This
week,
DirecTV
announced
it
intends
to
buy
Dish,
Sling
TV,
and
the
rest
of
EchoStar’s
television
business
for
a
dollar
(while
also
taking
on
all
of
Dish’s
debt),
combining
almost
20
million
satellite
TV
subscribers
from
two
companies
that
have
been
circling
one
another
for
decades.
But
it’s
not
just
DirecTV
and
Dish.
AT&T,
Comcast,
Verizon,
General
Electric,
GM,
News
Corp,
Tumblr,
and
the
various
incarnations
of
Time
Warner
have
also
gotten
mixed
up
or
split
up
while
trying
to
bridge
the
gap
between
communications
and
media
over
the
years.
Here’s
a
partial
timeline
of
the
events
that
might
end
with
these
two
companies
joining
together
at
last.
At
the
turn
of
the
21st
century,
it
was
obvious
that
the
internet
was
the
future.
Instant
communication
between
anyone
in
the
world
and
the
idea
of
digital
distribution
was
irresistible,
and
AOL
seemed
on
top
of
the
world.
What
better
way
for
Time
Warner
to
get
in
on
the
ground
floor
than
to
join
forces
with
the
company
that
rode
to
the
top,
one
60-hours-of-free-internet
CD
at
a
time?
By
2009,
it
was
all
over.
Comcast,
Verizon,
and
AT&T’s
acquisitions
were
an
attempt
to
take
over
the
media
landscape
built
on
their
networks,
with
varying
degrees
of
success,
delivering
brands
like
Oath,
WarnerMedia,
and
Peacock
as
well
as
the
entirely
forgettable
Go90.
Over
the
next
few
years,
AT&T
executives
float
bad
ideas
for
Game
of
Thrones,
like
shooting
“snackable”
vertical
video
versions.
The
company
eventually
introduced
HBO
Max
before
demoting
HBO
from
its
streaming
brand,
renaming
the
service
Max.
You
know
what
happened
next:
Netflix
never
looked
back
on
its
path
to
270
million
global
subscribers,
and
Disney
reintroduced
the
bundle
for
streaming.
At
the
same
time,
both
Quibi
and
CNN
Plus
evaporated
too
quickly
to
make
an
impact.
Ultimately,
Verizon
sold
what
was
left
of
Oath
to
Apollo
Global
Management,
and
then
AT&T
shipped
WarnerMedia
off
into
a
partnership
with
Discovery.
Now,
AT&T
is
selling
all
of
DirecTV
to
TPG.
That’s
the
private
equity
firm
behind
this
new
$1
attempt
to
merge
with
Dish
Network
again,
while
EchoStar
can
continue
on
its
quest
to
build
a
nationwide
Open
RAN
5G
network.
We’ll
see
everyone
back
here
in
another
20
years
to
find
out
how
it
all
worked
out,
okay?
Disclosure:
Comcast
is
an
investor
in
Vox
Media,
The
Verge’s
parent
company.
(Originally posted by Wes Davis)
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