Breaking News: DIRECTV Announces Plans for new HD

[scottchez]

I checked the other two main DBS boards, this news is here first.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040908/85955_1.html


It just came out after the stock market closed.

[Jacob S]

Hmmm, makes you wonder what Dish Nework is going to do to counteract this.

[LonghornXP]

Hmmm, makes you wonder what Dish Nework is going to do to counteract this.

Charlie would say that local HD and national HD channels aren't quality content but TNT is. Well it looks like DirecTV has the super satellite and Dish has only the Superdish.

[Mark Holtz]

Good catch to both ScottChez and THancock! Thank you!

[THancock]

Mark:

Please delete or combine the thread that I started below.

Thanks,

Tom

Done, but good catch on the article also. - Holtz

[mrdectown]

If i directv gets maxhd encorehd and rushhd i am dumping voom quickley

[Skyboss]

Holy bejesus!

[Nick]

It just came out after the stock market closed.The word was on the street before the market closed. DTV spiked just before the bell.

http://ichart.yahoo.com/t?s=DTV

[Fredfa]

Here is the Wall Street Journal's take on the announcement:

DirecTV Spends on Satellites

By ANDY PASZTOR Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 9, 2004

Satellite-broadcaster DirecTV Group Inc., stepping up its drive to enhance programming and outspend competitors, has committed as much as $1 billion during the next three years to buy and launch a trio of large, high-powered spacecraft to be built by Boeing Co.

The country's No. 1 direct-to-home TV provider, which is controlled by News Corp., also confirmed that it will use two previously ordered advanced satellites, already under construction by Boeing, to expand high-definition and local programming as soon as next summer.

Originally conceived as part of an ambitious project called Spaceway, those two unusually powerful, new-generation satellites were intended to set the standard for Internet-via-satellite projects. But amid doubts about Spaceway's business plan and projections of market demand, senior News Corp. executives have officially scrapped plans to use them to deliver Internet access for business and residential customers. In May, company officials denied such a step was imminent.

For Boeing's satellite-making unit, the latest order provides not only a much-needed financial boost but a public vote of confidence in the company's flagship 702 satellite model. The model, which has been dogged by persistent technical problems and power malfunctions in orbit, hadn't snared a new customer in three years. Boeing said DirecTV also has an option to order a fourth 702 satellite, which borrows state-of-the-art technology Boeing is working on for military satellites.

The moves are the latest steps in DirecTV's aggressive growth strategy to earmark more than $2 billion in capital expenditures and increase subscribers through expensive new marketing and programming initiatives. The efforts are aimed at cable-television providers as well as rival EchoStar Communications Corp., the No. 2 U.S. satellite broadcaster.

Only the DirecTV service "will have the capability to bring hundreds of high-definition channels and other enhancements to consumers across the entire country," DirecTV President Chase Carey said in a statement. The additional broadcast capacity also is important to offer local television channels, interactive services and other programming enhancements to DirecTV subscribers.

While the moves are likely to win plaudits from federal regulators focused on expanding high-definition TV offerings, Spaceway's demise indicates the challenges facing satellite operators hoping to deliver Internet access across the U.S. Hughes Electronics Corp., DirecTV's predecessor, spent roughly $2 billion on the project, designed to provide high-speed and high-quality Internet connections able to compete with ground-based options from phone companies and cable providers.

[Fredfa]

(And to be totally accurate, if it was posted here at 1:48 p.m. (PT) it wasn't first.)
Not that it really matters.
But, it seems to me, accuracy is important. Even on the rumor-dominated internet.
It fact, the news release seems to have been on SatelliteGuys first:
----------------------------
"Today, 01:05 PM (PT)
shappyss

Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 14
Default Spaceway 1 & 2
I dont no how I am supposed to cite this so sorry if i violate some copyright.

"September 08, 2004 04:02 PM US Eastern Timezone

DIRECTV Announces Plan to Launch Next Generation Satellites to Provide Dramatic Expansion of High-Definition and Advanced Programming Services...."
----------------------------------------
Then on AVS:
------------------------
"Today 01:13 PM (PT)
steverobertson AVS Special Member
D* Future HD Plans With New Satellites
"September 08, 2004 04:02 PM US Eastern Timezone

DIRECTV Announces Plan to Launch Next Generation Satellites to Provide Dramatic Expansion of High-Definition and Advanced Programming Services ....."
-------------

But in the final analysis, who cares who posted it first by a few minutes?
It wasn't an exclusive or anything.
It was on the PR Newswire, for Pete's sake!

