DirecTV ends its Dish acquisition
The two satellite TV providers in the US will no longer be linked, at least not in the short term.
DirecTV formally announced Thursday that it would break its agreement with EchoStar to buy Dish Network. The deal will end effective November 22 at 11:59 PM ET, DirecTV said.
DirecTV’s official termination of the agreement follows the rejection by Dish DBS bondholders of the proposed terms of the exchange debt offering issued by EchoStar, which was a condition of DirecTV’s obligations to acquire Dish. On November 12, Dish’s creditors rejected an offer to exchange their debt for new debt in the merged DirecTV-Dish at a reduced rate (which would have left them with a $1.5 billion loss on $8.9 billion in bonds ).
On September 30, DirecTV and EchoStar announced the deal that would see DirecTV buy rival Dish and its Sling TV business. This would create the largest American provider in the shrinking pay-TV sector, with approximately 18 million customers. Under the terms, DirecTV would assume $9.75 billion in debt related to Dish and pay $1 in cash. In effect, EchoStar gave away its shrinking satellite and streaming TV businesses to eliminate much of its debt and focus on building out wireless services.
“While we believed that a combination of DirecTV and Dish would have benefited all stakeholders, we terminated the transaction because the proposed exchange terms were necessary to protect DirecTV’s balance sheet and our operational flexibility,” said Bill Morrow, CEO of DirecTV , in a statement.
Morrow continued: “DirecTV will advance our mission to collect, curate and distribute content tailored to customers’ interests by pursuing innovative products and providing customers with additional choice, flexibility and control. We are well positioned for the future with a strong balance sheet and support from our long-term partner TPG.”
EchoStar did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The El Segundo, California-based company said it will “continue to invest in next-generation streaming platforms and revolutionize the industry through new packaging options, while integrating live TV content in addition to direct-to- consumer services.”
The termination of the Dish acquisition will not affect TPG’s acquisition of AT&T’s remaining 70% stake in DirecTV for $7.6 billion. That transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2025.
DirecTV launched in 1994 and Dish followed in 1996, and the two satellite TV companies provided stiff competition for the established cable TV operators. But over the past decade, both have seen their subscriber bases shrink by millions (much like traditional cable TV), with streaming fueling a wave of ‘cutting’. DirecTV and Dish have launched Internet-delivered TV packages, but these have not offset the losses on the satellite side.
