On September 14th, according to Reuters, telecom operator AT&T and its partner TPG are in preliminary talks to merge their DirecTV satellite TV service with Dish under EchoStar. The two companies previously attempted to merge in 2002 but were blocked by the US Department of Justice. If the negotiations are successful, the merged entity would have approximately 16 million subscribers, becoming the largest pay TV service provider in the US. This potential transaction may once again be subject to antitrust scrutiny, although this time the deal may be able to clear regulatory hurdles given the industry's significant expansion since then, with DirecTV and Dish now competing with companies such as Comcast, Charter, Amazon Prime, YouTube TV, and Netflix. A spokesperson for DirecTV stated that rumors of a possible deal between DirecTV and Dish are not uncommon, but we do not comment on rumors and speculation.