DirecTV Gets AT&T Contract

The waiting game is over: According to this report from Reuters, DirecTV will replace Dish as the supplier of AT&T's satellite video service, effective January 31, 2009. Existing Dish/AT&T customers will continue to receive service after that date, but my assumption is that they'll deal directly with Dish, rather than AT&T, if they want to make any changes. As you may recall, it was less than a year ago that AT&T decided to drop DirecTV's service in favor of Dish, but at the same time, left the door open to reconsider its decision.

AT&T's decision isn't a surprise, but it nonetheless puts additional pressure on Dish, which has been losing money and subscribers. However, it does free Dish to compete more aggressively against both AT&T's satellite and U-Verse services, which it may have felt constrained to do so long as there was a chance that the company would retain its partnership with AT&T.