But as a 20-year-old, Sides also knows young people are as just as comfortable, if not more so, getting their news from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and X. So when it comes to the future of 9News-KUSA in Denver, whose parent company, Tegna, is being purchased by Texas-based Nexstar Media Group — owner of Denver’s Fox31 — he’s not concerned.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to 9News, good or bad, but whoever the owners are or whatever the politics behind these deals, it doesn’t change my values,” said the Colorado State University junior, who reports and anchors news at CTV, a student-run station in Fort Collins . “I’m not afraid of any of it.”

The $6.2 billion takeover, which the Federal Communications Commission approved in March, would give the combined operation 265 stations and the ability to reach about 80% of TV watchers in the U.S. That has alarmed free-speech advocates and triggered federal and state-filed antitrust lawsuits, including one that the Colorado Attorney General’s office signed on to.

One of those antitrust claims, by DIRECTV, has put the merger on hold as a federal judge considers claims that it would create a monopoly that would be bad for consumers; a judge on Friday delayed a decision on the case by another week.

But even as older viewers and opponents of the merger fret about corporate consolidation and its problematic effects on viewers, millions of Americans have already moved on to other forms of media. Only 15% of adults aged 18-29 say they follow the news all or most of the time, according to , which gauges media trends. More than three-quarters of that demographic also said they get their news, at least some of the time, from social media. And younger people are more likely to be regular news consumers on TikTok, Instagram, Reddit and X, .

That contrasts with people 50-64, who pay close attention to the news 45% of the time, but who get their news, in part, from social media just 45% of the time. And only 28% of responders over the age of 64 get their news from social media, at least some of the time, but they are the ones paying the most attention to current events, according to Pew, at 62%.

As of December 2025, streaming accounted for nearly half of all TV viewing, , according to a Nielsen survey. The company’s Big Data + Panel measurement also found ratings and viewership across 158 TV networks were down last year by an average of 18% to 30%, and have dropped by about 50% overall in the last decade.

That means the broadcasting companies are fighting for their lives as their majority Baby Boomer audiences dwindle and younger viewers decline to adopt the same viewing habits as their parents and grandparents.

Everyone is scrambling

Trust has also declined. Only 52% of adults under 50 say they still trust national news media, , and Gallup reports that overall trust in news media, in any age group, dropped below 30% for the first time since it began measuring in the 1970s. Young adults are the least likely age group to trust news organizations, the Pew study found

Local TV news has been a bright spot in terms of trust, though. In fact, 74% of Americans said they had “a lot of” or “some” trust in local news organizations, with 85% saying their local news outlets were at least somewhat important to their community, .

That might be because, unlike national networks or cable broadcasts — CNN, Fox News, etc. — local television is all about making honest connections, said Amanda Mountain, president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Public Media.

“Editorial independence is key to this trust, which is why locally owned and operated entities like public media will continue to further differentiate ourselves in the context of a mega-merger like this,” Mountain said.

Angelica Kalika, who teaches journalism and digital media at the University of Colorado Boulder, said part of that comes from innovative programming that stretches the boundaries of TV; for instance, 9News’ Jeremy Jojola offers vertical videos on TikTok, which are formatted specifically for smartphones.

So mergers like Tegna/Nexstar may not work, she explained. “Eating up loved broadcast stations is a cop-out to actual innovation and catering to your audience. … Everyone is scrambling and taking advantage of an almost regulation-free FCC.”

Prior to its acquisition, Tegna owned 64 stations, including 9News, an NBC affiliate, and KTVD-TV Channel 20 in Denver. Nexstar owned more than 200 stations, such as KDVR-TV Fox31 and KWGN-TV CW2, also in Denver, and KXRM-TV Fox21 in Colorado Springs; it also counts KREX-TV in Grand Junction and KREZ-TV in Durango among its properties.

Nexstar is now lined up to own all of it. Experts say that consolidating 9News’ newsroom into Fox31-KDVR’s existing operation is inevitable, likely resulting in layoffs.

9News has often boasted the best ratings and awards of any TV station in Colorado, according to past Nielsen reports. But the station last year lost ground to Fox31-KDVR, which dominated ratings in several time slots for local TV news. That’s despite 9News anchor Kyle Clark garnering national attention with his nightly “Next” program, which regularly invites donations for good causes and directly, humorously addresses viewer feedback and criticism.

