PrimeTime Thursday Report About Satellite Porn

[Karl Foster]

ABC ran a story about the porn industry and how corporations are reaping profits. They mentioned GM, owners of Directv, Comcast, Time Warner, and hotel chains such as Marriott, Hilton, etc. They neglected to mention a HUGE seller of subscription porn - Echostar Communications!

Diane Sawyer called reps from all of these corporations, and talked at length about how people buy PPV porn from these companies and how much money they make - estimated to be over $1 billion per year.

My wife was convinced to move from Directv to Dish Network over this until I mentioned that not only does Dish Netowrk sell PPV porn, but also had several subscription hard-core porn channels. That calmed her down a bit. The only subscription porn on Directv is Playboy. The others are all PPV.

Dish got to dodge a bullet on this one for some unknown reason. I was quite surprised that E* didn't get a mention. I thought it was a big selling point :shrug:

[craig559]

Man get a life. To each there own!!! I do watch a good old sex movie every now and then but hey we all are adults and the safe guards are biult into the system for kids. Do we all not know how to not pick a xxx channel

[Karl Foster]

No offense intended. You can watch whatever you want - it's your money. I personally can't watch it from Directv - the stations are "not available in my viewing area." My point was simply that a clear representation of who is selling porn wasn't presented. The story really didn't talk about kids having access, just how much money companies are making from it. I'm the last to judge anyone on what they watch.

[Mark Holtz]

What you call porn I can call "Adult Entertainment". Whether you like it or not, it does make a significant amount of money. And, whether or not you like it, it may have helped provide initial support for the video rental industry and the DVD industry. What I kinda chuckle about is that some of the video listed as "Mature" (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=mature) often isn't, if you understand the multiple meanings.

Now, to get the porn spam OUT of my e-mail. :flaiming

[Frapp]

Originally posted by karl_f
<snip>Dish got to dodge a bullet on this one for some unknown reason. I was quite surprised that E* didn't get a mention. I thought it was a big selling point :shrug:

It`s a simple answer, as far as the big media are concerned, DirecTV is the satellite company of the USA.

Even after all of the attention Echostar has received in the past few years, all of the innovative products ( that sometimes work ), all of the legal suits, all of the leaps and gains in major stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Costco, Sam`s Club and Radio Shack, Dish Network is still a secondary little known company in the big retail electronics world.

Every time you hear a TV celebrity or news person remarking about a PVR, it`s usually ( if not always ) about Tivo and how much they like it or if they receive satellite programming, it`s always DirecTV they remark about.

Dish has never and probably will not anytime soon break through the advertising doors of Circuit City, Best Buy and several of the large regional chains. ( Heck, they have succeeded in selling to some of the regional chains in the past only to be thrown out a few months later )

As long as people pick up sales papers every weekend from these establishments and Dish is not in them, the general public will always look at Dish as a secondary satellite company, although in some cases they obviously are not.

[gcutler]

Originally posted by karl_f
No offense intended. You can watch whatever you want - it's your money. I personally can't watch it from Directv - the stations are "not available in my viewing area." My point was simply that a clear representation of who is selling porn wasn't presented. The story really didn't talk about kids having access, just how much money companies are making from it. I'm the last to judge anyone on what they watch.

Dish is often ignored. In many stories about the DBS, D* is mentioned, but not E*. Maybe because they have to keep the # of words down in the story and not many outside of DBS know echostar (or they feel echostar is 2nd rate because they are smaller than D* by like what 25%, not so small...). So while Dish has been ignored for some good stories, they have missed some with a negative twist as well.

The only reason E* offers Monthly Subscription is because the companies they deal with offer that option, while the companies D* deals with do not offer monthly subscription. Explain to your wife that neither company is morally superior, just like the article it is pure economics.

And by the way some of those D* and E* channels are available in Utah, some are not. We can explain the differentiation between those you can get in Utah, Tennessee, etc. and those you can't

[Jacob S]

That news story might actually help Direct in that some that want to watch more porn will buy Direct.

[gcutler]

I guess it really depends. Some people who want to watch the stuff will not subscribe, the PPV is not as obvious as the monthly subcriber. But at the rate of 3-4 PPVs = 1 monthly sub, the cost can really add up.

I was listening to a radio show and one of the DJs had a $250 cable bill from all the Playboy PPVs, when it was only $15/month if he subscribed. For some reason he didn't want to subscribe.

[lee635]

Originally posted by gcutler
I guess it really depends. Some people who want to watch the stuff will not subscribe, the PPV is not as obvious as the monthly subcriber. But at the rate of 3-4 PPVs = 1 monthly sub, the cost can really add up.

I was listening to a radio show and one of the DJs had a $250 cable bill from all the Playboy PPVs, when it was only $15/month if he subscribed. For some reason he didn't want to subscribe.

It's like a self impposed sin tax. My brother won't buy cigs by the carton becasue he wants to "punish" himself for buying cigarettes by having to go the store every time he needs a pack, and just one pack at a time and at a higher price.

"Oh he watches porn on PPV but would never subscribe, he's not some perv...." ;)

[catman]

I did watch playboy . NOw , it is gone to more hard-core movies . Playboy was the channel for romance . Not anymore . You can see adult movies on there . Both dish and directv offer this . Dish and directv also offer , Spice , playboy , othere adult programming .

[DmitriA]

I don't think that even D* would have been mentioned had they not been owned by GM. Everyone knows GM, but very few people actually know D* or E*...