditional distribution the move significantly restricts the propaganda bullhorn’s impact all the same.

Filed Under: cable tv, carriage, conspiracy theories, oan, pay tv, propaganda
Companies: at&t, directv, herring networks, oan

America's Struggling Satellite TV Companies Once Again Propose A Terrible MegaMerger

Deals

from the when-in-doubt,-repeat-your-mistakes dept

For decades, like clockwork, somebody at Dish or DirecTV will try and float the idea that the two satellite TV companies should merge. Usually they’ll do this by seeding the idea at trusted news outlets that additional consolidation is just what the U.S. media sector needs. Granted regulators have always balked at the idea of a Dish and DirecTV merger, given that it would only reduce competition in the pay TV space, leading to more layoffs, more price hikes, and even worse customer service (cable TV customer service is among the worst in any industry anywhere thanks to this “growth for growth’s sake” mindset).

Like clockwork, somebody involved in the deal-making has leaked word of yet another attempt to merge the two companies to the New York Post:

“DirecTV and Dish Network are in fresh talks to merge after years of on-again, off-again wrangling and multiple clampdowns from federal antitrust officials, The Post has learned.”

Both companies have been losing TV subscribers hand over fist to streaming competitors, so the argument being seeded in the press is that the merger makes sense now because both companies are flailing, and streaming competitors now exist:

“Now, however, insiders are optimistic a Dish-DirecTV deal could pass regulatory muster as concerns about the market power of the struggling companies have waned, sources said. Some executives likewise argue that a merger could give a surprise boost to the US?s troubled rollout of 5G wireless services.”

The problem, of course, is that every time the telecom and cable industry proposes a deal like this, absolutely none of the promised synergies ever actually arrive, and the end result is almost uniformly more problems, more layoffs, and more price hikes. We just got done watching a megagermer clusterfuck for the ages in the $200 billion AT&T Time Warner and DirecTV mergers, which promised American consumers the sun, Earth, and sky. Instead we saw 50,000 layoffs, record TV defections, higher prices, and absolute chaos, forcing AT&T to recently spin off DirecTV.

Dish and DirecTV policy nerds are going to try and justify the deal this time by claiming it’s the only way to get Dish’s promised 5G network off the ground. That network, if you recall, was a half-baked Trump-era “fix” to the problems already created by the T-Mobile Sprint merger. Based on recent events that network doesn’t appear destined to succeed any way you slice it. But with Dish hemorrhaging both pay TV and wireless subscribers already, it’s short of cash. DirecTV’s fortunes aren’t looking so hot in the TikTok era either.

So instead of letting terrible companies just die at the hands of the market and shifting trends, we turn to regulators to approve terrible deals under the Charlie Brown and Lucy football type promise that this time the deal will solve everybody’s problems. But it won’t. A deal like this will just reduce competition, raise rates, and result in tens of thousands of additional layoffs. As such it’s unlikely the Biden FCC or DOJ approves it, but given this country’s severe allergy to learning from history or experience when it comes to megadeals, you can never quite be sure.

Filed Under: competition, ftc, mergers, pay tv, tv
Companies: directv, dish