DirecTV threatens to call off Dish Network deal

TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why a huge TV merger is in trouble.

Transcript

00:00I'm Conway Gittins reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

00:02Here's what we're watching on the street today.

00:04Inflation is the focus on this Wednesday.

00:06Consumer prices rose 0.2% in October as expected.

00:10Prices were up 2.6% from a year ago.

00:13Over half of that price gain is tied

00:15to housing costs, which jumped 4.9% over the past 12 months.

00:21Wall Street believes inflation is steady enough

00:23for the Federal Reserve to keep lowering interest rates.

00:28In other news, time is running out for the 8 million people

00:31who still use Dish TV and Sling TV as their video services.

00:36A deal that would have sold both units owned by EchoStar

00:39to satellite TV provider DirecTV could be ditched.

00:43Without the financial muscle of DirecTV,

00:45Dish and Sling won't have the money

00:47to keep up in the changing media landscape.

00:50The original acquisition plan announced in September

00:52was contingent upon Dish debt holders agreeing

00:55to a $1.5 billion cut to the value

00:57of their investment.

00:59A group of those debt holders, however,

01:01rejected a proposed offer on the table.

01:03DirecTV says that if those debt holders don't agree,

01:06it, quote, will have no choice but to terminate

01:09the acquisition of Dish by midnight on November 22nd.

01:13There were high hopes for the DirecTV-Dish merger,

01:16which would have created the largest paid TV

01:18company in the country with over 18 million subscribers.

01:22The combination would have given all the parties involved

01:24some heft at a time when traditional cable TV subscribers

01:28are fleeing for cheaper streaming services.

01:31Since 2016, DirecTV and Dish have seen 63%

01:35of their subscriber base disappear.

01:38Without DirecTV, Dish will have trouble going it alone

01:41as it is weighed down by over $20 billion of debt

01:45in a media world where content is costly

01:48and subscriber dollars are getting harder to come by.

01:51That'll do it for your daily briefing

01:53from the New York Stock Exchange.

01:54I'm Conway Gittins with The Street.