AT&T is exploring the prospects of buying the satellite TV provider DirecTV in a deal that could be worth $40 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The WSJ cites a source familiar with the situation who says that DirecTV is "open" to the possibility of deal, though it is unclear whether talks are under way.
MikeP688, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/4/2014 | 9:57:28 AM
Re: Competitive concerns Many thanks for your thoughts. As I reflected upon this, I found this to be o curious read to get a sense of what is perceived with the Cable TV industry itself:
But, beyond this latest "status" on the industry itself, there is the power that will be exerted by the distributors...as exemplified by what happened w/the Weather Channel:
kq4ym, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/4/2014 | 9:00:39 AM
Re: Competitive concerns I not long ago elected to dump DirecTv after making the decision that I just wasn't getting my money's worth for the amount of cable tv I digested. Plus, the ever increasing subscription fees didn't convince me to hang on to what had been a decades long relationship.
AT&T would surely be after the huge subscription list to add to it's customer base as well as the opportunities to enter a new business profit area. But, lots of scrutiny would surely come along with that move.
MikeP688, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/3/2014 | 7:57:47 AM
Re: What say you? It is truly an intriguing prospect--yet we have players, though, getting into the content side of it too--as exemplified already by Comcast controlling NBC. We the ordinary folks seem not to matter--which is exactly to your point the kind of 2nd hand programmning we've been subjected to. We do live in very very interesting times. :-)
MikeP688, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/3/2014 | 7:53:06 AM
Re: What say you? It will "intriguing" if Dish is able to eat up DirectTV--but I doubt it at this stage right now. With all the changes right now, who knows. Anything is possible. The only fear I have, though, is that the we the average consumer will be left in the dust of it all.
jabailo, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/2/2014 | 1:43:10 PM
Re: Competitive concerns I can get DirecTV as part of a package deal with fiber from my local phone company, CenturyLink...so it's already positioning itself for delivery over high capacity broadband (and 5G).
mendyk, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/2/2014 | 10:05:57 AM
Re: What say you? MikeP -- To your point (sort of), what's intriguing here is the idea that consolidation among video service providers could pressure content conglomerates to lower their fees for distribution rights. I doubt this would benefit customers in a meaningful way, but it would at least put the brakes on the likes of ESPN/Disney, which is now very comfortable soaking video service providers while delivering increasingly second-rate programming.
MikeP688, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/2/2014 | 9:47:09 AM
Re: What say you? For sure, there is never a dull moment in our ever changing World. I chatted w/one of my students who actually works for DirectTV and he was as intrigued as the rest of us. There is a sense of Scale for sure. But, DirectTV and AT&T have had a solid partnership for quite some time--can it be that they will get them out and transition them all to UVERSE?
KBode, User Rank: Light Sabre 5/2/2014 | 8:50:42 AM
Re: What say you? I just don't think regulators would be keen on eliminating one of the major video competitors, but it's not clear where Wheeler would stand. After all, he's stated he would have approved AT&T's takeover of T-Mobile.
Companies must be getting a good read on a likely approval for Comcast Time Warner Cable, as they seem happy to try and push for deals you wouldn't think would normally get approved (Sprint T-Mobile). "Hell, you approved that deal, why not ours?"
NFV's promises of automation and virtualization are intriguing, but what really excites service providers is the massive amount of money they could save.
Six different communications service providers join to debate their visions of the future CSP, following a landmark presentation from AT&T on its massive virtualization efforts and a look back on where the telecom industry has been and where it's going from two industry veterans.
It's an art and a science to make mentorship, inclusive leadership, diversity and promotion of high-potential women work, says Honore' LaBourdette, vice president of Global Market Development at VMWare.
A recap of the week's talking points on Light Reading's sister site, telecoms.com. Facebook AI programmers had a bit of a brain-fade as they allowed one of its AI applications to invent its ...
Supporting women both inside and outside of Fujitsu is a top priority of the telecom vendor. Yanbing Li, Fujitsu Network Communication's director of System Software Development & Delivery, shares why it's important, but why there's still a long road ahead.
In case you missed it, Amazon's 1% stock increase helped Jeff Bezos dethrone Bill Gates as the richest man in the world. Also, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer
AT&T is focused on the software-defined network of the future and is reskilling its workforce to get ready too, according to AT&T's President of Technology Development Melissa Arnoldi.
Liz Centoni, senior vice president and general manager of Cisco's Computing System Product Group, shares why mentoring in all its forms is important for women and what Cisco is doing that's made a difference for women in tech.
