EchoStar is selling its Dish TV provider and digital business Sling to rival DirecTV in a deal announced Monday that brings together two of the largest pay-TV providers. Combined, DirecTV and Dish will serve close to 20 million customers, according to Reuters. The content distribution industry as a whole has been on a major decline, Akhavan said, and distribution companies such as Dish and DirecTV have fallen behind other platforms with newer technologies and wider reach. Also on Monday, AT&T announced it would sell its entire 70% stake in DirecTV to private equity firm TPG for $7.9 billion. The possibility of a merger between Dish and DirecTV has been rumored for decades.

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Persons: Hamid Akhavan, CNBC's, Akhavan, EchoStar, — CNBC's Lillian Rizzo, Alex Sherman Organizations: DirecTV, Dish, Reuters, T, TPG, General Motors, Hughes Electronics, Federal Communications Commission, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation