Steve Mehs
06-17-02, 04:25 AM
Can a televised boxing match be an ARPU bonus for satellite TV?
According to Lehman Brothers satellite analyst William Kidd, the Tyson/Lewis pay-per-view event earlier in the month was a winner for the dish business, given that roughly 600,000 buys for the event - a third of the event's business - came from satellite TV. A small slice of that 600,000 likely came from C-band, while Kidd estimated that roughly 550,000-plus can be attributed to EchoStar's DISH Network and DirecTV.
Kidd estimated that 240,000 EchoStar subscribers and 310,000 DirecTV customers bought the much-anticipated event. And what's the bonus? The PPV buys could help keep ARPU (average revenue per subscriber) figures intact for dish services, Kidd said.
And that's good news for EchoStar.
The discontinuation of the company's "I Like 9" program and purchases for the Lewis/Tyson fight will likely more than offset protracted weakness in the economy, he said. In a research note, Kidd reiterated his second quarter ARPU estimate of $48.88 for EchoStar. The satellite analyst added that the boxing match's positive implications also should carry over to DirecTV.
From SkyReport (http://www.skyreport.com) (Used with Permission)
According to Lehman Brothers satellite analyst William Kidd, the Tyson/Lewis pay-per-view event earlier in the month was a winner for the dish business, given that roughly 600,000 buys for the event - a third of the event's business - came from satellite TV. A small slice of that 600,000 likely came from C-band, while Kidd estimated that roughly 550,000-plus can be attributed to EchoStar's DISH Network and DirecTV.
Kidd estimated that 240,000 EchoStar subscribers and 310,000 DirecTV customers bought the much-anticipated event. And what's the bonus? The PPV buys could help keep ARPU (average revenue per subscriber) figures intact for dish services, Kidd said.
And that's good news for EchoStar.
The discontinuation of the company's "I Like 9" program and purchases for the Lewis/Tyson fight will likely more than offset protracted weakness in the economy, he said. In a research note, Kidd reiterated his second quarter ARPU estimate of $48.88 for EchoStar. The satellite analyst added that the boxing match's positive implications also should carry over to DirecTV.
From SkyReport (http://www.skyreport.com) (Used with Permission)