DirecTV Just Bought Dish Network For Only $1, But It's Far From A Steal

DirecTV, according to a press release, just announced that it will be acquiring the portion of telecommunications company EchoStar that governs streaming and video — including Dish TV and Sling TV. With such long-running names in the TV industry on the receipt, you'd think it would be a deal worth billions of dollars, right? Well, the companies changed hands for the princely sum of one U.S. dollar. However, there's more involved than DirecTV slapping down a single George Washington in exchange for two entire streaming services, and it's not something most companies would be able to duplicate.

EchoStar, a company primarily concerned with 5G technology, is in a fair amount of debt. The press release says it is under "financial constraints," while at the completion of the deal, DirecTV will reduce EchoStar's debt by the tune of $11.7 billion. That means it's really more of a case of DirecTV throwing a life preserver towards EchoStar's sinking ship and getting salvage rights in the form of a lot of debt consolidation.

As for what this means for customers, that's yet to be seen, and the ink still needs to dry on this deal. DirecTV thinks that through its new combined powers (and, more importantly, infrastructure) with Dish, it will be able to retain its more traditional satellite TV customers while widening its streaming content. DirecTV says: "The combination of DIRECTV and DISH will benefit U.S. video consumers by creating a more robust competitive force in a video industry dominated by streaming services owned by large tech companies and programmers. The transaction will provide consumers with compelling video options while separately improving EchoStar's financial profile ..."

If you're an existing DirecTV or Dish customer, you might see your content library grow a bit once the financial dust settles. For everyone else, the wild jungle that is the streaming ecosystem just got ever so slightly more varied. Hopefully it will result in better and more reliable service for customers who still rely on a satellite dish to watch live TV.