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Comments on news posted 2014-05-01 08:21:30: Rumors of an AT&T takeover of Dish or DirecTV are about as old as this website, and it appears they've been rekindled once again. According to a report in the Wall Street Journal, AT&T has approached DirecTV recently about a possible acquisition. ..

Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678

Member

directv better then u verse

better not drop NHLnetwork DirecTV has it u verse has dropped it

spewak
R.I.P Dadkins
Premium Member
join:2001-08-07
Elk Grove, CA

spewak

Premium Member

Ohhhh

S--T!

woody7
Premium Member
join:2000-10-13
Torrance, CA

woody7

Premium Member

Re: Ohhhh

Ditto..............................
ke4pym
Premium Member
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC

3 recommendations

ke4pym

Premium Member

I hate AT&T.

This will make me cut the "cord" for sure!

hdman
Flt Rider
Premium Member
join:2003-11-25
Appleton, WI

hdman

Premium Member

Oh well....

I like DTV....but if AT&T buys them, here I come DISH!!!!!

woody7
Premium Member
join:2000-10-13
Torrance, CA

woody7

Premium Member

Re: Oh well....

I havent renewed my DTV contract for that same reason.
etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

etaadmin to hdman

Member

to hdman
I wonder if you are under contract with DTV and it becomes part of at&t can you use that to get out of the contract?

PhoenixDown
FIOS is Awesome
Premium Member
join:2003-06-08
Fresh Meadows, NY

PhoenixDown

Premium Member

Re: Oh well....

Larger commercial contracts will generally have a clause that allows a party to get out of the agreement if the other party is acquired by a major competitor however that provision isn't typically given to consumers.

PWGuy097
@174.21.143.x

PWGuy097 to hdman

Anon

to hdman
said by hdman:

I like DTV....but if AT&T buys them, here I come DISH!!!!!

Personal opinion: Dish has the same problem that any other content provider has, they are charging more due to a variety of retrans /content acquisition costs and some desire to buy wireless spectrum.

They aren't as cheap like the commercials may imply, they have - lots - of fees that don't show up in their advertisements like equipment rental for each connected television if you're using their Hopper product.

They also claim a lot of HD channels, great if you like sports, if you want Disney in HD, it's not an option along with a lot of channels that were once HD but got demoted to SD after some retrans fee fights. They even removed the antenna connection for local broadcast station use on their Hopper.

Their packages are in my view "ridiculous". To get something you may consider pretty basic like BBC America you need one of their upper tier packages.

If I could get real time BBC America and HBO via streaming I would ditch Dish Network tomorrow. What I once considered a value I personally haven't for a long time.

Summary: Do the homework before jumping ship, it's not grass is greener picture you may think. It's much like the broadband duopoly, there may be a choice of one or two providers, but it's like choosing the lessor of two evils, the illusion we're presented is choice when in reality they all have very similar business models, cost structures and rates always increase without the consumer gaining any benefits.

techlte
join:2003-01-01
US

techlte

Member

United Corporations of America

Please stop.

rollinraver
join:2002-04-27
Buffalo, NY

rollinraver

Member

That would do it...

I'd finally become one of those cord cutters everyone frets over...
etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

etaadmin

Member

Why?

Questions:

1. Their uverse TV (picture quality) is not good enough.
2. They have NO plans to expand their ADSL2 uverse to VDSL2.
3. If they are expanding their gigapower to 100 cities why would they need Directv.

Possible answers:

1. Yes uverse picture quality is that bad.
2. They are not expanding uverse ADSL2 to VDSL2.
3. Karl is right and their 'phantom' uverse gigapower expansion is a bunch of BS.
Matt7
join:2001-01-02
Columbus, OH

Matt7

Member

Re: Why?

said by etaadmin:

Possible answers:

1. Yes uverse picture quality is that bad.
2. They are not expanding uverse ADSL2 to VDSL2.
3. Karl is right and their 'phantom' uverse gigapower expansion is a bunch of BS.

I see this more like :

DTV plays in AT&T's plan to be able to offer video services to Rural areas that have no real chance of ROI if they extended fiber to those very sparse populated areas.

