By Anirban Sen
(Reuters) – Telecom operator AT&T and its joint-venture partner TPG are in early-stage talks to merge their DirecTV satellite TV service with EchoStar owned Dish, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
The two companies first attempted to merge back in 2002 when the U.S. Justice Department blocked the tie-up. The combined entity would create the largest pay-TV service provider in the U.S. at about 16 million subscribers, if the talks are successful. The potential deal would likely attract antitrust scrutiny again although it might be able to clear regulatory hurdles this time as the industry has expanded substantially since then and DirecTV and Dish now compete against the likes of Comcast, Charter, Amazon Prime, YouTube TV, and Netflix. A merger would enhance the combined company’s ability to negotiate with programmers, much like DirecTV is doing with Disney right now as the two sides are locked in a…