Delete, delete, delete

Employees at 9News, including Clark, declined to comment for this story. Nexstar spokesman Gary Weitman also declined to comment on behalf of Nexstar’s stations, including Fox31, citing the pending litigation by states’ attorneys general and DIRECTV.

The Nexstar-Tegna deal follows an aggressive push for deregulation by the FCC and a 2026 federal court ruling friendly to media consolidation. President Donald Trump’s administration has long advocated loosening what it calls overly restrictive media-ownership rules, and current FCC chairman Brendan Carr has vowed to “delete, delete, delete” outdated regulations.

Carr has also said fears of a monopoly are overblown and that the removal of the ownership cap on local stations still only allows Nexstar to control about 15% of all U.S. TV broadcasters.

Denver is the 17th largest TV news market in the U.S., with a metro population of 4.6 million, and 1.8 million regular viewers, according to 2023 data from the National Association of Broadcasters. The Denver/Aurora market is the largest in Colorado, followed by Boulder, along with Colorado Springs and Fort Collins, the .

And yet, for younger viewers and journalists, the future isn’t about the TV news industry’s survival, but whether local news is sustainable, or worth going into, at all.

“Nonprofit news organizations are suffering from budget cuts and foundations pulling their support,” Kalika said. “So how are students and young journalists going to participate in that? We can no longer think of it as competing organizations trying to steal audiences. Colorado has a better news ecosystem than most, but we’re still figuring out what that support looks like.”

Young people remain passionate about journalism, both as consumers and producers, said Laura Frank, a professor of media and journalism studies at the University of Denver. As head of COLab (Colorado News Collaborative), Frank also sees in her students intense suspicion of large, corporate news-gathering operations, echoing what many outside the industry feel.

“They would often rather take a risk on their own to start something so they’re not caught in this downsizing they’ve been hearing about all their lives,” she said. “We may be more resilient to the collapse of editorial voices here in Colorado, with the variety of hyper-local news outlets that have rushed in. But we’re not immune.”

Making news relevant to young people is a constant but worthy challenge, said Linda Shapley, interim president of Rocky Mountain Student Media Corp. in Fort Collins.

“We want to make sure we’re building the skills for our students that still matter,” she said. “They all recognize that social media algorithms are structuring what they see — and they’re figuring out how not to be a tool of that.”

Eight state attorneys general — including Colorado’s Phil Weiser — and DirecTV sued to block the merger between the local television giants, arguing that it would raise consumer prices and harm local journalism.

They asked U.S. District Court Chief Judge Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento, California, to halt the merger until their antitrust lawsuit is resolved.

In Denver, Nexstar is the parent company of KDVR-Fox31 and KWGN-CW2, while Tegna owns NBC affiliate KUSA-9News and KTVD-My20. Nexstar agreed to sell KTVD within the next two years, according to FCC filings.

Nexstar’s attorneys say the deal will lead to expanded local journalism and programming, not a reduction.

Nunley extended the temporary restraining order until April 17, saying the extension would give him time to prepare a ruling on whether a longer preliminary injunction is needed. The judge also modified the order so both companies could take “reasonable steps” to handle regular business matters like meeting federal debt reporting deadlines.

The deal, and approved by the Federal Communications Commission, would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of one of the “Big Four” national networks: ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

The merger needed the approval of the Republican Trump administration’s FCC because the government had to waive rules limiting how many local stations one company can own.

When the judge issued the original temporary restraining order in the case, he said the merger could give Nexstar the power to demand higher fees from multichannel video programming distributors like DirecTV, because if the distributors refuse to pay the increases they could risk subscribers losing access to things like Sunday NFL football games.

Nexstar said last August that it would buy Tegna for $6.2 billion. The deal would create a company that owns 265 television stations in 44 states and the District of Columbia, most of them local affiliates of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC.

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said the company had agreed to divest itself of six of those stations, including one in Colorado.

In Denver, Nexstar is the parent company of KDVR-Fox31 and KWGN-CW2, while Tegna owns NBC affiliate KUSA-9News and KTVD-My20. Nexstar agreed to sell KTVD within the next two years, according to FCC filings.