I am guessing AT&T's seeing this as a way to bundle video services with LTE DATA / Voice offerings for rural areas that it will never be profitable to extend fiber to those few households.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: Why?

Yeah, that makes the most sense. They could also bundle U-Verse with DirecTV, which might pull in more people than just U-Verse alone.

coldmoon
Premium Member
join:2002-02-04
Fulton, NY

coldmoon

Premium Member

Deal breaker

I have been a DTV customer for over a decade but would drop them like a hot potato if they were to merge with the death star. I have never liked Dish but would have to consider the move as they would be the only alternative out here in the pine trees and tobacco farms...

drmorley
MVM
join:2000-12-20
Three Lakes, WI

drmorley

MVM

Love DTV - Hate ATT

I've been a DTV sub for 10+ years, but this would give me pause. If they make any changes other than the logo on the bill I'd likely drop them and move to Dish.

lev
Anyone else remember ISDN?

join:2001-05-30
Goodyear, AZ

lev

Re: Love DTV - Hate ATT

Ah, those uncomfortable times when your politics and your well-being as a consumer collide.

TuxRaiderPen2
Make America Great Again
join:2009-09-19

TuxRaiderPen2

Member

Why? But that works for me! direccrtap and the deathstar deserve each other!

Why? But that works for me! directcrap and the deathstar deserve each other!!!!

So long as they STAY AWAY FROM MY Dish! ! ! Best DBS service around! Now if they would drop all the SD dupes, all the PPV, all the sporturdage, it could improve a lot more! As well as the stupid LiL nonsense. CBS, FOX, CW, ABC can send them a national E/W feed to uplink. Those who want all the sporturdage can go to direcrapcon who wants all that.

Direcrapcon, well should speak volumes on my opinion.

Not really sure what this gets crApTT, but it works for me! Two horirble companies merge to make one huge crappy company! They still have a long way to go to match commiecrap. I hoping that maybe the sliver of that would revert to the TW shell corp even though its not listed in the Swapco transaction.. it really makes no sense to keep it as an island... but companies do far more stupid things daily....
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: Why? But that works for me! direccrtap and the deathstar deserve each other!

DirecTV is far better than DISH. DISH is basically a joke in my neck of the woods, they have been in carriage disputes with our sports channels for years, so they don't even compete. Now that the NCAA National Champion UConn Huskies have been on SNY for 2 years, which DISH doesn't carry, DISH must have bled off the part of CT that they didn't already lose due to their decade or longer carriage spat with YES network. Also, their PQ sucks, their equipment isn't as good as DirecTV, and their local selection isn't as good in many markets.

SimbaSeven
I Void Warranties
join:2003-03-24
Billings, MT
·StarLink

SimbaSeven

Member

Re: Why? But that works for me! direccrtap and the deathstar deserve each other!

The technology is good (DVB), but they over-compress the crap out of it. If they used a little higher bitrate, the video quality would be comparable (or higher) than DTV.

Also, does Dish allow a Conditional Access Module coupled with a DVB-S receiver card for home-built DVR's? If so, it would be quite tempting.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: Why? But that works for me! direccrtap and the deathstar deserve each other!

Neither provider allows any outside equipment. They aren't open systems like cable is.

TuxRaiderPen2
Make America Great Again
join:2009-09-19

TuxRaiderPen2 to BiggA

Member

to BiggA
quote:
DirecTV is far better than DISH. DISH is basically a joke in my neck of the woods, they have been in carriage disputes with our sports channels for years, so they don't even compete. Now that the NCAA National Champion UConn Huskies have been on SNY for 2 years, which DISH doesn't carry, DISH must have bled off the part of CT that they didn't already lose due to their decade or longer carriage spat with YES network.and their local selection isn't as good in many markets.
Not one bit of that matters to me.

Don't watch sports,

The LiL nonsense is just that, nonsense. I dropped all locals as my ABC, CBS, FOX shows come from a better source, matter of fact nearly 90%+ comes from a far better source.

They can argue all they want. I don't care, drop them all! As well as all the sportscrap.

I am close to dropping it even further from the AEP I started with, to something that doesn't include a subsidy to any sportsturdage.

