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US: AT&T-DirecTV merger approval creates world’s largest pay TV company

By  |  July 26, 2015

Federal regulators have officially approved AT&T’s $48.5 billion acquisition of satellite TV provider DirecTV, AT&T announcedtoday. AT&T says that the merger makes the company the largest provider of pay television services in the world with 26 million US subscribers.

To get Federal Communications Commission approval, AT&T agreed to broaden its Internet services in rural areas; expand its gigabit fiber broadband to 12.5 million users; allow customers to access competing video services over the Internet; and refrain from using anticompetitive usage caps.

The FCC has recently taken a stronger stance against telcos, reclassifying broadband Internet as a public utility and blocking Comcast’s acquisition of Time Warner Cable, among other moves. But its approval of the AT&T-DirecTV deal shows that it isn’t going to obstruct industry consolidation entirely.

Full content: Forbes

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