At an event in Wembley stadium, EE used its live network to demonstrate gigabit LTE using a Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip.
Guavus unites big data and machine intelligence, enabling many of the the largest service providers in the world to save money and drive measureable revenue. Learn how applying Machine Intelligence substantially reduces operational costs and in many cases can eliminate subscriber impact, meaning a better subscriber experience and higher NPS.
When used to analyze operational data and to drive operational decisions, machine intelligence reduces the number of tasks which require human intervention. Guavus invested in Machine Intelligence early. Learn about the difference between Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence.
Ray Watson, vice president of global technology at Masergy, discusses the advantages and challenges in entering the still-maturing NFV market for the past three years.
A recap of the week's talking points on Light Reading's sister site, telecoms.com. Facebook AI programmers had a bit of a brain-fade as they allowed one of its AI applications to invent its ...
In case you missed it, Amazon's 1% stock increase helped Jeff Bezos dethrone Bill Gates as the richest man in the world. Also, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer
At an event in Wembley stadium, EE used its live network to demonstrate gigabit LTE using a Sony Xperia XZ Premium smartphone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip.
Guavus unites big data and machine intelligence, enabling many of the the largest service providers in the world to save money and drive measureable revenue. Learn how applying Machine Intelligence substantially reduces operational costs and in many cases can eliminate subscriber impact, meaning a better subscriber experience and higher NPS.
When used to analyze operational data and to drive operational decisions, machine intelligence reduces the number of tasks which require human intervention. Guavus invested in Machine Intelligence early. Learn about the difference between Machine Learning and Machine Intelligence.
Hossam Salib, VP of Cable and Wireless Strategy at ADTRAN, outlines key trends as MSOs begin to deploy next-generation Gigabit and 10-Gigabit cable networks. In the interview, Hossam outlines the advantages of a Fiber Deep architecture, FTTH options including EPON and RFoG, and the importance of SDN and NFV in building next-generation high-bandwidth cable networks.
Dave Smargon of AIRSYS explains how doing smart things with air handling and air conditioning can enable cable to take big steps in the right direction with respect to efficiency gains.
Viavi's Koji Okamoto discusses CATV technology and trends with Alan Breznick of Light Reading. From DOCSIS 3.1 deployment to the impact of Distributed Access Architectures (DAA), bringing fiber closer to the home, and leveraging DWDM technology for business services.
At ANGA COM 2017, Cyrille Morelle, president and CEO of VeEX, updates Alan Breznick with VeEX's new products and technology. This includes VeSion cloud-based platform for network monitoring, AT2500-3G advanced spectrum analyzer and MTTplus-900 WiFi Air Expert module. He also comments on DOCSIS 3.1 deployment and Remote PHY technology.
SCTE•ISBE's Chris Bastian discusses Energy 2020's success to date and the importance of a flexible approach that allows for changes in specific strategies in order to reach significant milestones.
Versa CEO Kelly Ahuja discusses with Carol Wilson the current status and trends in the SD-WAN market, Versa's innovation around building a software platform with broad contextualization, and the advantages that startups can bring to the SD-WAN market.
ARRIS's John Ulm says a major accomplishment of SCTE•ISBE's Energy 2020 program is increased focus on power cost and consumption, including inclusion of energy requirements in operators' RFPs and RFIs.
With the mobile ecosystem becoming increasingly vulnerable to security threats, AdaptiveMobile has laid out some of the key considerations for the wireless community.
Understanding the full experience of women in technology requires starting at the collegiate level (or sooner) and studying the technologies women are involved with, company cultures they're part of and personal experiences of individuals.
During this WiC radio show, we will talk with Nicole Engelbert, the director of Research & Analysis for Ovum Technology and a 23-year telecom industry veteran, about her experiences and perspectives on women in tech. Engelbert covers infrastructure, applications and industries for Ovum, but she is also involved in the research firm's higher education team and has helped colleges and universities globally leverage technology as a strategy for improving recruitment, retention and graduation performance.
She will share her unique insight into the collegiate level, where women pursuing engineering and STEM-related degrees is dwindling. Engelbert will also reveal new, original Ovum research on the topics of artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, security and augmented reality, as well as discuss what each of those technologies might mean for women in our field. As always, we'll also leave plenty of time to answer all your questions live on the air and chat board.
To save this item to your list of favorite Light Reading content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
(13) | 
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Tweet This