NEW YORK – The major satellite delivery systems fortelevision, DirecTV and Dish, have agreed to merge. The deal is through DircTV assuming $9.8 billion in Dish debt. A similar meerger proposal in 2001 was rejected by federal regulators as monopolistic. Times have changed, said DirceTV, noting that streaming over the internet has created all kinds of new compeition, pointing to consumer options like Netflix, Hulu, YouTube and iTunes .The merger, the company said, would enable a combined DirecTV and Dish to shift platforms to compete — and reduce what consumer pay through more competition.
