Q. I have been a DIRECTV subscriber for 15 years and I wake up every morning hoping that AT&T has just sold it. I’m not kidding. I really don’t like AT&T and I want someone else to own DIRECTV so it can be a quality company again. What is the latest on the sale? Is it likely to happen soon or not? — Peter, Evanston, Illinois.
Peter, AT&T has never acknowledged publicly that it’s trying to sell DIRECTV, but there have been reports from Fox News, the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal that the company is taking bids from prospective buyers. The move would make sense considering that DIRECTV has lost six million subscribers since AT&T purchased it in 2015, and that AT&T wants to focus now on its streaming businesses, including HBO Max. The company also wants to eliminate debt, including some incurred from the DIRECTV purchase.
Charles Gasparino, a Fox Business reporter, said last week that AT&T may sell a minority stake in DIRECTV to both Dish and Apollo Global Management, an equity firm. Under this scenario, Dish presumably would run DIRECTV with financial assistance from Apollo.
However, Gasparino also said Apollo is not interested in being part of a deal with Dish so it’s unclear how this would work. Perhaps AT&T would include Dish in a partnership with a different equity firm. Churchill Capital, which has former Time Warner chief Richard Parsons on its management team, has been mentioned as an interested suitor by both the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal.
The New York Post reported a week ago that AT&T was disappointed by the initial bids for DIRECTV, and may decide not to sell if they don’t improve. The offers are around $15 billion, the newspaper writes, which is far below the $49 billion that AT&T paid for DIRECTV five years ago. However, we don’t know if the $15 billion is for a minority stake, or the entire company.
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Gasparino’s report, which came the day after the Post article, would seem to contradict the Post’s suggestion that the sale is in danger of being halted.
The Wall Street Journal’s last report on the possible sale came on December 9 when the newspaper wrote that AT&T had received bids of more than $15 billion and that both Apollo and Churchill were interested. WSJ added that a deal could happen in early 2021.
“That would allow AT&T to deconsolidate DirecTV’s worsening financial results—a major aim of the transaction—while relinquishing control even as it maintains a majority stake in the business,” the newspaper wrote.
My educated guess is that AT&T is close to making a deal. The big question is whether it will include Dish or not. There have been frequent reports that AT&T is concerned that federal regulators would nix any DIRECTV transaction that included Dish because it would create a satellite monopoly.
The TV Answer Man will continue to monitor this situation and report back here if and when anything new occurs.
Until then, happy viewing, and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
Direct tv sucks, they tricked me into another year for 30 dollars more. I’m paying over 100 a month, and the service sucks. It will not happen next time. Changing to someone out there that is honest
I have had directv for a few years and I hate them. Has anyone called the directv number lately , well if you havent your in for a rude awaking , there are a abumch of nuts that come on the line and rude as all hell. they wont hel
p you with directv, try it they are nuts !!!!!
At &t sucks when it comes to customee service. Three times at&t bounced my check when it comes to payment. Once direct leaves at&t I shall renew.
The way AT&T management is running DTV, it won’t even be worth 15 billion next year. Their customer service is no customer service. El Ray was a interesting channel to DTV and they are even dropping it instead of some of their worthless offerings.
AT&T service on Direct is the pits. Leaving soon!
I hope that it gets sold because ever since they..at&t..bought Directv..my package has steadily went up & in January they are going to raise packages & sport fees again because they are loosing subscribers!!..it’s not fair..I know I should switch but we have been with company when it was Primstar since it began..OMG..I pay around $134.00..with pay increase..I will be back to around$145.00 and we only have xtra package!!..Got rid of starz ..cannot get rid of sports which we watch on antenna..I keep praying for relief from this monthly drama.
Thankyou for keeping us informed🙏👍
At&t sucks
When we left direct tv for dish cause it was too high
They made us pay at the 1st of the month, for the whole month. Had a hard time finding where to return items. There own stores wouldn’t help as such.
A T T. is off our buying list.
We had AT&T cable for years. Bought Direct TV, promised we would have same channels. After 7 months we lost several channels without notice. I was told those channels were in a promotion & promotion was over. We never had as many channels as we had with cable. It is unfortunate.
Spectrum has me covered without signal loss during live tv unlike AT&T Directv. See ya bye HELLO Cable with Spectrum 4 life
It truly seems that ATT/DTV intentionally poorly trains its staff and has such poor service on regular occasions that a 6th grade class could do better. Further, it seems to have been running the product to the ground to set up a potential purchaser to inherit a failing business for future great profits. The current service situation is truly an insult to American capitalism, common decency, and stress prevention !! HORRIBLE
Been with directv approx 20 22 years an since att took over it suck. An the price has gone up approx 60 dollar,if it continues im gonna cancel its not worth it,an loss stations also can’t believe being a loyal customer means nothing in today world
The notion of Dish Network running DirecTV is crazy. It will never happen, for obvious competitive reasons.
15 years how much is your bill; mine went over $800
In a crappy year, news about AT&T not messing up direct tv moving forward makes me smile! AT&T are a disaster. Just look at their web site and try to get support!
I’m not impressed with ATT’s handling of DirecTV but they’ve always given me deals when I call Customer Service. In 2019 I got $60 a month off my bill for 12 months. In 2020 I received $40 off X 12 months and for 2021 I’ve received another $40 off per month until December. I’ve been a customer since the 1990s. I’ve had promotions on HBO, Showtime, STARZ. Just talk to retention. They are usually pretty helpful.
Att is bad I had to lower my plan and every other month I have to call and call it was 45 now up to 100 and i have not changed anything if I could get out i would
You are so right every since AT&T took over my bill each month seems to change for no rhyme nor reason and the people on the other end can’t really explain why one month they’ll take OK will take this off OK will take that but we had to add this on it’s ridiculous it wasn’t like this before AT&T took over I had all 250 channels. I hope that whoever takes it over will indeed win back the trust that DirecTV was. Someone mention about being with directives for like 15 yrs me to but again never this bad… oh yea I’m not in the less bit interested in Spectrum
Regardless of DirecTV’s fate, the customer will be on the short end of the stick.
DirecTV has been in decline over the last 15 years.
I’ve been a customer/sucker for it over the last quarter-century; time to move on, I guess.