Gadgetory

the median landscape in the US is about to look much much smaller yesterday the competition was vast and free today a tale of two conglomerates I'm Ben popper and this is 90 seconds on the Virge a TMT has agreed to acquire DirecTV for forty eight point five billion dollars the merge firms will control some twenty six million TV subscribers making it second only to the hypothetical 30 million of a combined Comcast Time Warner company AT&T is hoping this merger will give it a leg up in the fast-growing market for streaming video it never made much headway with its u-verse TV offerings partnering with DirecTV it will give it scale and access to exclusive programming like NFL Sunday Ticket just how important is premium content like the NFL the terms of the deal actually stipulate that AT&T can walk away from the merger if DirecTV doesn't win the contract with the NFL to renew that exclusive AT&T hopes the merger with DirecTV will allow it to offer better package deals for example a customer could walk into an AT&T store and buy a satellite TV subscription broadband internet service and a smart phone all on one bill the deal like the Comcast Time Warner merger must still pass regulatory scrutiny before it's approved if these two mega mergers are approved the communications and media landscape in America will have shifted dramatically taken together AT&T and Comcast will control at least 60% of the pay TV and broadband internet market for more on these acquisitions check out the verge coming up I agree to acquire some jelly from my peanut butter sandwich but will the snack Department approved the merger