ESPN Showcase???

[NThomas76207]

Could Disney do the same thing as NBC Universal has with the NBC Showcase? Imagine this would be a huge thing considering that Dish doesen't has NFL Season Ticket. The ESPN Showcase could have:

ESPN
ESPN2
ESPN Classic
ESPNEWS
ESPN Alt.
ESPN2 Alt.

Or they could do it with kids programing like this:

Disney Channel (East)
Disney Channel (West)
Toon Disney
ABC Family

just about anything could use the Showcase idea. Reply with your ideas!!!

[juan ellitinez]

I think you need to be more realistic..look for a "Home Shopping Showcase"

[Bobby94928]

I think you need to be more realistic..look for a "Home Shopping Showcase"

Now THAT is really compelling... ;)

[Iusedtolovedish]

I think you need to be more realistic..look for a "Home Shopping Showcase"
Wow sounds compelling enough to do 6 HD Shopping channels on the showcase! YES that would more than double their HD offerings overnight! I can't wait.

(sorry i'm fairly new to dish and getting very frusterated with my 811.)

[FTA Michael]

Really, throwing six of the channels of one content provider onto a showcase page isn't such a bad idea. Maybe Dish can use it as a bargaining chip next time they have to negotiate a contract with Disney or GE or Viacom or whoever.

But outside of special events, I can't see Dish just giving away such a preview channel that would benefit only one provider.

[rocatman]

Dish could do six channels of MLB, NBA or NHL. They could also do six channels of locals in a market. Six channels of PPV movies previews or six porn channels. Beats the hell out of shopping channels.

[BobMurdoch]

Yes! PLEASE do this for the premium sports packs. Being able to watch 6 ball games at once would ROCK!

[NThomas76207]

What If You were able to pick 6 channels to watch at once???

[SimpleSimon]

What If You were able to pick 6 channels to watch at once???
Never gonna happen - unless they come out with a 6-tuner box.

the Olympic preview thing is done at the other end.

Neat idea, tho. :)

[juan ellitinez]

Will it disapeer at the end of the olympics?

[jpurkey]

I must be in the minority as I would not find multi-cast channels interesting after the wow factor wore off. The only useful one I can think of would be for news, especially when there is breaking news, but I doubt Dish or DirecTV could get CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. all to agree to it.

The local cable system (before it became COX) had a 4-in-1 channel with ABC,CBS,NBC and CNN on the same screen. The only time I looked at the channel was when I was bored.

[James Long]

I agree, especially today watching Florida and remebering other incidents such as the California quakes and 9-11. Seeing all the news at once in an interactive setup would be nice.

But which channels? Locals would not be on the split screen as there are 144 different sets of locals (As of Aug 12) to deal with.

Even the national news networks have packaging issues. AT60 viewers get CNN, CNNHN, CourtTV, CNBC and the two CSPANs as "news". AT120 viewers also get FoxNews, CNN-FN/CNN-I, and MSNBC. AT180 & AEP viewers also get Bloomberg and CNBC World. That's three different sets of up to 11 channels (and you might want to throw in The Weather Channel while you are at it).

11 or 12 channels are too many to do on one split screen so I'd probably do a page two. (It seems there is a practical limit of 10 selections per interactive page anyways).

If it were entirely up to me
I would make "Dish Interactive News Showcase" available to AT120 and above.
(This eliminates the issue of AT60 only blocking of most channels.)
The first page of the showcase would be a eight pack:
200 CNN, 202 CNNHN, 205 FoxNews, 214 TWC
206 CNNFN, 208 CNBC, 209 MSNBC, 203 Bloomberg
* Bloomberg would link to the Bloomberg Interactive News on AT120
The other two options would be "MORE" and "EXIT" bars.

The "MORE" screen would have
200 CNN, 202 CNNHN, 205 FoxNews, 214 TWC
210 CSPAN, 211 CSPAN2, 204 Court TV, 207 CNBC World
* 207 CNBC World would be covered on AT120
(Yes, I'd repeat the top row from page one.)

I'd consider putting six on each screen but really don't like the split. It (for me) would mean moving TWC and Bloomberg to Page 2 (the MORE screen). Not unacceptable.

BTW: As far as the issue of getting permission goes, if a provider does not want their signal in the showcase it is their own loss. I've found myself watching CNBC and MSNBC more because they are in the NBC Showcase. The images in those frames were attractive enough to get me watching - even if I'd never pick the channel from the EPG. Picture guides are cool!

JL

[juan ellitinez]

I must be in the minority as I would not find multi-cast channels interesting after the wow factor wore off. The only useful one I can think of would be for news, especially when there is breaking news, but I doubt Dish or DirecTV could get CNN, MSNBC, Fox, etc. all to agree to it.

The local cable system (before it became COX) had a 4-in-1 channel with ABC,CBS,NBC and CNN on the same screen. The only time I looked at the channel was when I was bored.s-p-o-r-t-s would be the perfect use for this technology

[blakejames3000]

Never gonna happen - unless they come out with a 6-tuner box.

the Olympic preview thing is done at the other end.

Neat idea, tho. :)

do they actually use an entire new channel worth of bandwidth to create the interactive screen or can they "Re map" channels already up linked and just use a little bit of bandwidth to create the presentation and "fill in" the 6 screens with already up linked material.??

[SimpleSimon]

No - that's why I mentioned the 6 tuner box. Each channel requires it's own tuner. Period.

So, you're watching "an entire new channel". As for bandwidth, there's plenty of room to throw an SD channel up for something like this.

[James Long]

do they actually use an entire new channel worth of bandwidth to create the interactive screen or can they "Re map" channels already up linked and just use a little bit of bandwidth to create the presentation and "fill in" the 6 screens with already up linked material.??
According to those who watch these things, the NBC Showcase video is actually using slighly more bandwidth than a standard channel. I'd guess that is because of the amount of movement on the six screens - they don't want the PQ on the showcase to be poor.

IF they decided to do other showcases they would need to uplink the combined screen shot as a separate channel. And IF there are unsubscribed or blacked out channels as part of the mix then those channels must be blacked out by the showcase software. The current NBC Showcase does not have to worry about unsubscribed or blacked out content as all channels in the package are avaliable to all subscribers.

The worst part of a Sports Showcase would be the blackouts and the varience in what channels a subscriber gets. For example, ESPN. AT60 subscribers get all five basic ESPN channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNews, ESPN Alt, ESPN Alt 2) and AT120 subscribers get ESPN Classic. That would be a good set, but the blackouts would have to be handled. (It would be interesting if the bottom portion contained their score scroll on the Showcase.) In ESPN's case, I'd leave off ESPN Classic and somehow cover blacked out feeds.

Want to do a Showcase for MLBEI? At 2pm ET Sunday Channels 625-639 have seven games (some games starting earlier, 2 more games start at 4pm ET). Of those nine games, three are blacked out for me (although one of those games is available on one of my FSN channels). Since the blackouts vary, which channels do you show and which do you black out?

A Showcase works best when the subscriber gets all the channels involved. If E* had the multichannel Nascar In-Car channels it would make sense. But not for normal sports channels.

The ESPN Showcase would be the most likely for sports, due to the limited number of channels and their availablity to all subscribers. But blackouts must be handled.

JL

[JohnH]

Will it disapeer at the end of the olympics?

Most likely yes. I sure hope so. It is using bandwitdth normally used by NHL Center Ice and NBA League pass. Those packages need all the bandwidth they can get.