Sunday, AT&T announced its official agreement for the acquisition of satellite tv company, DirecTv, for $45 billion, but what does that mean for us, the consumers?!
If you remember, AT&T already has a digital tv service, AT&T U-verse, bundled with its Internet and Voices services, and it has about 6million consumers-but they aren’t all happy. Consumer Affairs lists AT&T’s top Customer Reviews and Complaints, most of them about the Internet connection, digital tv service, or the phone service-and most often ravings about its poor customer service. Consumer Affairs also details DirecTv’s reviews and complaints and they are a lot more understandable, by comparison, detailing instances of poor reception during bad weather-or any weather. So, aside from the anticipated cost savings by banding together, there may be something else that these two companies can gain from each other in this merger…
With an anticipated 26 million total paying viewers after the completion of the merger with DirecTv, AT&T definitely has something up its sleeve. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson said: “This is a unique opportunity that will redefine the video entertainment industry and create a company able to offer new bundles and deliver content to consumers across multiple screens – mobile devices, TVs, laptops, cars and even airplanes. At the same time, it creates immediate and long-term value for our shareholders..together we’ll be able to enhance innovation and provide customers new competitive choices for what they want in mobile, video and broadband services. We look forward to welcoming DirecTV’s talented people to the AT&T family.” Now it seems that DirecTv has finally found its reliable streaming outlet, and AT&T may have found its common ground with the average television viewer.