Broadcast TV merger could spell layoffs, programming changes for 9News and Fox31

“This transaction is essential to sustaining strong local journalism in the communities we serve. By bringing these two outstanding companies together, Nexstar will be a stronger, more dynamic enterprise — better positioned to deliver exceptional journalism and local programming with enhanced assets, capabilities, and talent," Nexstar’s founder, chairman and CEO Perry Sook said in a news release.

Brendan Carr, chairman of the FCC,

"While Nexstar will own less than 15% of television stations after this deal, the transaction allows them to 'increase' local news and compete in a more balanced way against the much larger players that now dominate today’s media market," Carr said.

The announcement comes directly on the heels of attorneys general in Colorado and seven other states joining DirecTV in filing lawsuits to block the merger, arguing that it will lead to higher prices for consumers and stifle journalism.

Nexstar announced last August that it would buy Tegna for $6.2 billion.

The Colorado Attorney General's Office said the merger "would create a dominant local broadcast station" with more than 57% of the Denver television market controlled by a single company.

“If this merger succeeds, it will reduce competition in local news operations, Colorado viewers will have less choice in news, and there will be less diversity in perspectives," Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser said in a statement. "...Competition in the local media market is critical for a healthy democracy, an informed citizenry and affordable access to sports, news and primetime shows."

The state attorneys general were joined on Thursday by DirecTV, which also filed a lawsuit seeking to block the merger. “Nexstar’s purpose in acquiring Tegna is to drive up the price it can extract from DirecTV and other distributors, which will force them to raise prices to their subscribers,” the company said.

Nexstar said the deal would allow it to compete more effectively with richer legacy media companies and Big Tech. But in the lawsuit by the states, filed with the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, Calif., the eight Democratic attorneys general argued that it would come with a price.

The action was filed by the top lawyers in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and Virginia. DirecTV filed a separate case in the same court.

“If this merger moves forward, cable prices will spike for consumers in New York and across the country,” said Letitia James, New York attorney general, on Thursday.

The state lawyers argued the merger would run afoul of federal laws designed to protect against monopolies. It would also require a change in federal rules that limit how many stations that one company can own, although Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has advocated for loosening those restrictions.

The merger in February by President Donald Trump, who wrote on social media that “we need more competition against THE ENEMY, the Fake News National TV Networks.”

Nexstar last fall in ordering its ABC stations to yank late-night host Jimmy Kimmel following comments he made about assassinated Republican activist Charlie Kirk, briefly leading to Kimmel’s suspension. But ABC brought Kimmel back following an outcry, and Nexstar .

Given Nexstar’s tendency to consolidate newsrooms in communities where it owns more than one station, both lawsuits expressed concern that the merger would hurt the already-struggling local news business. There are 31 markets across the country where Nexstar and Tegna own at least one station, according to the lawsuit.

“We all benefit when local newsrooms compete to get stories,” James said.

The attorneys general said they were open to having other states support their actions -- even those whose chief legal officials are Republicans.

Widely received as a glib rebuttal to concerns about the rising cost of watching games, the commissioner’s quote will undoubtedly linger in the NBA discourse as a new season begins. A new media rights deal goes into effect for the league in 2025-26, with national television networks sharing the live broadcast space with multiple streaming services. Watching your favorite team is about to get more complicated and more expensive.

Long story short: Subscriptions galore.

If you want to watch all 82 regular-season Nuggets games, you’ll need a minimum of three subscriptions: one to Peacock (the NBC-affiliated streaming app), one to Amazon Prime Video, and one to a TV provider that includes access to NBC, ABC, ESPN and the team-owned regional sports network Altitude Sports.

Alternatively, you could go the streaming-only route with four subscriptions instead of three: ESPN Unlimited, Peacock, Prime Video and , the streaming platform that Kroenke Sports and Entertainment debuted last year.

Either option is costly. But how much, exactly?

Start with the league’s new streaming partners. You can do some cost-cutting with these by not keeping a subscription year-round. For instance, Denver will play nine regular-season games on Peacock. While seven of them are also available on various combinations of NBC, Altitude and local stations KTVD-20 and KUSA-9, two of those games are exclusive to Peacock — Oct. 27 at Minnesota and Jan. 5 at Philadelphia. That makes a non-negotiable if you want to catch every game. The subscription is $11 per month or $110 for a year.

