Discovery Communications Reaches New, Expanded Carriage Deal With AT&T

Discovery Communications Inc. said on Thursday it has reached a new long-term agreement with AT&T Inc. that will also expand its portfolio of networks across more platforms. The renewed deal will see Discovery's content distributed to AT&T's DirecTV U-Verse customers via set-top boxes, streaming and temporary download through DirecTV's TV Everywhere, Discovery's suite of websites and applications as well as AT&T's direct-to-consumer streaming service, DirecTV Now, which is set to launch in the fourth quarter. Shares of Discovery are down more than 6% in the year to date, underperforming the S&P 500 Index , which is up nearly 7%. AT&T shares are up more than 20% in the year.