good news for dish espn hd maybe....

[ocnier]

I posted this message on the directv forum:
{I was contacted this weekend by a directv marketing guy trying to sell me a sat-c upgrade for just something like $8 bucks (I checked my caller ID and directv came on it so I feel it was pretty legit). I hadn't told them that I had already upgraded my oval (I turned the offer down, I wasn't thinking because it was still early saturday morning and I still wasn't awake yet, oh well). The point of the matter is that the dude totally assured me that espn hd and a few more hd channels would be up by the end of may 03' guaranteed . I thanked him for his time to call me and for the very good news, especially considering I had no official deadline yet for espn-hd from directv. Either way this was kickass news to me directly form directv. I hope this post helps alleviate some tensions out there as well as some anxiety.}

I can only guess that charlie will not allow himself to be trumped by his competitor. Needless to say the heat/race to put this on the air just got more intense and hopefully the customer wins out in the end, but I have been wrong before about E*. Either way it is exciting news, because disney is settling in on realistic price points with the various broadcasting entities. If anybody has any insight please let me know.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Last time I talked to DirecTV they were hoping to have some HD announcement by the fall.

I assume (and I am guessing) that both companies will have ESPN-HD by football season.

[ocnier]

Hey Scott, I hear ya but I grilled this guy on the phone for guarantees on the release of espn hd for a good 5 minutes before tipping my hand that I had already upgraded with a sat-C kit (which oddly enough is sitting on a lone dish network dish just for heck of it because right now there is nothing on 110 that I want.) I use the oval I have for diretv and dish at the same time. I just wish in retrospect I would have taken the offer because $8 bucks for a sat-c kit is dirt cheap (i just wasn't awake yet).....

[FTA Michael]

Originally posted by ocnier
I can only guess that charlie will not allow himself to be trumped by his competitor.You're saying this because of the way he refused to be let DirecTV have DBS exclusives on YES and full Fox Sports Ohio? Because he made sure Dish had Oxygen and PBS Kids? ;)

I can guess that any channel that will cost Charlie money that can't immediately retrieved from its subscribers will get a long look in Littleton. But hey, we'll all know for sure in a few months.

[Bobby94928]

Originally posted by carload
You're saying this because of the way he refused to be let DirecTV have DBS exclusives on YES and full Fox Sports Ohio? Because he made sure Dish had Oxygen and PBS Kids? ;)

I can guess that any channel that will cost Charlie money that can't immediately retrieved from its subscribers will get a long look in Littleton. But hey, we'll all know for sure in a few months.

 

Those channels are apples and ESPN-HD is oranges.  Charlie will not allow DirecTV to trump him on ESPN.  Big time sports is a very big deal indeed.

Bobby C

[Claude Greiner]

I don't think Dish will be carrying ESPN HD for the simple fact that they are too cheap to pay for it.

Another HD channel would be nice, but as far as im concerned I don't care for their price increases!

[rowdymon]

Is this ESPN-HD channel the exact same as the SD channel?

[angiodan]

It has the exact same programming as the SD. Except for the 5 or 6 live HD offerings a week, the rest are upconverted.

The ESPN HD website has a Q&A section where someone who gets the the HD feed is complaining that there isn't enough true HD offerings. It also has the usual contact your cable or satellite provider to get the channel.

http://espn.go.com/espnhd/ask_expert.html

[FTA Michael]

My guess is that IF Charlie decides to put together a special HD package for a separate monthly fee, THEN ESPN-HD will be one of the channels prominently featured in that package. Until then, I'd wager that we Dish subs will not get a chance to see it. :(

[jeffwtux]

My guess is that until somebody or group is able to knock ESPN/Disney offer their high horse and force them to face the economics of todays economy we won't see it on Dish. Their current pricing isn't even close to competitive. MY GUESS IS THAT THEY ARE CHARGING CABLE COMPANIES ***LESS****.

[Ken_F]

jefftx,

Close to being competitive? ESPN-HD doesn't have any real competition so far as HDTV sports is concerned. You're lucky to get five sporting events in HDTV a year from some of the networks. Lately, people have been getting that every week on ESPN-HD. Just this past week, several more cable providers announced carriage of ESPN-HD.

