Shares of DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) put up a new 52-week high Thursday morning on a report that AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) may be interested in acquiring the largest U.S. satellite TV company. Such a combination would serve about 26 million subscribers and be the second largest player in the pay-TV industry, not far behind the proposed combination of Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC).

The rumored acquisition, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is attributed to unnamed people familiar with the situation and would cost AT&T north of $40 billion, which was DirecTV’s market value before the acquisition chatter.

Last year we saw broadcast TV station ownership consolidate in order to reach a size that would help them get better content pricing. The Comcast-Time Warner merger is much the same thing on a far larger scale. AT&T does not want to be left behind, and it is going after the largest remaining player, DirecTV, which has about 20 million subscribers, compared with AT&T’s TV subscriber base of around 5.7 million.

DirecTV and Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ: DISH), the nation’s other satellite player, claims about 14 million subscribers, and AT&T has reportedly talked with the company in the past about an acquisition. Dish chairman Charlie Ergen is acutely aware of the struggle for survival and has been trying to lever his company into the mobile broadband space for a couple of years now.

If AT&T is really serious about nabbing DirecTV, its fate will be decided largely on whether federal regulators allow the Comcast-Time Warner deal to go through and on what terms. The one advantage an AT&T-DirecTV deal might have is the understanding that a standalone pay-TV company and a standalone phone company are not going to survive alone for very much longer, and a company of the same size would offer some competition to the proposed new Comcast.

Shares of DirecTV were up about 5.5% to $81.82, after posting a new 52-week high of $84.20 earlier. The stock’s 52-week low is $56.50.

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