A DirecTV-Dish Merger Would Create a Mega-Pay TV Operator, But Won’t Stop the Industry’s Decline | Analysis

After over a decade of on and off talks, a merger between DirecTV and Dish is poised to become a reality. The deal announced on Monday for the former to acquire the latter for $1 and $9.75 billion in debt will form the largest pay TV operator with around 18 million subscribers — leapfrogging past Charter Communications and Comcast — as it looks to stem satellite TV’s bleeding from cord-cutting.

Still, while analysts told TheWrap that they anticipate the merger will pass regulatory scrutiny, the combination will have minimal benefits and would not do anything meaningful to stop the pay TV industry’s subscriber declines, they said.