Key to the success of this deal will be the cost synergies the pair are able to realise (currently estimated at more than $1bn a year), and the size and scale of the merged company leveraging its reach as a platform for development as a streaming aggregator and vMVPD.
The overall pay TV market in the US has seen steep drops in subscribers the last couple of years as streamers assert their dominance. Pay TV subscribers dropped 10% from Q2 2022 to Q2 2023, and another 11% through Q2 2024 to 53m total pay TV customers.