Parks Associates director of research Brett Sappington provides insight and commentary on the future acquisition of DIRECTV by AT&T:

• The merger did not really diminish competition in the U.S. market. Approval was widely expected.
• The bigger impact is clearly outside of the U.S., where AT&T is now making investments to build upon DIRECTV’s existing position in Central and South America.
• We expect AT&T to quickly roll out new voice, data, and video bundles that pair their mobile services with DIRECTV’s satellite TV offering.
• By adding DIRECTV’s huge base of video customers, A&T will now have significantly more negotiating power in content licensing for network channels.

For additional insight on this topic, see Parks Associates' Access & Entertainment research.

Further Reading:

• 7% of U.S. households have broadband and OTT but no pay TV
• Uprising: College Students & Changing Video Preferences
• The Super Buyer: Characteristics of High ARPU Customers