New York
CNN
—
DirecTV announced Monday it’s buying rival Dish Network, ending multiple decades of on-and-off talks about the satellite services merging.
The companies said the “combination of DirecTV and Dish will benefit US video consumers by creating a more robust competitive force in a video industry dominated by streaming services owned by large tech companies and programmers.”
If they combine, the new service would have about 20 million subscribers.
DirecTV was founded by Hughes Electronics in 1994. AT&T bought the company in 2015 and on Monday sold half of the company to private equity firm TPG in 2021. It sold the remaining half to TPG Monday.
Dish Network is a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation.
Reports and rumors of a merger have been circulating for years. In 2014, Bloomberg reported former Dish chairman Charlie Ergen reached out to former DirecTV CEO Mike White.
But before that, the US government had blocked a proposed $19 billion merger of the companies in 2002 on competitive grounds. Echostar had to pay a $600 million breakup fee to Hughes, which at that time was owned by General Motors.
