If I were King of the DBS universe

[hectorshelagh2001]

If I were King of the DBS universe I would do the following:

Sit DirecTV & DISH down in one room and try to wheel & deal -

I would tell them to throw all their slots and tp's in one basket and divide them down the middle so that each service get's 16 tp's at each slot (61.5,101,110,119 & 148).

Now obviously DISH would lose more tp's than DirecTV but they would gain tp's in a slot they don't own - 101 a conus slot.

So I would have DirecTV pay DISH the difference between the two.

And no, I'm not a commie!
:hi:

[Mike123abc]

Your plan is hopelessly buggy. DirectTV gave up their wing satellite slots because they did not want them... Splitting up the transponders 16 on each slot would be a techical nightmare because you get far better cost savings with more transponders on one slot.

Also you would require everyone to have multiple dishes to point at all these slots? All your plan would do is cause price increases and supplier costs.

[Jacob S]

If I were king of satellite I would do it for nonprofit or low profit. DirecTv and Dish slots would all be shared. I would figure out a way to provide programming for people for free or at a reduced rate. I think the advertisement should be enough to pay for the programming and do not see why it wouldn't. I would at least offer a package for free for those channels that would allow their channels to be broadcasted for free. I know that there may have to be some kind of income coming in to pay for the satellite and so forth. The consumers would have to pay retail for the receivers though. All locals would be provided throughout the U.S. As for the stock I do not know what I would do about that. I would perhaps offer premiums for a price. I realize that nothing can be free but things can be affordable. I would also try to come up with satellite internet service at an affordable price. I would probably offer both tv and internet service satellite in a bundled package, where consumers would pay for the satellite internet (it may not be cheap at first) but get channels included with it to make it seem a bit more affordable.

[Nick]

Jacob, get a clue. Your over-active imagination is exceeded only by your troubled logic. Take a good dictionary and look up the definitions of capitalism and socialism and compare the two.

Profit-motive is the fuel that drives the economic engine

[Geronimo]

While DISH has turned a profit (and so has DTV) they are not HUGE profits. Offereing free packages would surely DECREASE revenue and create losses. Even in the high tecj world you can't lose money forever.

[BrettR]

Originally posted by Nick
Jacob, get a clue. Your over-active imagination is exceeded only by your troubled logic. Take a good dictionary and look up the definitions of capitalism and socialism and compare the two.

Profit-motive is the fuel that drives the economic engine

Jacob did mention advertisers partially footing the bill. Add in state funding (like what all those PBS stations get), it COULD be possible. Over the air broadcasting has most the content we watch today and it is funded by advertiser dollar. The only problem I see is local advertising would be extremely difficult on a national platform without LIL which is its own can of worms. Its known the broadcasters get very little from retransmission. And Jacob didnt mention eliminating pay services altogether. Many services do want their content to be available Free.

As for E* and D* being profit-driven, yes they are but its not a true competitive market place when they have program-access laws handed to them by FCC and alone control all the DBS conus licenses. The same goes with broadcasters. The Tallahassee CBS is the only commercially licensed VHF station in the market. Because they have the VHF advantage which has worked for them, they make more revenue than all the UHF stations in the market combined. Broadcasting medium is limited and doesnt welcome new competitors to the markets so easily. With the mergers, it also will be controlled by few companies.

[Jacob S]

What I am trying to say is if a company would try to do business not to make huge profits but to serve the public and have something available, then costs would decrease greatly. If the satellite companies would not have to subsidize so heavily then they would make greater profits. If the prices on programming was a lot lower and the equipment prices were higher and not subsidized so much, then they would still make about the same as they do now, attracting better customers for the premium services available. It is jsut that sometimes people/compaines get a bit too greedy. Almost nothing is free but if there were other ways looked at to lower some of the programming costs as I had mentioned then it would help.