Carrier aims to bring TV Everywhere service to every device and put content on every wireless handset bought in stores once it closes DirecTV deal.

Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

January 28, 2015

2 Min Read
AT&T Eyes TVE Blitz With DirecTV

Eager to consummate its proposed purchase of DirecTV, AT&T is putting together big plans to transform itself into a leading TV Everywhere (TVE) player.

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) Chairman & CEO Randall Stephenson highlighted its ambitious multiscreen video plans on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call with financial analysts late Tuesday afternoon. He explained how AT&T intends to use its wireless assets and DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV)'s satellite TV assets and content rights to distribute video programming to every video-capable device a mobile customer might have by the end of this year, assuming the deal still passes federal regulatory muster as expected. (See AT&T: Merger Review Halt Won't Hurt Us.)

"It looks really good to be able to sell video into all of these channels," Stephenson told analysts on the call. "Our customers are demanding that video be delivered across any device, and one of our primary objectives coming out of the close of this deal is to take advantage of the content relationships DirecTV has."

Stephenson said AT&T also intends to make good use of Otter Media, the $500 million OTT programming joint venture that it launched with the Chernin Group last year. "We're looking at multiple channels and channel lineups that we will be able to offer to our customers," he said, promising that there will be more news and deals to come. "This is a high priority for us to deliver video to tablets and mobile handsets."

Get the latest updates on new video services and technologies by visiting Light Reading's video services content channel.

The AT&T chief said his company -- which still hopes to gain federal regulatory approval of the DirecTV purchase by the end of June despite a legal challenge to the merger review process by content rights holders -- is even more bullish on the deal than it initially was early last year. He credited that enthusiasm to the discovery that the deal's revenue and cost synergies both look markedly greater than they originally did, now that AT&T officials have begun digging into DirecTV's books.

"We're starting to see details on channels and channel costs," he said. "As a result, we're seeing better opportunities than what we baked into the original deal … it's looking better across the board."

While he said AT&T executives remain "fairly confident that this deal gets done in the first half of the year," Stephenson conceded that the regulatory approvals could still get held up by the dispute over public access to sensitive content rights information. "That's the big unknown," he said. He's hoping that an upcoming federal court proceeding will help clarify the issue.

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Alan Breznick

Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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