Late last month, AT&T bought DirecTV for $48.5 billion, merging America’s second biggest cell carrier with its biggest satellite TV provider. Now, DirecTV and Ma Bell are already announcing a $200 promo deal that’ll roll out nationwide next week.
With the promo, new customers to AT&T’s U-verse TV or DirecTV will get basic HD TV and DVR for four receivers, plus four wireless phone lines with 10 shareable gigs of data, for $200 a month over the first year. New U-verse customers must sign up for a one year contract between August 10 and November 14 to get in on the deal, while DirecTV users have to sign up for two years. The annual savings of $600 only last a year, however.
AT&T and DirecTV are already gargantuan companies. So, when the two telecom titans announced the merger last month, the FCC forced them to make certain promises. For example, to ensure the companies expand their services, they must boost their fiber optic broadband user base by 12.5 million customers, including in schools and libraries. Broadband also must be offered to low-income customers at discounted rates.
So AT&T and DirecTV are moving fast with this new promo. We’ll have to wait and see how big the biggest pay-TV company in America will get.
