There is a new market leader in the U.S. pay-TV business, and it will be controlled by private equity—mirroring the rapid advance of that industry across sports.

As expected in recent days, DirecTV reached an agreement Monday to acquire satellite-TV rival Dish Network from that provider’s corporate parent, EchoStar Corp. The deal—for just $1 and assumed debt of about $9.8 billion—will create by far the country’s top TV distributor with nearly 20 million subscribers. The pact also includes Dish Network’s streaming entity, Sling TV. 

A key part of the overall set of pacts will also involve private equity giant TPG Inc., previously a 30% equity partner in DirecTV, buying out the majority shares in the company held by AT&T for $7.6 billion. 

“With greater scale, we expect a combined DirecTV and Dish will be better able to work with programmers to realize our vision for the future of TV,” said DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow. 

Closing of the deals is targeted for late 2025, subject to various regulatory and shareholder approvals, though TPG’s takeover of DirecTV is not contingent on the Dish Network acquisition. 

Desperate Times

The DirecTV–Dish Network agreement completes a contemplation of a merger that goes back more than two decades and was scuttled by federal regulators in 2002. The current pay-TV market, however, is very different from what existed more than a generation ago, most notably through the rise of streaming and major players there such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. As a result, securing regulatory approval is expected to be a much easier process than before. 

At least in the short term, DirecTV and Dish Network will be operated as separate brands, even as the combined company is based at DirecTV’s current headquarters in El Segundo, Calif. But the combined entity is expected to have greater negotiating strength with programmers and will be seeking an ability to construct more tailored packages for subscribers, in line with what DirecTV just did with ESPN parent company Walt Disney Co. Given the dominance of sports across the entire U.S. television industry, sports figures to be a key element of that customization.

The merger deal, meanwhile, gives a critical lifeline to the Charlie Ergen–led EchoStar, which has amassed more than $20 billion in overall debt, and will also get refinancing help from TPG to help with its restructuring. That hefty amount of debt helps explain the nominal purchase price for DirecTV. 

“It’s hard to argue that a merger shouldn’t happen; it clearly should,” MoffettNathanson principal analyst Craig Moffett wrote in a note to clients. “Consolidation during a period of secular decline is always to be expected.”

As communities across the southern U.S. try to recover from the damage caused by Hurricane Helene, one of the most renowned venues in sports is doing the same.

Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters each April, was in the path of the storm after it made landfall, and appears to have sustained significant damage. One drone video of the iconic Magnolia Lane, the road by which golfers enter Augusta National, shows several fallen trees near a practice area and the clubhouse. Another photo shows fallen trees at one of the many grass parking lots surrounding the golf course.

Augusta National chairman Fred Ridley addressed the situation Saturday. “Our Augusta community has suffered catastrophic and historic impact from Hurricane Helene,” he said in a statement. “We currently are assessing the effects at Augusta National Golf Club. In the meantime, our focus and efforts are foremost with our staff, neighbors, and business owners in Augusta. Our thoughts and prayers are with them as well as everyone throughout Georgia and the Southeast who have been affected.”

The course has been closed since May, for its annual break before typically reopening in October. While repairs inside Augusta National could be costly, it would be hard to imagine the 2025 Masters would be impacted in any way at this point.

Lending a Hand

In response to damage from the wide-reaching storm, many professional sports teams owners and their various charitable foundations have pledged millions of dollars to relief efforts. So far, at least $9 million has been committed from franchises in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas:

• Panthers, Charlotte FC (The Tepper Foundation): $3 million
• Falcons, Atlanta United (Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation): $2 million
• Lightning (Lightning Foundation, owner Jeff Vinik): $2 million
• Buccaneers (Glazer family): $1 million
• Texans (team chair and CEO Cal McNair): $1 million

The NFL Foundation, the league’s philanthropic arm, is also donating $1 million to relief efforts. All four NFL teams mentioned above played home games Sunday as originally scheduled.

More Hurricane Impact

After Hurricane Helene last week led to the controversial postponement of the final two games of the Braves-Mets series, more sporting events were impacted over the weekend.

Appalachian State canceled its home football game scheduled for Saturday against Liberty. East Tennessee State beat the Citadel 34–17 in Charleston after the Saturday game was pushed back three hours to 5 p.m. ET. Road closures in the Carolinas delayed ETSU’s arrival by 12 hours, with the football team getting to Charleston at 4:30 a.m. ET. The Citadel declined a request from ETSU for the game to be postponed until Sunday due to other on-campus event conflicts.

UNC Asheville has suspended all classes until Oct. 9, and the athletic department posted a message on social media Monday morning that its staff was safe, with more details about upcoming games coming soon. 

In the NHL, the Predators postponed their home preseason game against the Lightning, which had been scheduled for Friday night.