The television rivals are now one company.
DirecTV Buys Dish Network
On Monday, DirecTV announced the acquisition of its primary satellite entertainment competition, Dish Network. 
The purchase means the new company will have nearly 20 million subscribers.
Viewers of satellite television have dropped off in recent years due to the popularity of streaming networks.
DirecTV’s CEO Bill Morrow said, “We believe that consumers don’t want to be the aggregators – or at least a majority of consumers in the marketplace would not prefer to have to go out and manage all these multiple accounts of those direct-to-consumer SVOD services.”
In essence, the company hopes to make it simpler for customers to find all of their favorite shows without subscribing to multiple streaming outlets.
Merger talks between the two companies have been on and off for years.