DIRECTV
El Segundo, California, U.S.
DIRECTV is a U.S. satellite and virtual MVPD operator headquartered in El Segundo, California. Spun out of AT&T in 2021 with TPG Capital as minority owner, it became a wholly owned TPG portfolio company on July 2, 2025, when AT&T sold its remaining 70% stake for $7.6 billion. CEO Bill Morrow has run the company since the AT&T spinoff. DIRECTV Stream is its vMVPD service.
DIRECTV is the U.S. satellite-and-streaming television operator that emerged from AT&T’s August 2021 spinoff and, as of July 2025, sits fully under TPG Capital. The company runs the legacy direct-broadcast satellite service alongside DIRECTV Stream, the vMVPD it has been steadily repositioning as the satellite footprint shrinks.
Two events anchor the modern DIRECTV story for this audience. The September 2024 Disney blackout — 13 days of ABC, ESPN, and 14 other networks dark for 11-million-plus subscribers — became the template other distributors and programmers later cited in their own carriage standoffs, including Disney’s playbook against YouTube TV. Two months later, DIRECTV walked away from the EchoStar/DISH acquisition after DISH DBS noteholders refused to accept the debt-exchange terms, leaving the satellite consolidation thesis on the shelf and Sling TV in EchoStar’s hands.
The TPG deal closing in July 2025 took AT&T fully out of media and gave TPG a standalone pay-TV operator to manage through the secular vMVPD/MVPD subscriber decline now visible in MoffettNathanson’s Q1 2026 record-loss data. Bill Morrow has been CEO across the entire arc.
Recent coverage
Elsewhere
- DIRECTV Insider (corporate newsroom)
- TPG Completes Acquisition of AT&T's 70% Stake in DIRECTV
- AT&T and TPG Close DIRECTV Transaction
- DIRECTV Announces Termination of Agreement to Acquire EchoStar's Video Distribution Business
- Disney, DirecTV Reach Deal Ending Two-Week Blackout of ESPN, ABC
- AT&T completes $7.6 billion sale of DirecTV