Can We All Just Get Along Now!!!

413 Views 5 Replies 6 Participants Last post by BrettR, Oct 30, 2001

J.Mike Ferrara

Discussion Starter · Oct 29, 2001

Dish Buys DirecTV

When I think of the wasted bandwidth that has supported the continuous Dish/DirecTV debate (which one is better, etc - please children behave), we all should welcome this good news.

So now we can be a united front against the real enemy: CABLE, which is doing everything possible to kill off HDTV.

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fredsal

· #2 · Oct 29, 2001

I suggest that even the most negative prognosticators should hold tight and wait to see what happens. It's premature to jump off of DBS (if you even have a choice). You may be surpised: it MIGHT just get better. The improved infrastructure, and inherent efficiencies, will make it POSSIBLE to improve service delivery, without significant added cost to E*.

In my mind, the major risk is price. If you ignore the competition with Cable, and assume E* will operate as a monopoly, you can anticipate they will raise prices - just as TWC has done. But, Cable might indeed provide the competitive pressure to hold down prices.

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Ray H

· #3 · Oct 29, 2001

The King is dead! Long live King Charlie! Might as well get on board or switch back to cable, folks. there's nothing we can do about the situation however it develops. (never was, really)

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jeffster

· #4 · Oct 30, 2001

Fredsal,

Why would you ignore cable as competition? it has a much larger market share than DBS, and it's been ergen's message all along that they are the real competition -- not DirecTV.

This is certainly a reasonable argument to make, and with a single DBS provider, it's even more clear.

Your choice as a consumer is OTA, cable, or DBS.

As in the vast majority of the country, you'll have a choice of exactly one provider in each area (if you count OTA as a single vendor).

I certainly see this as a great opportunity for DBS to return to its position as a great PQ multi-channel offering. After all, there a lot of bandwidth that won't be duplicated now, and there's precious few additional channels to actually add onto the system, so extra programming, PQ, PPV, and HDTV are the obvious ways to spend the bandwidth.

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dssdbs

· #5 · Oct 30, 2001

DISH is not buying DirecTV.

Echostar and Hughes/DirecTV are merging and the new company will be called Echostar. The current Echostar will be a small part of Hughes/DirecTV. Sure Charlie Ergen will be the CEO, but he will only own 18% of the New Echostar, where as he owns 51% of the current Echostar. So instead of owning a company, he will now be the CEO of a company that he does not own. DirecTV will survive, DISH Network will not.

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BrettR

· #6 · Oct 30, 2001

The DBS providers had plenty of bandwith beforehand. Echostar didnt have to carry 40 markets, and DirecTV carry almost the same exact 40 markets.

DirecTV could have had NY, LA, Chicago, SF-Bay, Philly, Balt-Washington, Boston, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Houston, Dallas.

Dish could have had locals in all the rural areas(DMAs 40 up to 210), and carry all HDTV for 61.5/148.

Together they could have carried all the local markets and still have their national programming packages (Total Choice and Top150, ParaTodos and DishLatino) that compete with each other.

I already get locals OTA and via limited basic cable. But I want my selection of programming and with one provider there'll be less selection of programming, not more. More bandwith doesnt necessarily mean more selection. Especially when packages are tiered at Top200 Top250, $19.99 alacarte channels making the bandwith for only those that can afford to pay for new channels. Maybe better PQ on existing channels though.

What I am concerned with is the receiver swap. Dish may swap 1 receiver for a 301 model. And that's it.

Are they going to cover the installation? Will there be a long time commitment? Are they going to cover S&H or will we need to go on credit card autopay? Are they going to give free SW64 switches? Are they going to replace a DirecTiVo or a DirecTV HD BOX with an equivalent model for no cost to the person? 2.5 billion for receiver swaps is awfully small for 16 million subscribers and who knows how many receivers to replace, and dishes to repoint. Charlie just seems to be making up some very small figure for this receiver swap.

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