By Anirban Sen
(Reuters) – Telecommunications company AT&T and joint venture partner TPG are in early stages of talks to merge their satellite television service DirecTV with Dish, a company owned by EchoStar, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
The two companies first attempted to merge in 2002, when the U.S. Department of Justice blocked the deal. The combined entity would create the largest pay-TV provider in the U.S. with about 16 million subscribers, if talks are successful. The potential deal would likely draw renewed antitrust scrutiny, though it may be able to clear the regulatory hurdles this time around, as the industry has expanded significantly since then, with DirecTV and Dish now competing with the likes of Comcast, Charter, Amazon Prime, YouTube TV and Netflix. A merger would increase the combined company’s ability to negotiate with programmers, much as DirecTV now does with Disney as the two sides are locked in a distribution dispute.
For Dish, the deal means they can focus all of their investments on building out their 5G wireless network.
“Rumors regarding a potential transaction between DirecTV and Dish are not new, but we do not comment on rumors or speculation,” a DirecTV spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
DirecTV and Dish have been in ongoing talks since their first merger attempt was blocked in 2002.
EchoStar completed its acquisition of Dish in late 2023.
Dish did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment outside business hours. TPG and AT&T declined to comment.
DirecTV has been embroiled in a public battle with Disney, resulting in 11 million DirecTV customers losing access to ESPN in the middle of the US Open tennis tournament.
The dispute comes amid a competing plan by Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery to form a joint streaming video venture focused on sports, called Venu Sports.
The launch was temporarily blocked by a court injunction as part of a lawsuit filed by sports streaming competitor FuboTV, which accused the media companies of anti-competitive behavior.
Bloomberg reported earlier on Friday about the talks between Dish and DirecTV.
(Reporting by Anirban Sen, additional reporting by Urvi Dugar, Harshita Meenaktshi and Dawn Chmielewski; Editing by Sandra Maler, Rosalba O’Brien and Michael Perry)
