By Shalini Ramachandran and Thomas Gryta
For AT&T Inc., DirecTV is only as important as its football
rights.
AT&T can walk away from its $49 billion merger with DirecTV
if the satellite-TV provider isn't able to renew its prize "Sunday
Ticket" offering with the National Football League on
"substantially...the terms discussed between the parties," AT&T
said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The deal term highlights the importance of football rights to
AT&T in pursuing the DirecTV acquisition. The nation's largest
satellite TV provider has exclusively held the rights to the
"Sunday Ticket" package since it started offering TV service in
1994. The package allows DirecTV to broadcast every out-of-market
NFL football game on Sunday afternoons to TVs and mobile
devices.
DirecTV's current deal with the NFL expires at the end of the
2014 football season.
On a call with analysts Monday morning, DirecTV Chief Executive
Mike White reiterated that he is "highly confident" DirecTV can
renew the deal "before the end of the year." He noted that both he
and AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson met with NFL Commissioner Roger
Goodell and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft to convey "why
this transaction is great for the NFL...as well as great for
us."
AT&T said it wouldn't be able to seek damages if DirecTV
fails to renew the deal "so long as DirecTV used its reasonable
best efforts to obtain such renewal."
Write to Shalini Ramachandran at shalini.ramachandran@wsj.com
and Thomas Gryta at thomas.gryta@wsj.com
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