I'm surprised this is even legal. Monopolies and whatnot. Huh. I don't miss satellite, though. I really don't.
Can't say much on the politics of monopolies these days...but I thought Dish was more successful than DirecTV?
Exactly my thought. Many people who live in remote locations don't have access to cable TV/internet, and rely on these satellite companies. Now it would seem their choices are even more limited, giving Direct TV the ability to charge higher prices.
Good riddance! I legitimately HATED their commercials, INCLUDING the ones with the family and that oversized pair of pants!
Well I don't care, I have youtube on tv and Pirated sites at my hands. But doe suck for people who do have jt
Said the government won't stop it as the satellite cable is on the verge of death. This is last ditch effort to survive.
Read below. This. Just to give you an idea of how bad it is in some places... My family and I live in NEOH, right on the border of NWPA. All of our locations are sandwiched in between Cleveland, OH to Erie, PA (east to west) and Cleveland to Pittsburgh, PA (north to south). There are a *ton* of people here. My mother-in-law lives on a road that up until 2 years ago didn't have cable and the road's been there for over 100 years. Literally half a mile down the road, Spectrum because they didn't want to invest in the area. She bounced between Dish and DirecTV to get even local TV, because she couldn't get a signal with an antenna. She would've had to pay $10,000.00 out of her own pocket to get Spectrum to come out and wire her up. Finally, the township, and got the residents to agree to buy Spectrum's services. Only then did they finally come out and wire the rest of the community. Decades of living there with no real access to internet or TV. And she's 5.5 miles from a city. (I'm not even remotely joking.) Hell, there are dead zones in NYC where no one can serve the residents, both for cable/dsl or cellular service. (It has something to do with how the boroughs are laid out, plus the ages of the buildings, IIRC. Something to do with zoning and permits and all that.) In fact, right now...a surprising number of the US is still using dial-up. (175,000 households, as of 2022) I didn't even know it was still a thing until an article popped up about 3 years ago showing how big parts of the US and Appalachia are still underfunded and have no infrastructure. Those people *have* to use Satellite, both for entertainment and the internet (if they want to go faster than breathing), and this merger is most likely going to *screw* them. Hard.
I get the concern over monopolies etc but I’m also not sure the market is big enough to support two companies. It’s absolutely true that there are significant numbers of people who have no other option but we are getting to the point where it’s only those folks using these types of services, anyone who can has switched to streaming.
I'll just have to chime in here...I am a 5 decades old tech geek. I too would have thought logically people would ditch old options and go streaming...BUT there are those that will not do the internets for fear of information. And to stay "PC", there are those who will try to stay away from the world of international information for a purpose. The World Wide Web is a scary and frightful place to some. I work with a lot of science unfriendly people...who happen to like using science made things. Its a strange world.
I have this same question. I have a subscription with Dish because my Mom is old and won't be able to figure out Sling. Not too long ago, I renewed Dish for 2 years, so I'm guessing that DirectTV will continue to honor that locked in rate and then we'll have to do a new song and dance to negotiate the price once that contract is up. I actually prefer satellite to streaming because I'm not dependant on my crappy internet. I periodically inquire, but nothing better or stronger is offered. The last time I went to Costco, those AT&T reps were there, so I gave them a piece of my mind about how crappy, slow and inconsistent the service is. They looked up what's offered in my area and suggested that I switch to another company.
Good point - the fact that it is strictly one way flow of information (unless you connect your phone which I never did) has certain advantages and appeals to some folks. The question is still how big is the overall market for this. All signs are that it is still in decline in terms of number of subscribers. Where is it going to level out? Will that be enough to sustain the business?
I just dropped Direct TV last month. We had them for years, and with the exception of a large storm, it only went out once for a week. We only dropped them, because we just got fiber internet where we live. Before we had painfully slow DSL, so moving to streaming was not an option for us before we got fiber.
