[michaelk]

We've all seen the announcement from Directv at CES:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....332&highlight=


Curious what people are thinking is REALLY going to happen. At first blush it seems ground breaking and I was counting down the days to sign back up with Directv but then reading all the differnt press accounts I'm honestly started wondering if it's not that big a deal at all really. I'm curious what people HONESTLY think. Hopefully we can have a conversation rather than folks shouting each other down. I put it all in one thread with the numbers as best I could see we could all see what is going on. (feel free to point out any errors and I'll fix as soon as possible)


The press release specifically says:

Quote:
DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, is hailing 2007 as the "Year of HD" with the planned launch and carriage of 100 national high-definition (HD) channels.

First question is will they Launch 100 NEW channels or Carry 100 channels in Total? The title of the press release says:

Quote:
DIRECTV to Offer 100 National HD Channels in 2007

So I'm starting to think they are planning to have 100 in total.



TNT

Espn

Espn2

Universal HD

Discovery HD

HDNET

HDNEt movies

HBO and

SHO

NBA TV (listed in winter 2006 programming synopis as on D*?)

+8 National DNS feeds of the Big 4. (seems crummy to include those and not sure if they count them but in the past it's been argues that those 8 were what doubled the HD programming at one point in the past.

So that means currently they have 9 or 17 HD channels depending on how you look at it.


The press release also mentions RSN's and currently they carry ~26 of them in SD nationally and something like 19 of them as HD LIL via Ka. So It seems a safe bet that between 19 and 26 of the HD RSN's will be included in the National HD channels carried by year end. (allows them MLB, NBA, NHL packages in HD- correct?)

So that gets us to something between 28 and 43 National HD channels


The press release also says:

-- A&E

-- National Geographic

-- Bravo

-- NFL Network

-- Cartoon Network

-- SciFi Channel

-- CNN

-- Speed

-- Food Network

-- TBS

-- FX

-- The History Channel

-- HGTV

-- The Weather Channel

-- MTV

-- USA Network


So that's another 16


Then another article says the Chiller channel too.

So that gets us to 45 to 60 national HD channels


The first press release also talks about filling out the premium movie channel

Quote:
To satisfy the insatiable appetite for a greater number of movies in HD, DIRECTV will offer an expanded line-up of HD programming available from all premium movie channels

So we can assume Cinemax HD east, Starx HD east, and the Movie Channel East. Plus west coast feeds of those and HBO and SHO HD.


So that's 8 new movie channels.

Gets us to 53 to 68 National HD channels.


(One article posted here says they have agreements with 60 Networks and the Press release says they have agreements in principle with 70- so that's right around the ballpark give or take)


From the winter 2006 HDTV synopsis thread here that leaves:

E!

Golf /Versus

INHD (fat chance - cable hates directv- LOL)

MHD (EDIT:apparently the same as MTV)

Outdoor 2 HD

Wealth

And the 15 voom channels.

So depending on how many of those they land they are anyplace between 52 and 88 national HD channels.


I speculated in a couple threads that they also could offer the content providers to delauy their east cost feeds and creat west coast feeds for basdically anything. It looks like the Movie people have their own east and west and the RSN's would have no need. So that leaves something like up to 55 national cable' type channels that exist or are announced that they could create a west coast feed for.


So based upon what's announced today it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that they could have something like 140 National HD channels in short order.



Obviously depends on peoples perceptions of the different scenarios (DO Big 4 DNS count? Do RSN's Count?) how they take the news. At a mimium we're looking at 17 NEW channels (as listed in the initial press release plus the chiller). And if you are a glass half full sort of guy you might think 140 national channels is a reality some time soon.


I'm glad I took the time for myself to line it all out. To my eye it looks very promising even if they use some shenanigans to pump their numbers.


Time wil tell


edit: as others point out this doesn't include PPV. IN my head I just assume they will fill the remaining 150 slots with PPV since there is no reason not to.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Simple. They will add virtually every one including East and West Coast Versions of the Movie Channels.


Another thing that you might be missing is that I expect them to expand their HD PPV offerings greatly - as they have no reason not to. Remember BEV has 4 HD PPVs on all the time and D* has more depth in their contracts with HD PPV than E* or TWC for example. They could literally throw up 20 HD PPV channels if they wanted.

 

[sleeks]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVFanAtic /forum/post/0


Simple. They will add virtually every one including East and West Coast Versions of the Movie Channels.


Another thing that you might be missing is that I expect them to expand their HD PPV offerings greatly - as they have no reason not to. Remember BEV has 4 HD PPVs on all the time and D* has more depth in their contracts with HD PPV than E* or TWC for example.

Agreed. D* will be aggressive so that they can say that they have more HD than any other provider (will be hard to beat FIOS though)


I did not see HD VOD on your list either. I would expect that also.