To reduce expenses, you could choose the monthly rate and cancel after the January game, leaving you with a $33 bill before tax. Of course, that requires canceling and renewing and canceling and renewing as you encounter this issue every year when the NBA releases its schedule. If you want to avoid that hassle, your most cost-effective option is the annual subscription. That gives you a volume discount and allows you to watch a handful of other Peacock-exclusive games throughout the season, though you’ll also be paying for four months without the NBA.

The Nuggets play five games on Amazon Prime Video, four of them exclusive to the streaming platform: Nov. 7 against Golden State (NBA Cup), Nov. 21 at Houston (NBA Cup), March 2 at Utah, and April 10 against Oklahoma City.

If you already pay for Amazon Prime, your subscription fee includes access to Prime Video. But for the sake of this math project, if all you care about is watching the Nuggets, a stand-alone Prime Video subscription costs $9 per month. Your six-month total comes out to $54. Prime also has the exclusive rights to the Play-In Tournament — relevant in April if Denver finishes between seventh and 10th place in the Western Conference standings.

Now that you’ve scraped together a minimum of $87 to watch six games, it’s time to make sure you’re covered for the other 76. The simplest way is to purchase a TV package that carries Altitude in your region and the three national networks with broadcast rights. (.) Three of the most common options are DirecTV, Xfinity (Comcast) and FuboTV.

DIRECTV Stream: Approx. $104 per month for including an RSN fee; $589 for six months (with $35 off for the first month).

Comcast Xfinity: Approx. $86 per month for , including More Sports and Entertainment add-on to access Altitude; $516 for six months (or a higher monthly rate for non-subscribers to Xfinity internet).

Fubo TV: Approx. $101 per month for including ; $576 for six months (at $30 off for the first month).

The rough average here is $560 for six months. Throw in streaming — let’s assume you’re sticking to a tight budget by canceling Peacock after the January game — and the cost of getting through the regular season ends up in the ballpark of $650.

If you want to avoid the typical TV providers, you can use Peacock to gain access to all of Denver’s NBC games (but you won’t want to cancel in January) and the to cover the remaining national broadcasts. The Nuggets play six games exclusive to ABC and/or ESPN.

Amazon Prime Video: $9 per month; $54 for six months.

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Altitude Plus: $20 per month; $120 for six months.

ESPN Unlimited: $30 per month; $180 for six months.

That gets you down to a thrifty $420 — if you’re cancelling all four subscriptions at the end of the regular season.

Keep in mind, though, none of these numbers even account for the playoffs. Denver is a team with high expectations, and if you care enough to watch the first 82 games, that means you’ll probably want to budget for another month or two of high-stakes basketball.

When it’s all said and done, you’re almost guaranteed to have spent more than $500 on watching the 2025-26 Nuggets, no matter which combination of companies you pay.

Then you can cancel for the summer and cross your fingers that monthly prices don’t increase before next season.

Compounding matters, the Federal Communications Commission under the Trump administration has pressured the company to deploy its large and valuable stash of wireless spectrum licenses, built carefully over multiple years, in a case of use it or lose it.

And it didn’t help when a deal to sell the Dish Network to rival DirecTV, an AT&T subsidiary at the time, for the assumption of $9.8 billion in debt plus the payment of $1 fell apart in late November after bondholders balked at the $1.6 billion discount that would be required of them.

AT&T came to EchoStar’s rescue once again on Tuesday, offering to pay $23 billion in cash to purchase a third of the company’s wireless licenses — located in the 3.45 GHz and 600 MHz range and representing a total of 50 MHz of nationwide spectrum.

That spectrum, however, was something EchoStar needed to build out its Boost Mobile wireless network, which was designed to be a competitor to AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile. Boost Mobile will now rely on AT&T’s wireless towers rather than its own radio network, making it a hybrid Mobile Network Operator (MNO) rather than an independent wireless carrier.

“EchoStar and Boost Mobile have met all of the FCC’s network buildout milestones. However, this spectrum sale to AT&T and hybrid MNO agreement are critical steps toward resolving the FCC’s spectrum utilization concerns,” said EchoStar chairman Charlie Ergen in a release.

EchoStar remained steadfast in its belief that it could use its wireless licenses, accumulated over multiple years, to build a wireless business, but it has mostly failed to do so, tying up capital and leaving its finances in “tatters,” said Michael Hodel, a , in a research note Tuesday.

