花旗称DirecTV与Dish合并具有“高度的行业逻辑”

• Citi Research weighed in on recent media reports that indicated DirecTV and Dish are in discussions to merge their satellite video businesses.
• Citi thinks there is still a high degree of industrial logic to merge the two as they try to navigate "the secular erosion of linear video subscriptions" and improve scale to offer a streaming alternative.
• The Bloomberg report over the weekend comes after their last year's report that said AT&T is considering options for its stake in DTV.
• Citi believes AT&T will look to maximize value from its DTV ownership. Also, there may be an alternative scenario for Dish to use spectrum as currency to acquire AT&T's stake in the DTV business that could create an accretive financial scenario for EchoStar equity holders.

More on EchoStar, AT&T, etc.

• AT&T's Recovery Is Floundering
• 3 Reasons To Sell AT&T After Its 67% Rally
• AT&T Inc. (T) Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference (Transcript)
• Satellite-TV providers DirecTV, Dish in talks again to merge: Bloomberg
• Disney, DirecTV end carriage fight, restoring channels like ESPN ahead of college football