If the regulatory authorities permit Dish Network to take over DirecTV, you may as well say goodbye to antitrust enforcement altogether. This deal would create an effective monopoly. It’s like allowing a merger of all cable-TV systems nationwide.
I’m a customer of Dish, which is a fine company. It’s competitive and pro-customer precisely because of the competition it faces. Take away its only serious satellite competitor? I don’t think so.
We’re heading toward a time, if this deal goes through, when we’ll have two choices in the information-delivery services on which we will rely. That’s not enough.