AT&T and DirectTV merger

I am puzzled by the recent news about the possible merger of AT&T and DirectTV. My conversations with colleagues didn't quite erase my doubts that this, roughly $50 billion deal doesn't make sense. There are no obvious technological synergies. While AT&T will gain some 20 million satellite subscribers, it will not be able to integrate this customer base with its own (roughly 5 million) video customers. So no real gain in terms of scale either. On the operations side, again, not clear whether costs can be taken out of the combined system. Five times more customers will make it easier to negotiate content deals but does this marginal impact justify the huge financial transaction and associated management challenges? It is not clear. VOD is a big and growing business. It is also clear that consolidation is needed as the landscape is quite fragmented. But this particular combination doesn't strike me as the right one.