DirecTV to acquire Dish Network, Sling TV

Satellite TV provider DirecTV has agreed to buy longtime competitor Dish Network, throwing a lifeline to the troubled Colorado-based broadcaster that helped pioneer the industry.

The proposed consolidation, announced early Monday, highlights the challenges facing traditional television. DirecTV agreed to assume Dish’s net debt and pay just $1 for Dish’s satellite TV business and streaming service Sling TV — a startling admission about the fading prospects of the once prominent satellite television provider and its Englewood, Colo.-based parent, EchoStar Communications.

The deal is expected to unfold in two separate transactions. Private equity firm TPG plans to acquire AT&T’s majority stake in DirecTV, giving TPG full ownership of the El Segundo-based company.

Separately, DirecTV agreed to assume $9.9 billion of Dish’s debt at the close of the EchoStar transaction. The proposed takeover, structured as a debt exchange, would allow DirecTV to boost its subscriber count with Dish’s more than 8 million homes. DirecTV currently has about 10 million subscribers for its namesake service and U-Verse.

“We think this is the right deal for consumers,” DirecTV Chief Executive Bill Morrow said in an interview. “We think [satellite TV] has a greater life and a greater value than most people realize.”

The deal includes arrangements for EchoStar to quickly receive a $2.5-billion loan so it can restructure debt. The cash infusion is designed to help EchoStar and its billionaire chairman Charlie Ergen meet a looming debt payment and continue efforts to build a wireless phone service, branded as Boost Mobile.

Ergen, the 71-year-old maverick who co-launched EchoStar in 1980 when he and his wife sold satellite dishes door to door, would exit the television business. That would mark a significant milestone as Ergen helped Dish leap to life in 1996 — two years after DirecTV launched its nationwide service.

The Dish-DirecTV consolidation is expected to face regulatory scrutiny.

In 2002, the Federal Communications Commission thwarted the companies’ first stab at a union. The FCC ruled a marriage of DirecTV, then owned by Hughes Electronics Corp., and EchoStar’s Dish Network, would choke competition by shrinking the field of satellite TV providers from two companies to just one. At the time, satellite TV was a leading option for residents of rural communities that lacked cable.

The business has changed dramatically since then. Tech giants Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Google’s YouTube TV have gobbled up a huge part of the television distribution business, and both Dish and DirecTV have been bleeding customers. The two firms have lost more than 60% of their customer base since 2016.  L.A. Times