Susan Crawford, Columnist

AT&T and DirecTV Team Up Against Customers

An AT&T-DirecTV merger wouldn't help innovation, serve customers or advance the country's telecommunications infrastructure.

May 20, 2014 at 4:04 PM UTC

By Susan Crawford

That DirecTV logo looks like money to AT&T. Photographer: Paul Taggart/Bloomberg

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Just when you thought the information infrastructure industry in America couldn't be consolidated any further, AT&T has announced another merger. It's one more megadeal that promises to provide the giant carrier with more opportunities to increase its profits, while not moving the country any closer to being competitive on the global informational stage. We can do better.

This time the target is satellite TV operator DirecTV, for $48.5 billion. The arrangement is good news for DirecTV: The satellite business is declining, and it's unlikely that the Department of Justice would let it merge with the only other member of that sector, Dish. It's also good news for AT&T, because adding more video subscribers means greater leverage in negotiating with the highly concentrated programming industry. And the cash produced from DirecTV customers will help AT&T sustain its extraordinary shareholder dividends.