PQ and equipment , not a chance, Dish rules. I can watch my receiver on my Droid device via the sling mode in the 722. Works great. Picture is great, on 50" Samsung, mt 32 Vizio, my 22" no names, and my Droid device.
quote:
does Dish allow a Conditional Access Module coupled with a DVB-S receiver card for home-built DVR's? If so, it would be quite tempting.
direcrap nor Dish allows that. I wish they would as I would probably look at that, but my current mode allows me watch with less effort, ie I don't have to lift a finger to ignore the ads, as they are gone to start.
BiggA
Premium Member
join:2005-11-23
Central CT
·Frontier FiberOp..
Asus RT-AC68

BiggA

Premium Member

Re: Why? But that works for me! direccrtap and the deathstar deserve each other!

DirecTV's PQ is better than DISH. That's well known and well documented. DISH might be good enough for your use, but it's not as good as DirecTV, there's just no two ways about it. The interface of the boxes is subjective, but DISH's gear can't scale up to as many rooms or tuners as DirecTV's.

You're obviously rather disconnected from reality based on your signature, so I'm not surprised that you're also disconnected from reality about satellite TV.
JAQUEBAUER
join:2007-09-20
Fort Lauderdale, FL

JAQUEBAUER

Member

This must be blocked

ATT is like the blob. Its big, inefficient, and tries to gobble up the competition rather than build it own version. When I moved into my home many years ago, the CATV provider was ATT. ATT sold out to Comcast a month later. With both ATT and Comcast, I was in a constant battle with them to provide a quality TV picture consistently an throughout the channel range. They failed miserably and so I fired Comcast and ordered Direct TV, which I have been using for over 11 years. Direct TV has always delivered a quality picture, and aside from the constant price increases and taxes from entities I did not know existed Direct is the best thing going. If ATT eats up Direct, the prices will go up, and the quality will degrade. It will be like my experience with ATT and their DSL-- which has been bandwidth caps, disconnects, incompetent customer service reps from Mongolia, and an crappy attitude. This must be blocked, before ATT eats up all media distribution sources and therefore the competition.
Taget
join:2004-07-29

Taget

Member

How much after any acquisition...

...AT&T starts petitioning to convert bandwidth over to their cell phone business and sells off anything that can't be converted to the cable companies (or dish if they are feeling generous)?

If AT&T wanted to get into consumer television delivery they could just upgrade their top markets and be able to sell internet bandwidth as well to further their margins.

Killing Directv seems more their style.

djrobx
Premium Member
join:2000-05-31
Reno, NV

djrobx

Premium Member

Re: How much after any acquisition...

Killing Directv seems more their style

Eh, no. AT&T is already deep into consumer television delivery.

DirecTV would likely be renamed "U-verse TV", and would be offered in all the areas that don't have VRADs. It would be the perfect addition to the smoke & mirrors AT&T currently doing by renaming their old ADSL lines "U-verse internet".

Right now, we can sort of differentiate their last-gen and FTTN products by seeing if you can order TV service. This would make the line even blurrier.

AnonMe
@75.150.99.x

AnonMe

Anon

No contract = drop service

If AT&T were to buy DTV, I would without hesitation drop Directv. I know there are lots of similar empty threats out there, but this is not one of them!

Believe it or not, from an ethical standpoint, I hate AT&T even more than I hate Comcast!

Money Man
@72.82.58.x

Money Man

Anon

Merging

I predict att will by directv and comcast will buy dish, then att will buy comcast.Then you will have one company to rule them all!

IowaCowboy
Lost in the Supermarket
Premium Member
join:2010-10-16
Springfield, MA

IowaCowboy

Premium Member

I'd rather have AT&T buy DirecTV

I'd rather have AT&T buy DirecTV than Dish buying DirecTV. That way there would be two satellite providers in the market.

Then maybe Verizon or CenturyLink will buy Dish Network.

I've dealt with AT&T and they're definitely not the worst company I've dealt with but not the best company I've dealt with.

Comcast is the worst in my books not to mention they just got the Consumerist's Golden Poo award for Worst Company in America twice.