One year to the day after first announcing his company's plan to buy DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV), AT&T (NYSE: T) CEO Randall Stephenson reiterated his position that the acquisition will give his company a dominant position in streaming video.
"The traditional linear [TV] model is about to change in a significant way," Stephenson said in a keynote at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in New York Monday, an event covered by FierceWireless and Deadline Hollywood, among other publications.
As video usage continues to proliferate across screens, Stephenson added that AT&T will be in a "unique position" to provide video content to millions of smartphone and tablet users.
"We go from our video business being a money loser to being a money maker," he said.
(For a complete summary of Stephenson's discussion about AT&T's wireless business, read this FierceWireless story.)
Meanwhile, as the Federal Communications Commission and Department of Justice get ready to sign off on AT&T's $49 billion acquisition of DirecTV, the two companies have agreed to extend the merger termination date, originally scheduled for today (Monday), for a "short period."
The deal was set to terminate exactly one year after its May 18, 2014 commencement. Regulators have been slow to review the merger, having also been bogged down with Comcast's (NASDAQ: CMCSA) failed attempt to acquire Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC).
Both reviews were also stopped several times as regulators battled with content providers to make pay-TV contracts a transparent part of the reviews.
For more:
- read this Deadline Hollywood story
Related links:
AT&T integrates Hulu programming into mobile apps and websites
AT&T tells FCC it won't throttle Netflix; aioTV secures metadata patent
AT&T-DirecTV deal nears closure, still A-OK with regulators