“However, the decision to sell licenses to AT&T quickly realizes value for shareholders, dramatically reduces balance sheet risk, and opens a new chapter in EchoStar’s development,” said Hodel, who called the move a “step in the right direction.”

Investors breathed a huge sigh of relief, pushing shares of EchoStar from just under $30 to above $55, before the price settled back down to $50.87 at the end of trading. The final gain was 70.25% and the stock, which dipped below $15 a share in June, is now at levels last seen in early 2018.

Even more important, the company’s bonds, which were deeply discounted to allow for a possible default, rebounded strongly as well. Fears of a default have diminished, and the company has bought itself more time.

“This transaction puts our business on a solid financial path, further facilitating EchoStar’s long-term success, and enhancing our ability to innovate and compete as a hybrid network operator. The proceeds of this transaction will be used for, among other things, retiring certain debt obligations and funding EchoStar’s continued operations and growth initiatives,” said Hamid Akhavan, EchoStar CEO and president in a release.

Potential Boost Mobile subscribers who wanted to try the company’s state-of-the-art network but feared coverage gaps or a financial collapse will have more certainty. But they likely won’t get all the bells and whistles that Boost Mobile had hoped to provide as part of a larger deal that paved the way for T-Mobile to acquire Sprint.

“EchoStar’s move from being the 4th independent network operator to a hybrid MNO effectively ends the government’s post-Sprint merger mandate to create a new national competitor. It’ll be up to the cable MSOs (multiple system operators) like Comcast and Charter to take up the mantle as the challengers to the Big Three in the market,” said Roy Chua, founder of AVIDThink, a research and advisory firm specializing in telecom infrastructure technologies.

Chua said the AT&T agreement provides a much-needed cash infusion and gets the FCC off the company’s back. But it marks a setback for market diversity and innovation in Open RAN, a newer and more flexible wireless technology that Boost Mobile was deploying.

“It’s possible that the additional spectrum provides AT&T with enhanced capacity to deploy its Open RAN strategy. However, the large ecosystem of vendors that Boost/DISH had brought together to build its nationwide cloud-native multi-vendor Open RAN network will lose a lighthouse customer,” Chua said.

Some of the Boost partner vendors who could be left out in the cold include Samsung, Mavenir, AWS, VMware/Broadcom, Dell and Cisco.

AT&T has been spending heavily to build out its fiber-to-the-home network and improve 5G wireless access for customers. The company reached an agreement in May with Lumen Technologies, the successor of Qwest Communications International and owner of CenturyLink, to purchase Lumen’s Quantum Fiber business for $5.75 billion in cash.

“This acquisition bolsters and expands our spectrum portfolio while enhancing customers’ 5G wireless and home internet experience in even more markets,” AT&T CEO John Stankey said in a release. ”We’re adding fuel to our winning strategy of investing in valuable wireless and broadband assets to become America’s best connectivity provider.”

Ergen’s willingness to sell off wireless spectrum licenses has raised speculation that other deals may be coming, according to .

T-Mobile, which was also believed to have been interested in EchoStar’s licenses, may pick up the pieces it considers useful that AT&T didn’t claim. And Elon Musk’s Starlink reportedly wants its mid-band and S-band spectrum that could work with a low-Earth orbit satellite network and in connecting devices to the internet.

Starlink has complained to the FCC that EchoStar’s spectrum was “chronically underused.” Analysts estimate the spectrum it wants could be worth around $30 billion, according to Semafor.

“This past year marked the beginning of a transformation for Echostar,” Hamid Akhavan, the company’s president and CEO, told analysts on a call.

The company’s stock, ticker SATS, is up 32.8% this year, including a 4.8% gain on Thursday following the earnings report. That contrasts with a 1.9% decline in the larger Nasdaq Composite this year.

EchoStar reported revenues of $15.8 billion last year, down from $17 billion in 2023, a decline linked mostly to pay television subscribers continuing to jump ship. But the revenue decline was in line with analysts’ expectations, and the company’s wireless operations, represented by Boost Mobile, appear to be gaining some momentum.

The company outperformed expectations on its bottom line, reporting net income of $335 million in the fourth quarter compared to a $2 billion loss in the same period of 2023. For the whole year, the company lost $119.5 million in 2024, a lot less than the $1.7 billion loss recorded in 2023. Helping out was a noncash gain of $689 million related to a debt exchange offer that freed the company of some looming debt payments it wasn’t in a position to make.

