The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's spinoff of its traditional video distribution business as it moves toward streaming (HBO Max) as its video play of choice, citing the parties‘ undisputed claim that the New DirecTV company that will result would be stronger because it could focus on traditional video.
The FCC will not require the New DirecTV to deliver local TV station signals to the 12 smallest markets, as the broadcast affiliate associations had asked. It also declined to apply any program carriage conditions on the deal.
Also on Friday, AT&T revealed to the SEC that its soon-to-be-spun-off linear pay TV assets collectively lost 473,000 customers in the second quarter, which actually constituted a reduction in churn for the group of services led by DirecTV.