How about Playboy HD too?

 

[uncrules]



Quote:
MHD (if that's not the MTV quoted by D*)

MHD is MTV-HD.

 

[uncrules]

Also, the new Big 10 HD channel has been reported to already have a contract with D*. I also remember reading that Vs/Golf channel HD already has an agreement with D*. Another possibility is Sleuth-HD.

 

[Ken H]

Everything HD available.

 

[jbradway]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H /forum/post/0


Everything HD available.

And that is THE important thing. I'm not hung up on matching a certain number. I just want one provider that can give me every possible national HD channel and every possible local and regional HD channel. Whether adds up to 60, 70, 80 or 100 is a non-issue IMO.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sleeks /forum/post/0


I did not see HD VOD on your list either. I would expect that also.

DBS is playing games with VOD - the best they can do is preload stuff on a Hard Drive. It's really not what we have come to expect with VOD - so they may try to spin it, but you really cannot do VOD properly with DBS technology the way it is today.


Content should be their focus for the next few years as they can blow out E* in that area.

 

[michaelk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken H /forum/post/0


Everything HD available.

define "availible"


for example- I doubt INHD is availible for a price eitehr DBS provider is willing to pay considering the method cable uses to set the rate- eg TOTAL digital subs.


so you think the voom channels are a certainty?

 

[michaelk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVFanAtic /forum/post/0


Simple. They will add virtually every one including East and West Coast Versions of the Movie Channels.


Another thing that you might be missing is that I expect them to expand their HD PPV offerings greatly - as they have no reason not to. Remember BEV has 4 HD PPVs on all the time and D* has more depth in their contracts with HD PPV than E* or TWC for example. They could literally throw up 20 HD PPV channels if they wanted.

define "virtually"

 

[Xylon]

SPICE HD and Playboy HD

 

[michaelk]

virually and availible-


You guys work for marketing firms?


(just joking dsont get your panties in a snit)

 

[michaelk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jbradway /forum/post/0


And that is THE important thing. I'm not hung up on matching a certain number. I just want one provider that can give me every possible national HD channel and every possible local and regional HD channel. Whether adds up to 60, 70, 80 or 100 is a non-issue IMO.

national I think they will do pretty much everything they can get their hands on- just like now with SD there will be a small percentage that they dont come to terms with.


But the funny thing is local, which I for one thought was the simple side of things with the spaceways and all, seems to be a bigger deal than first blush.

 

[michaelk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Xylon /forum/post/0


SPICE HD and Playboy HD

those exist in the wild? I didn't see them in the synopsis thread. But I seem to recall they do exist?

 

[HDTVFanAtic]



Quote:
Originally Posted by michaelk /forum/post/0


those exist in the wild? I didn't see them in the synopsis thread. But I seem to recall they do exist?

SpiceHD most certainly does.
http://www.lyngsat.com/hd/echo9ia13.html


Playboy did have a HD Channel on Voom iirc, but I am not sure if it continued after the demise of Voom or not. If Xylon says it does, I will guess it probably does.

 

[michaelk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVFanAtic /forum/post/0


DBS is playing games with VOD - the best they can do is preload stuff on a Hard Drive. It's really not what we have come to expect with VOD - so they may try to spin it, but you really cannot do VOD properly with DBS technology the way it is today.


Content should be their focus for the next few years as they can blow out E* in that area.

THey've said they plan to load the most popular titles on the DVR drive's reserved space and then offer a much bigger catalog over other people's broadband. But I think that was mostly about SD and not really HD....

 

[michaelk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by HDTVFanAtic /forum/post/0


SpiceHD most certainly does.
http://www.lyngsat.com/hd/echo9ia13.html


Playboy did have a HD Channel on Voom iirc, but I am not sure if it continued after the demise of Voom or not. If Xylon says it does, I will guess it probably does.

I wonder- is the synopsis thread supposed to be rated G?

 

[vurbano]

They will add a big fat increase to our bills thats what they will add. Just think about it. This is a company that believes its PQ is outstanding and is going to add all HD channels in existence?

 

[michaelk]

reading the comment about not mattering how many as long as they are ALL there made me thing to count.


Looks like if you take out the rsn's and the broadcast channels you get like 57 total national channels on the air or announced. 4 of which are duplicate east/west movie feeds and 15 are vooms.

 

[michaelk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by vurbano /forum/post/0


They will add a big fat increase to our bills thats what they will add. Just think about it. This is a company that believes its PQ is outstanding and is going to add all HD channels in existence?

I wonder since many of the new ones are basically HD versions of the SD channels (except the VOOM block) if the price per sub is that big a deal and they can just suck most of it up....


I'm sure there will be something of an increase but hopefully it will be just 5 or 10 bucks