Dish continues to lose paid television subscribers, dropping 253,000 in the fourth quarter and ending the year with 5.69 million Dish TV subscribers and 2.09 million Sling TV subscribers. However, the company saw fewer disconnects last year than in prior years and executives said the company is attracting a higher-quality customer.

The number of wireless customers at Boost Mobile is on the upswing, with 105,000 added in the fourth quarter, bringing the total to nearly 7 million. Boost Mobile is seeing less churn or turnover and more customers are coming directly onto the company’s network, a trend accelerated by having more compatible devices to offer, said John Swieringa, the company’s chief operating officer.

The company is on track to meet extended Federal Communications Commission deadlines for building out its wireless network, which uses state-of-the-art technology that is software-focused and more flexible than the hardware-focused networks of rivals, Swieringa said.

After restructuring its debt and raising new capital, the company has a $5.7 billion war chest to help it reach the coverage targets the FCC has set. And the company is working to integrate more artificial intelligence features and provide more video services from the Dish and Sling slide to its wireless customers, executives said.

Akhavan also highlighted that the Boost Mobile network was recognized as the top cellular network in New York City, an accolade the company is working to repeat in other large cities.

The deal was reliant on Dish bond holders agreeing to trade in the debt they held for debt in the new company, a swap that would have cost them about $1.6 billion, collectively.

The retreat by DirecTV this week may end a years-long effort by the company to acquire both Dish and Sling after it .

DirecTV was looking to acquire Dish TV and Sling TV from its owner, Englewood-based EchoStar, in a debt exchange transaction that included a payment of $1, plus the assumption of approximately $9.8 billion in debt. The deal was contingent on several factors, including regulatory approvals and bondholders writing off debt related to Dish.

“While we believed a combination of DirecTV and Dish would have benefited all stakeholders, we have terminated the transaction because the proposed exchange terms were necessary to protect DirecTV’s balance sheet and our operational flexibility,” DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow said in a statement.

The prospect of a DirecTV-Dish combo has long been rumored, and resurfaced over the years. And the two almost merged more than two decades ago — but the Federal Communications Commission the deal valued at the time at $18.5 billion deal, citing antitrust concerns.

The pay-for-TV market has shifted significantly since. As more and more consumers tune into online streaming platforms, demand for more traditional satellite entertainment continues to shrink.

DirecTV says that it will continue to invest in next-generation streaming platforms and offer new packaging options while integrating content from live TV alongside direct-to-consumer services.

AT&T purchased DirectTV for . But in 2021, following the loss of millions of customers, AT&T sold a to private equity firm TPG for $16.25 billion.

The termination of the deal doesn’t impact TPG’s acquisition of the remaining 70% stake in DirecTV from AT&T for about $7.6 billion, which is expected to close next year.

On Sept. 30, DirecTV announced it would pay $1 and assume $9.75 billion in Echostar debt to acquire the Dish Network. The deal offered EchoStar a way to unload a good chunk of its liabilities while also exiting a shrinking business. It provided DirecTV with a way to gain more customers and enough scale to strike better deals with content providers, boosting its chance of long-term survival.

The deal, however, hinged on EchoStar bondholders accepting a $1.57 billion discount on the face value of their debt. Feeling that unfair terms were being forced on them, many have refused the haircut, throwing everything into doubt.

DirecTV said it would rescind its purchase offer if the bondholders don’t come around, a move that could limit EchoStar’s financial options going forward.

“A successful exchange was a condition for acquiring the Dish video business,” DirecTV said in a statement Wednesday. “Given the outcome of the EchoStar exchange, DirecTV will have no choice but to terminate the acquisition of Dish by midnight Nov. 22.”

A failure to sell Dish would complicate EchoStar’s plans to pour more capital into the development of its 5G network, which it needs to complete so it isn’t as dependent on the AT&T and T-Mobile cellular networks. The more customers Boost — Echostar’s wireless brand — can keep inhouse, the lower its operating costs, which in turn frees up more cash to cover debt payments. About half of new wireless subscribers are signing on directly to the Boost network, but that share needs to grow.

Executives with the Englewood-based company told analysts that a series of recent financial moves, including raising $5.2 billion in fresh capital using its wireless spectrum as collateral, will allow them to go forward whether the television business is sold or retained.