At about 85 cents per HD sub, ESPN-HD is still significantly less expensive than the typical local/regional sports network.

[ocnier]

Still I have to believe from a business model approach that Charlie will not allow himself to be trumped D*. He is already taking a beating in terms of marketing for the sunday ticket as it stands now.

[jeffwtux]

Again, I have a hard time believing that DIsney was offering ESPN-HD to DISH(or Direc) for 85 cents.

[jeffwtux]

KenJ:
I'm betting DIsh was probably offered it for like $1.25 or so. The main reason that Disney/ESPN is anti-competitive is by being able to MASSIVELY OVERPAY for sports contracts like the NBA TV DEAL(By far the biggest fraud in the history of sports TV) and then pass on the cost, not to the advertisers who would never pay for that, but instead to monopolized cable/DBS viewers who have no choice. The average cable subscriber pays far more to watch(or NOT WATCH) an NBA game on DIsh than they did last year, but I doubt that advertisers are paying more to advertise on it because that's a competitive marketplace.

[jeffwtux]

ocnier: Charlie has never had a chance at Sunday TIcket. What he may be taking a bash attack is for YES and FSOH..

[ocnier]

jeffwtux: technically that's true, however, there is more to the story than meets the eye. Charlie had a shot at the end of 00' roughly 2 years before the directv contract lock expired. The NFL courted a bid with dish (too, be quite frank the more customers the better as far as tagliabue is concerned). E* probably due to overhead cash flow was more on the cheap side to bid (proabably a little under what the contract would be worth). Naturally, the NFL was definitely on the high side from Tagliabue's point of view you pay high to buy yourself into club (in other words you take the hit and recoup cost with down the road profits), this was understandable considering that by this time 9.6 million customers were projected on the D* side alone in 5 years. Charlie's ace as talks like this take a while was to buy D* and inherit the contract on the cheap or least have way more bargaining power with the close knit NFL (almost mafia like) power structure. T.Benson and A. Moddell also were leading proponents of stronger royalty fee for the owners for entry level broadcast agency (it will be very interesting to see fees for cable industry in 05'). In think in hindsight Charlie might have acted differntly but at the time there were too many side issues that were sticking points besides the money. Bizarrely enough one big deal killer for E* was the ala carte service with no fees whatsover for the reciever for customer only desiring the ticket. E*/Charlie absolutely dispised this and from E*'s business model perspective this totally went against thier residual profit for broadcast fees and operating costs (it made money just not enough profit in thier minds, but still than enough to be above costs). The fear on E's part was that ala cart like that which D* offers now would be too detrimental/too big a slice of the profit projections pie. This affects the analysts rating of stock point therby having major implications for the stock holders considering their model. Also charlie himself is not one to pay the good ole boy fee up front to the NFL just to get in to club(though I thought this was bad decision process considering the success that D* and that NFL is truly the biggest successful sports franchise in america with strong expected growth and profitability in the future..... p.s. I know the bengals fans don't see it that way right now but even they will climb up the ladder success again that's why the NFL is so strong on parity with one notable exception of San Francisco in its history) To make a long story short due to miscues and bad financial advice I think E*/Charlie is paying a high premium for bad judgement for a core audience that it cannot yet truly define. Ergen's vision for what the company ought to be I think is still not complete. I may be wrong though.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Originally posted by jeffwtux
Again, I have a hard time believing that DIsney was offering ESPN-HD to DISH(or Direc) for 85 cents.

This was reported by a few broadcasting papers. It should also be noted that ESPN itself is now close to $2 a month per subscriber.

[FTA Michael]

Originally posted by ocnier
I think E*/Charlie is paying a high premium for bad judgement for a core audience that it cannot yet truly define.Me, I prefer to think he's a ruthless negotiator instead of an idiot. I think he'll take fewer subs if his total profits are higher. And I'll bet he uses his willingness to blow off channels as a weapon in all programming negotiations.

[ocnier]

carload: you may be right sir, you just may be right, but at this time one can only speculate (LOL......)