[SParker]

I don't know about the rest of you folks but I will be definitely signing up for my HD locals via satellite! :D

[Agrajag]

So does this mean we effectively will be waiting until sometime in mid-2007 for national HD feeds? I already have an antenna and superior HD signal (uncompressed) with it including all subchannels. This isn't great news for me. I want to see as many national HD channels as possible and more bandwidth used to improve the SD channel quality. This is great if you don't have an antenna or access to local HD, but not so great if you do.

[Kheldar]

Hmmm, makes you wonder what Dish Nework is going to do to counteract this.

DISH Fights Calls for HD Must-Carry (http://www.skyreport.com/viewskyreport.cfm?ReleaseID=1480#Story2)

Simple. DishNet is fighting to try to NOT carry the HD Locals.

[ramcm7]

DISH Fights Calls for HD Must-Carry (http://www.skyreport.com/viewskyreport.cfm?ReleaseID=1480#Story2)

Simple. DishNet is fighting to try to NOT carry the HD Locals.

Charlie the poker player can see that someone is trying to buy the pot.

[DNewton]

I'll take locals on a DBS dish any day over an antenna. All of my local stations broadcast in HD, but I can't get half of them because they are only putting out like 15 watts, and my local ABC affiliate is dumb enough to broadcast HD on VHF. I bought a specialized UHF antenna for HD and I will not buy another one just for one station that's clueless. I'm 13 miles away from most of the transmitters and still have reception problems at times with some locals. I hate that we will have to wait another year for these feeds to be put into place, but I've had HD for 2 years with very little programming so I guess I can wait some more.

[ibglowin]

Hopfully this will "light a fire" under Charlie's A** but who knows since the other PR says Dish is trying to push back on must carry HD Locals. Their argument doesn't hold much water IMHO. If D* pulls away from E* in HD its so long 921, hellllooo HR10-250 Tivo.

[Skyboss]

So does this mean we effectively will be waiting until sometime in mid-2007 for national HD feeds? I already have an antenna and superior HD signal (uncompressed) with it including all subchannels. This isn't great news for me. I want to see as many national HD channels as possible and more bandwidth used to improve the SD channel quality. This is great if you don't have an antenna or access to local HD, but not so great if you do.

I don't think you have much to worry about. DirecTV is only missing about 8 National HD feeds that are available today, they have room for this after Sunday Ticket. The first two sats are spot beam and conus with enough room for local HD in the top 70 markets. Instead of the national network HD feeds they could offer "closest market" feeds (example: They put up the HD locals in Denver, but Cheyenne doesn't have locals up and running - They could receive the Denver feed rather than the NY or LA Feed), this would free up even more space until 2007. In 2007 some will likely be used for Sports packages in a Conus arrangement. Bottom line, in 2007 they'll have room for 150 HD national HD channels and all the majors in every market, but there won't be 150 national HD feeds out there...Maybe, and I mean a huge maybe 100 channels with the rest being dedicated to PPV and Sports.

[Agrajag]

With Encore offering HD (though no one seems to care, yet) I can quickly see that all the movie channels would go HD. Right now there are something like 70 of those alone. Granted some will take longer than others to go HD.

[dhomoney]

I don't know about the rest of you folks but I will be definitely signing up for my HD locals via satellite! :D

Same here, now if they would make the HDTivo affordable I would be all over that. I just can't give Tivo up. :)

[Earl Zuberbelt]

I checked the other two main DBS boards, this news is here first.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040908/85955_1.html


It just came out after the stock market closed.

The satellites are built
Sucessfully launched and in orbit
The appropriate retrans deals are secured
Price for service is established

I might take a look at it.

-Earl
Yankee born Southern bred and yes, from the Show Me State.

[BobMurdoch]

Charlie the poker player can see that someone is trying to buy the pot.

The only problem is that Rupert is sitting on the nut flush if he can pull this off while Charlie is sitting on a straight..........

If E* doesn't announce a counter plan to match the capability D* is proposing, they will quickly become has beens........

[wcswett]

Hmmm, makes you wonder what Dish Nework is going to do to counteract this.