“First of all, I want to say that, if the exchange does not close successfully, we’ll continue to operate our business. Our Dish business has been a business that is the primary business of this institution, and we continue to operate it as we have always had,” Hamid Akhavan, president and CEO of Echostar, told security analysts on an earnings call Tuesday.

Paul Orban, the company’s chief financial officer, that EchoStar has enough money on hand to meet its upcoming debt payment.

“We ended the third quarter with over $2.7 billion of cash and marketable securities, including our restricted cash. We will fund the $2 billion of debt return this week from this restricted cash,” Orban said.

EchoStar shares, which closed at $26.13 on Monday, were at $21.99 on Thursday, a sign that investors weren’t pleased with the sale falling apart — although the earnings report could have played into the decline.

For now, EchoStar remains a “going concern,” which should have the 7,000 workers in metro Denver, half of its workforce of around 14,000 people, breathing easier. Of that Denver-area total, 2,400 are dedicated to wireless services, with most of the remainder in the satellite television side and a streaming service called Sling TV. The pay television side lost 43,000 subscribers in the third quarter, while Sling TV gained 145,000.

MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett, in a , argued that heavy debt and inadequate capital have forced EchoStar to mortgage its long-term future.

Boost Mobile, the consumer side of EchoStar’s cellular business, was supposed to serve as a stepping stone to the more lucrative commercial side of providing private 5G services to commercial customers.

Spending on the build-out of the company’s cutting-edge network is expected to run at only half of what it was last year. And while the , that also pushes out the timeframe for generating additional revenues.

“They have slashed the operating expenses associated with their wireless build by round after round of headcount reductions,” Moffett said. “Still, their 5G network build is burning through cash rapidly.”

Long-time rival DirecTV on Monday said it will pay $1 and assume $9.75 billion in EchoStar debt to acquire Dish Network and its Sling TV streaming service. That amount represents under half the $21.3 billion in net debt EchoStar holds and will ease the pressures tied to a $2 billion payment that was coming due in mid-November.

While not a clean slate, the debt reduction, combined with funds the company has on hand or plans to raise, will provide Boost Mobile more time to win over consumers and establish itself as the nation’s fourth wireless provider.

“They have been saying we are an asset-rich but liquidity-poor company. We have many opportunities to grow and develop, but we didn’t have enough cash to develop them,” EchoStar CEO and president Hamid Akhavan said in an interview with The Denver Post on Monday afternoon.

EchoStar has found a way to feed its wireless growth plans, where most of its assets — wireless spectrum — are concentrated and where it sees the most potential, while also providing the legacy satellite and streaming side of the business, which have seen steady losses in subscribers, a better chance to survive, he said.

As a condition of the sale, EchoStar must raise $5.1 billion from investors for its wireless operations.

“Depending on how we deploy the money, two to three years of runway is in front of us,” Akhavan said.

For DirecTV, the combination should provide it with the scale it needs to strike more favorable terms with content providers, he said.

EchoStar employs about 7,000 people in metro Denver, half of its overall workforce of around 14,000. Of that Denver-area total, 2,400 are dedicated to wireless services, which could see a higher headcount over time if marketing efforts prove successful.

The fate of the 4,600 local satellite and streaming television employees will be in the hands of DirecTV after the deal goes through late next year. Akhavan said he doesn’t anticipate the combination will result in significant layoffs.

He notes that the customer service centers for the wireless and television sides had separate training programs and staffing. Boost Mobile won’t need to build up a separate program from scratch.

Sling, the streaming service, provides a service that DirecTV lacks and will likely be shielded from cuts. And working out better content deals should relieve some of the financial pressure on the satellite television side.

A combination should also eliminate costly churn, or consumers bouncing back and forth between Dish Network and DirectTV to win a better deal. That ran about 15% a year. On the downside, the boxes that each company uses to decode signals aren’t compatible with each other’s satellites.

EchoStar isn’t the only one divesting itself from the satellite television business. AT&T said on Monday that it would sell its 70% ownership stake in DirecTV to investment firm and co-owner TPG for $7.6 billion in cash payments spread out over five years. AT&T had paid $67.1 billion, including nearly $19 billion in debt, for DirecTV in 2014.

AT&T, once the biggest provider of paid television services, will walk away with a fraction of what it initially paid, a reflection of how badly streaming services like Netflix and Hulu have chipped away at the subscriber bases of satellite and cable providers.

