Mark Cuban Backs AT&T/DirecTV Merger

Mark Cuban has given the proposed AT&T/DirecTV deal a big thumbs up.

In a filing with the FCC earlier this month, Cuban, chairman of AXS TV and founder of HDnet, said that he expected the combined company would expand opportunities for his companies’ content on new platforms. DirecTV has been carrying HDnet for the past decade.

Cuban's companies also include the Dallas Mavericks basketball team, Magnolia Productions and 2929 Productions.

Cuban says the merger would offer “an expanded high-speed broadband footprint enabling edge providers new means of reaching consumers with OTT services over a variety of platforms."

He said he “strongly supports” the merger and urged the FCC top move expeditiously to approve it.

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.