Dish junk bonds and EchoStar’s stock see gains, with Dish and DirecTV again said to be in talks about combining.

AT&T and TPG Capital in talks to merge DirecTV with EchoStar's Dish, creating US' largest pay-TV provider amid antitrust scrutiny and changing

AT&T Inc and joint-venture partner TPG Inc are in talks to combine their DirecTV service with Dish, according to people familiar with the matter, a deal that could create the largest pay-TV provider in the United States.

The potential deal would likely attract antitrust scrutiny again although it might be able to clear regulatory hurdles this time as the industry has expanded substantially since then and DirecTV and Dish now compete against the likes of Comcast ,

Shares of Dish Network parent EchoStar and DirecTV parent AT&T climbed over 7% and more than 2%, respectively, on Monday following reports that the satellite TV giants are in talks about a potential merger.

The on-again, off-again rumors about the potential combination of the two largest satellite TV companies in the U.S. are back on again. Will the two biggest satellite TV distributors in the country become one?

Citi Research weighed in on recent media reports that indicated DirecTV and Dish are in discussions to merge their satellite video businesses. Citi thinks there is still a high degree of industrial logic to merge the two as they try to navigate "the secular erosion of linear video subscriptions" and improve scale to offer a streaming alternative.