DirecTV said on Monday that it had agreed to acquire Dish Network in a deal that would create one of the largest pay-TV providers in the US.

DirecTV announced Monday it’s buying rival Dish Network, ending multiple decades of on-and-off talks about the satellite services merging.

In this era of cord cutting the announced merger of DirecTV with Dish/Sling would result in 18 million subscribers, making it the largest pay-TV distributor

DirecTV agreed to buy the Dish satellite TV and Sling TV business for a nominal fee of $1, in exchange for taking on $9.75 billion of Dish debt. But DirecTV's deal announcement on Monday said the merger needs approval from Dish debt holders, who would see their investments devalued.

Credit ratings agency S&P Global notes the "linear TV industry is rapidly shrinking" and the increased scale provided by a merger may not offset subscriber declines.

DirecTV and DISH are the only satellite television providers in the United States. They aren't just proposing a merger; they're proposing a monopoly. And, importantly, this monopoly has been over two decades in the making.