DirecTV chief executive, Mike White, announced to investors on Friday that he is positive that the DirecTV-AT&T merger will close in April 2015, according to Reuters.
"We are optimistic that we will be able to get this deal closed in the first half of next year," White told investors. "My best guess right now is early April."
White added that the positive progress of the National Football League (NFL) deal might convince the U.S. regulators to approve the $48.5 billion acquisition.
The Sunday NFL Ticket package allowed subscribers to watch live Sunday games through their devices. The package proved that a national video service can be bundled with a broadband and wireless service, according to CNET.
"We have made good progress on the (NFL) deal," White said in the conference.
News of the possible merger of the satellite television service company and the wireless provider came out late April this year after Comcast announced its plan to acquire Time Warner Cable for $45 billion. The DirecTV-AT&T merger will benefit both companies with additional subscribers; AT&T's pay-TV service currently has 6 million users, while DirecTV has a solid 20 million subscribers, plus an added 17 million in Latin America. Moreover, DirecTV plans to expand in South America, and AT&T can support it through its established broadband infrastructure.
Similar to Comcast and Time Warner's partnership, the DirecTV-AT&T merger also had to defend the deal before the Congress, which happened in June. The CEOs of both companies argued that the deal would force cable companies to decrease their payment rates. However, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson failed to assure the legislators of savings on the subscribers' end.
A group of state attorneys is studying whether the merger violates antitrust laws, Bloomberg reported. The same group from Florida, Connecticut, Maryland and Ohio, is also probing the Comcast-Time Warner merger. The results of the investigation will be submitted to the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and will be used as part of the evaluation on whether to approve to merger or not.
