“Sometimes you can learn as much about a merger from who isn’t bidding, as you can from who is,” Lee Brodie reports for CNBC. “That may well be the takeaway from AT&T’s offer to buy DirectTV. ‘Why aren’t others bidding for it?’ Jim Cramer mused.”
“As a subscriber, the ‘Mad Money’ host is none too impressed with the DirectTV service. ‘I would disconnect DirectTV in a heartbeat if it weren’t for the football package,’ Cramer said candidly,” Brodie reports. “‘There is simply no other reason I would ever take this monstrosity of a network with a dish that goes down on every storm and one that has disconnected me endlessly for no good reason,’ Cramer said.”
“In fact Cramer noted that the NFL package is so important for business that ‘AT&T can walk away from this deal if Direct TV loses the NFL to another network,'” Brodie reports. “‘Believe me, if this satellite technology were at all up to snuff Apple, Google and Facebook would all be bidding for it,’ Cramer insisted.
But they’re not.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If the NFL is the only thing valuable about Direct TV, then why not go directly to the NFL and get the rights?
Perhaps Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from Direct TV, buying rights to Premiere League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatlods of cash. Maybe that’ll grease the wheels [with other content gatekeepers]. It’ll certainly move a bunch of Apple TV boxes around the world in short order.