Well, Charlie has needed this kind of announcement from DirecTV in the past, so hopefully he'll get on the ball and get his own press release together. This announcement makes me consider the possibility of replacing my BEV 6000 with a HD TIVO next year.

--- WCS

[sunking]

So what's the deal with dishes? Replacement or addition of new ones? And receivers? I'd be ticked if I had to buy too much new stuff for this to work.

[drjenk]

Yes I'm also wondering if our current dish will work, I currently have a triple LNB oval type dish, getting HD currently.

[stevendsnyder]

I have read a few articles on this, and it sounds like they will have capacity for 150 local HD channels next summer and another 500 local HD channels in 2007, along with 150 national HD channels. Also sounds like E** may be pushed into buying out Voom. They would still have equipment issues and issues with moving satellites or requiring an additional dish to pick up the old Voom channels. The rumors are flying now...

[Fredfa]

Actually, Chase Carey says DirecTV will have the capacity for 500 LIL HD channels "by the middle of 2005" (NOT 2007) with many more, national and local, in 2007.
And what would the point of Dish buying VOOM?
I can't imagine the Dolans will, at least yet, let it go cheaply.
Satellite space can be purchased (or satellites themselves even bought and laucnhed outright) cheaper than paying what the Dolans think (or at least hope) VOOM is worth.
It might make more sense, if the price were right, for Disney to buy VOOM to get AMC and the other channels in the Cablevision spinoff company.

[DarinC]

And what would the point of Dish buying VOOM?
Have you seen this (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38499) yet?

And does Dish have any content right now? I can't think of any. If not, they're about the only provider that doesn't. Seems like that'd be a good bargaining tool for them to have.

[hdtvfan0001]

Have you seen this (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38499) yet?

And does Dish have any content right now? I can't think of any. If not, they're about the only provider that doesn't. Seems like that'd be a good bargaining tool for them to have.
This is what I've been saying for almost 9 months - and Fredfa and I were repeatedly flamed by Voomers in the process. Looks like our forecasts were on target after all. The Voom business model was faulty from the get-go, and their decisions on installs and hardware just made matters worse.

The E* purchase of V* only makes sense in that it would be a quick solution (and most likely affordable) for DISH to compete for the long haul. The person quoted in this article echos that position as well.

[larrystotler]

Come on. Does V* actually have that much content> Almost all V* subs complain that the stuff is upconverted, and badly in a lot of cases. The ONLY reason E* would buy V* would be to get all of the 61.5. Period.

[Fredfa]

There certainly is no point in paying $1.5+ Billion for fewer than 30,000 subs.
I have no idea what the 61.5 is worth.
Given what Cablevision is now saying (just 3,700 new subs since June 30th), there have been many more DirecTV HD TiVos sold in the past two months than new VOOM subs.
All of which is bad news for HD fans, whether or not we have VOOM.

[Jacob S]

It seems like there is a new dish coming out about every couple of years now to expand the content that they offer.

[tvdxer]

HD Locals? Please. SD quality, and possibly even HD quality is bad enough already. They don't need to uplink a bunch more local channels on the sats when one can just throw an antenna on the top of his house or use rabbit ears (usually a reasonable solution if you live near the towers).

[LonghornXP]

HD Locals? Please. SD quality, and possibly even HD quality is bad enough already. They don't need to uplink a bunch more local channels on the sats when one can just throw an antenna on the top of his house or use rabbit ears (usually a reasonable solution if you live near the towers).

First off HD locals is needed to compete with cable and it will make DirecTV money and will get them customers. Secondly they will be using brand new satellites that were planned for high speed internet but are now going to be used for HD locals.

Third these sats have massive amounts of bandwidth when used with spot beams. Also these sats can support many more uplinks in that DirecTV can actually uplink directly from the local stations instead of sending it to a regional uplink center. Also DirecTV will be sending the ATSC signal from the local station unchanged to let our DirecTV boxes decode the ATSC signal. That means they will not re-encode or alter the signal in any way from the local station to your dish on your roof. The signal will be exactly the same as if you pick it up using an OTA antenna.

