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AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

dealbook.nytimes.com

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Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#91

Post by EpicEng »

Selfcommit wrote: post #65
canvia wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young people don't care about sports either. eSports like they have on Twitch.tv are more and more popular. A $35 leaf antenna from amazon gets you all the local HD channels for free.

I'll speak for the late 20's Crowd (although I just turned 30..) No one in my age group, that I know, watches sports at home. If they do, they go to the bar to do it. ESports are MUCH more interesting for at-home watching.

Your anecdote is not representative of the whole. You have certain interests and your friends share them. The NFL (not to mention the other major sports) is huge with young people. Much larger than your e-"sports".

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#92

Post by whoopdedo »

mrjatx wrote: post #60
canvia wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young people don't care about sports either. eSports like they have on Twitch.tv are more and more popular. A $35 leaf antenna from amazon gets you all the local HD channels for free.

Your first statement is absolutely ridiculous. Do you have data to back this up? I'm not in some "~esportz~" community - but I'm not in a sports community either, and you know what happens to my facebook when an athletic game is on? 20-30yo people talking about it in a massive flood. I have, as far as I know, never seen any of my friends (general Austinites of various walks of life) mention esports. If you're referri…

If 20-30 year olds aren't paying for television, is it because they don't want to or that they can't afford it? Narrow the criteria to people under-40 who own a house and I'd expect a much larger subscription rate.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#93

Post by 6cxs2hd6 »

eastdakota wrote: post #41
k-mcgrady wrote: post #2

There's no way this can pass, especially with the Comcast/Time Warner deal still in process. Maybe this will scare regulators into denying both deals.

Doubt there will be any regulatory grumbling since it actually increases competition in the "triple play" space (Internet+Television+Phone). My hunch is that AT&T waited until they thought the Comcast + Time Warner deal was a virtual certainty before pulling the trigger on this. Who this will put more of a squeeze on is content providers (e.g., Disney/ESPN) as they now have to deal with two juggernauts.

Call me cynical but I can imagine a golf-course deal where Comcast and AT&T agree to this. Theory being, AT&T+DirecTV will seem like a more-meaningful competitor for Comcast+TimeWarner.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#94

Post by dredmorbius »

whoopdedo wrote: post #72
canvia wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Young people don't care about sports either. eSports like they have on Twitch.tv are more and more popular. A $35 leaf antenna from amazon gets you all the local HD channels for free.

The people who say "get an antenna" must have never seen a mountain or high-rise building before. Television signals require line of sight and if you're unlucky enough to have a sizable obstruction between you and the transmission tower then you're out of luck.

Reasonable line-of-sight. Radio waves _will_ bend around modest-sized obstacles, though remote or mountainous regions are clearly disadvantaged.

That said: most large population centers tend not to be remote and/or mountainous.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#95

Post by mrschwabe »

wkdown wrote: post #67
jusben1369 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! Cable = Sports. If they somehow decouple those two then I'm all Internet.

MLB At Bat NHL Gamecenter NBA League Pass NFL Sunday Ticket (currently DirecTV exclusive via contract) * I am assuming you are American and/or care only about the four major sports in the US. Not sure about futball, rugby, cricket, tennis, cycling, etc

For NHL, I've heard Gamecenter has poor quality feeds. Ironically, there's a one man show who runs a better service - albeit unlicensed - at hockeystreams.com

$20 per month, all games streamed in HD plus your choice of broadcast options (ie- home / away feed on NBC or TSN, etc).

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#96

Post by sghill »

wkdown wrote: post #67
jusben1369 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! Cable = Sports. If they somehow decouple those two then I'm all Internet.

MLB At Bat NHL Gamecenter NBA League Pass NFL Sunday Ticket (currently DirecTV exclusive via contract) * I am assuming you are American and/or care only about the four major sports in the US. Not sure about futball, rugby, cricket, tennis, cycling, etc

I've been a subscriber to NHL Gamecenter for two years. If you're very far from your home team, it can be a good deal.

In California, I can catch most of Detroit's games. In a major hockey market like Toronto, however, Detroit's games are often on TSN2 (think ESPN2), which means they are blacked out. Cable was the only way to see these, even though I would have guessed they were out of market.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#97

Post by deciplex »

sukuriant wrote: post #43
jkelsey wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When people say "free and open", that's context enough to know that they mean free as in freedom, not as in beer. Please stop using this silly red herring.

I honestly didn't perceive it as "free as in freedom" in the above context. That said, roads aren't that, either. Try driving on one without a license, insurance, using them in ways that are disapproved of / disallowed (speeding heavily, drinking and driving, etc) to see. Alternatively, use the road to play a game of football. I don't really think they're "free as in freedom", either.

Let me know when you're effectively prohibited from driving at all, because I pulled on to the road before you did.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#98

Post by rdtsc »

alttab wrote: post #27
dkulchenko wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, this is the case here as well. Paying Comcast for TV + internet because it's $15/month cheaper than internet alone. The cable box they sent me is sitting unpacked in the closet.

What I do is call them and outright refuse to pay more for just internet. I tell them to lower my bill to below that each year my "promotion" expires. They forward me to the "Loyalty" department and somehow find a new promotion for me each time. Fuckers.

> Fuckers.

Interesting, do you have another provider in the area?

I think a lot of the negotiating power comes from the ability to threaten to switch to . If they know there is nobody else (and in many places in US there isn't), they can often say "yeah sorry to see you leave", knowing that you can't really go anywhere.

I have for example been oscillating between two local providers. Both have equipment on "premises" installed and just have to switch it on and off. So as soon as one ends promotions, I switch to another and do so on. Sometimes they give me the promotion rates back without having to go the full switch around the circle.

Promotions usually run 6 month to a year.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#99

Post by trsohmers »

logicallee wrote: post #51

wow, I thought you meant "million"? You don't just buy a company for $48.5 billion, and have a tiny matter-of-fact headline like this. What's the last company that got bought for even $30 billion! This is a mind-boggling sum of money. Check out the largest mergers and acquisitions of all time: http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/largest-... (Do bear in mind inflation - add 45% since 1998 according to…

There have been a lot more, even recent ones... http://www.businessinsider.com/16-biggest-acquisitions-of-al...
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