Those wolves are at war today with the news that DirecTV has made a deal to acquire Dish TV, which combined will become the U.S.’s largest pay-TV provider. The same merger was blocked by the FCC and the Justice Department back in 2002 “on the grounds that combining the two biggest satellite TV players would harm competitors,

The DirecTV and Dish merger is subject to regulatory approval and serves as a lifeline for EchoStar, which has no means to pay the $2 billion of its $20 billion debt due by November 14th. DirecTV previously attempted to merge with Dish in 2002,

AT&T is selling the rest of its stake in DirecTV to private equity firm TPG Partners in an approximately $7.6 billion deal, a move that ends its ties to the entertainment industry