Forth these sats are designed for many spot beams and as such these sats can either offer 750 or so HD local channels via spots or they can offer no more than 150 national HD channels using conus instead of spot beams. Now if they did locals in HDTV between SpaceWay 1 & 2 that would provide DirecTV the ability to offer 1500 HD local channels without any picture quality loss whatsoever. Now factor in DirecTV 10 & 11 and those will provide more bandwidth than even the SpaceWay sats.

Between all four of those sats that plan is to offer all local HD channels including local RSN HD feeds. They will also use some of the bandwidth for a total of around 150-200 national HD channels. They are also planning on using some of the bandwidth for VOD and what they are working on now is whether they will do true VOD that works with all boxes or whether they will use NVOD that would work only with DVRs whether they be NDS or Tivo DVRs. But rest assured that even using NVOD it won't be like the current Starz on demand. You will have a channel with a list of movies and you can select one and it will download it to the Tivo or NDS DVR within on average 5 minutes so it truely is VOD and that is the way cable works but cable just uses a local hard drive and streams it to your house.

But this isn't a waste because it won't hurt any current HD or SD channels and these 4 sats would be a waste to use for 400 total national HD channels when they most likely will never exist that many but if they can offer all HD locals in the US and offer national HD channels that would cover us at least 10 years and offer our RSN HD feeds and offer NVOD and eventually true VOD. That is a much better use for these sats because it provides them with many revenue chances and allows them to be exactly caught up with cable and at that point cable couldn't do anything more that DirecTV couldn't do.

[larrystotler]

And how many markets will actually be broadcasting 100% HD content when? Whiel they are definately on the ball for using something that fell in their lap, there still has to be the content available. And the biggest ? is whether a new dish will be needed.

[openhouse]

great news Directv

[Kheldar]

I have read a few articles on this, and it sounds like they will have capacity for 150 local HD channels next summer and another 500 local HD channels in 2007, along with 150 national HD channels. Also sounds like E** may be pushed into buying out Voom. They would still have equipment issues and issues with moving satellites or requiring an additional dish to pick up the old Voom channels. The rumors are flying now...

Read the press release again: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/aboutus/headline.dsp?id=09_08_2004A
The first two of these satellites, Spaceway 1 and Spaceway 2, will launch in 2005 with programming being offered to consumers by the middle of the year. These satellites will have the capacity for more than 500 local HD channels. With these satellites, DIRECTV will have the ability to bring local HD programming to most of the U.S. population, as well as continuing to expand standard-definition local offerings and other enhancements.

The next two satellites, DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11, will launch in early 2007. These satellites will have the capacity for more than 1,000 additional local HD channels, more than 150 national HD channels, and other new programming offerings. These satellites will provide DIRECTV the capability to bring local and national HD programming and other advanced services to every U.S. household. Consumers will be able to receive all of these services, as well as existing DIRECTV® programming, with a single small satellite dish.

[djlong]

Now that they're upgrading the HD offerings, if they would just allow TiVo to upgrade the DVR with the HMO....

[jpoklop]

they will have capacity for 150 local HD channels next summer and another 500 local HD channels in 2007, along with 150 national HD channels.

But will there be any worthwhile content? I'm all for new channels, but looking at the next two weeks of BravoHD, there was only one show I wanted to record.

[beasst37799]

We dont know what will be up by then its doubtful that there will be 150 national channels but then again who knows we will just have to wait and see

[Kheldar]

DirecTV Boosts HD As VOOM Prepares for Doom (http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2004/9/emw158048.htm)

Apparently these HD announcements spooked Voom. Read the above article.

[aaronwt]

Voom has only 29000 subscribers?!!?

[Kheldar]

Voom has only 29000 subscribers?!!?

Not exactly the "killer of standard definition satellite", eh?
They have a "churn rate" of 20-30% (D*'s churn rate is 1.4%), and their STBs cost more than the HD STBs from D*.

What was CableVision thinking?

[Mike D-CO5]

A huge tax write off.

[ramy]

Where is TNT-HD? Is it going to be on soon?

[hdtvfan0001]

Where is TNT-HD? Is it going to be on soon?
Last week we were told "in the next week"....

....any new info on TNT-HD or FOX HD (national feeds) on D*TV???

[LOBO2999]

I would think if its not on by now its not going to be on this week. I don't think they turn on channels on the weeken. Maybe in 2 weeks

[dakeeney]

anybody heard any rumors when starz-hd and cinemax-hd will be up? Also, when
is brovo changing their crappy format?