MoffettNathanson, a telecom firm headed by analyst Craig Moffett, estimates that cable and satellite television providers lost 1.6 million subscribers in the second quarter alone. Dish Network and DirecTV have lost 5.48 million since the second quarter of 2022, with Dish shedding customers at a 12% rate and DirecTV at a 19% pace.

In the second quarter, DISH Network lost 104,000 paid subscribers. While that was an improvement from the 294,000 subscribers lost a year earlier in the second quarter, it contributed to a net loss for EchoStar.

The company’s mounting financial problems contributed to dire warnings of a potential bankruptcy filing from Moffett, who in May predicted EchoStar would have to .

Moffett, in a research note over the weekend, remained skeptical.

“It would be a mistake to overestimate (the deal’s) importance,” he said. “Adding a year or so to the expected life of satellite TV isn’t going to change the narrative for programmers, distributors, or even for satellite TV.”

Morningstar said the new capital and deal removes EchoStar’s near-term bankruptcy risk, but that “uncertain remains very high.”

Shares of EchoStar, which surged 10% on Friday on rumors of a deal, fell 11.5% to close at $24.82 on Monday.

Akhavan said EchoStar has represented a mixed play to investors, with a long-standing cash flow business alongside a growth story represented in its 5G wireless business, which deploys newer technologies that will allow it to operate more nimbly and at a lower cost than its rivals.

By focusing solely on the growth side of the business, the company can send a clearer message about what it represents.

On Sept. 20, the n on the timeline for building out its 5G network. Boost Mobile expects to cover 80% of the U.S. population with its own network, which has concentrated on more populated areas, by the end of 2024. That is up from 70% in 2023.

To convince consumers to give it a try, Boost Mobile is offering a year of free cellular service with the purchase of a phone. For those who wish to lock in a price, new customers signing up can receive a lifetime guarantee price set at $25 a month.

As the state’s largest technology employer, EchoStar’s survival and the future viability of Boost Mobile have major ramifications for the area economy and Akhavan said the company will remain fully rooted here.

“Our commitment to Denver is very strong,” he said.

DirecTV said Monday that it will acquire Dish TV and Sling TV from its owner, Englewood-headquartered EchoStar, in a debt exchange transaction that includes a payment of $1, plus the assumption of debt.

The prospect of a DirecTV-Dish combo has long been rumored, with headlines about popping up over the years. And the two almost merged more than two decades ago — but the Federal Communications Commission their owners’ then-$18.5 billion deal, citing antitrust concerns.

The pay-for-TV market has shifted significantly since. As more and more consumers tune into online streaming giants, demand for more traditional satellite continues to shrink. And, although high-profile acquisitions have proven to be particularly tough under the Biden-Harris administration, that may make regulators more inclined to approve DirecTV and Dish’s pairing this time around.

DirecTV said Monday that the transaction will help it bring smaller content packages to consumer at lower prices. It����ap hoping this will appeal to those who have left satellite video services for streaming. The company said that combined, DirecTV and Dish have collectively lost 63% of their satellite customers since 2016.

“DirecTV operates in a highly competitive video distribution industry,” DirecTV CEO Bill Morrow said in a statement. “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, which is to aggregate, curate, and distribute content tailored to customers’ interests, and to be better positioned to realize operating efficiencies while creating value for customers through additional investment.”

The current deal could provide a key lifeline for EchoStar. The Colorado-based telecommunications company has reportedly faced the prospect of bankruptcy as it continues to burn through cash and see losses pile up.

In a recent securities , EchoStar disclosed that it had just $521 million in “cash on hand.” And the company forecast negative cash flows for the remainder of the year — while also pointing to major looming debt payments, with more than $1.98 billion of debt set to mature in November.

“With an improved financial profile, we will be better positioned to continue enhancing and deploying our nationwide 5G Open RAN wireless network,” EchoStar President and CEO Hamid Akhavan said. “This will provide U.S. wireless consumers with more choices and help to drive innovation at a faster pace.”

EchoStar’s stock climbed nearly 3% before the market open.

The DirecTV and Dish deal is targeted to close in 2025’s fourth quarter. The combined company will be based in El Segundo, California.

Shortly before DirecTV made its announcement, AT&T said it was to private equity firm TPG in a deal valued at about $7.6 billion.