 An AT&T spokesperson denied that U-verse was being shut down, and explained that the company was "leading its video marketing approach with DirecTV" to "realize the many benefits" of the purchase, but would still recommend U-verse TV if it better-suited a customer's needs.AT&T CFO John Stephens had also previously stated that DirecTV's larger subscriber base as a national service gave the service a higher degree of leverage in negotiating carriage deals, thus resulting in lower content costs.On October 20, 2016, it was reported that AT&T was in talks to acquire Time Warner, in an effort to increase its media holdings.