Analysts agree that cable is on its way out, and household cord-cutting will only keep growing. In a bid to stay afloat, one satellite TV giant is selling for next to nothing. On Monday, DirecTV announced it will acquire Dish Network for just $1 while taking on $9.75B of Dish’s debt. This move will help Dish Network’s parent company, EchoStar ($SATS), which has been grappling with massive debt payments coming due.

• The merged DirecTV will bring together almost 20M subscribers: 11.3M from DirecTV, 6.3M from Dish, and 1.8M from the Sling TV app (which is part of the deal).
• This will create the largest pay-TV provider in the US, offering an escape chute for both companies’ original owners.

Under new management: Pay-TV’s biggest deal comes 22 years after DirecTV and Dish first attempted to merge, following years of off-and-on negotiations. Spicing up the deal even more, DirecTV’s largest shareholder, AT&T ($T), is also exiting the cable business, selling its 70% stake to co-owner TPG ($TPG) for $7.6B. That leaves TPG, an alternative investment firm, as the sole owner of two of the most recognizable cable brands. But with cable subscriptions steadily declining, will this deal pay off?