Can HDTV Save EchoStar?

[Nick]

Court rulings could cost DishNetwork
hundreds of thousands of customers
& indirectly affect DirecTV subscribers.

News Analysis
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (August 23, 2006) -- EchoStar's Dish Network now has 30
national high-def TV channels, more than any other TV provider. EchoStar's
high-def lineup is very impressive, especially compared to rival DIRECTV,
which offers fewer than 10 national HD channels.

And DishNetwork might need every one of them to keep its subscription base
from falling like a rock.

Why?

More @ TVPredictions.com (http://www.tvpredictions.com/saveechostar082306.htm)

[tomcrown1]

Consequently, look for EchoStar to add even more high-def channels in the coming weeks and months.


Any one knows what the new HD channels will be???

[Nick]

Tom, in keeping with forum posting conventions, when copy/pasting text from another source, please indicate
in some way that the text is a quote, like this:"Consequently, look for EchoStar to add even more high-def channels in the coming weeks and months"or "Consequently, look for EchoStar to add even more high-def channels in the coming weeks and months"

________________

To respond to your question, this is just talk by Mr. Swann, and talk about any specific channels at this point
would be nothing more than pure speculation.

[tsmacro]

But hey I guess the easiest way to make a living writing is to make doomsday predictions to grab people's attention and then give yourself an "out" just in case you're wrong. :lol: In this case the out is basically well because Dish has so much more HD they might actually survive all the bad news that would normally surely kill them! :lol: Last I checked Echostar is still making plenty of $$$ and has been for a while and it's way to early to see how any of this will ultimately affect them one way or the other.

[James Long]

News Analysis
By Phillip Swann

Washington, D.C. (August 23, 2006) -- EchoStar's Dish Network now has 30 national high-def TV channels, more than any other TV provider. EchoStar's high-def lineup is very impressive, especially compared to rival DIRECTV, which offers fewer than 10 national HD channels.What does it matter? According to this author's previous work E* is going to get biught by D* anyways. :)

Salt anyone?

[Adam Richey]

If that statement is indeed true, I can think of a couple of channels they may add.

InHD 2 - Everybody's dropping it like crazy, but IF it's not shutting down alltogether, InHD 2 would make a nice addition.

Wealth TV - I could see Dish working a deal for it, but the biggest hang-up is probably that Wealth TV wants their SD version as part of some basic package.

Outdoor Channel 2 HD - I am thinking this is one that will be adding by the end of the year anyways. One of the few remaining HD channels that has already launched that's not available yet.

A & E HD - I think I saw somewhere here that it is launching sometime in September. This is probably going to be a highly requested channel, especially if it's a collection from A&E's other owned networks.

[Earl Bonovich]

But hey I guess the easiest way to make a living writing is to make doomsday predictions to grab people's attention and then give yourself an "out" just in case you're wrong. :lol: In this case the out is basically well because Dish has so much more HD they might actually survive all the bad news that would normally surely kill them! :lol: Last I checked Echostar is still making plenty of $$$ and has been for a while and it's way to early to see how any of this will ultimately affect them one way or the other.

I am not a Dish basher or anything like that.

But a few years back when the Viacom situation occured... I personally knew of at least a dozen Dish subscribers that went to either Cable or Direct... primarily because it was the "last straw". Only 2 of the dish subscribers I personally knew stuck with Dish....

They where able to survive that....... but this time around.
The DNS is going to be big...
And if something doesn't change with the DVR... that is going to be even bigger... Especially with the critical holiday (gifts) and start of the year (tax refunds, bonuses, ect... ) seasons just around the corder

[harsh]

But a few years back when the Viacom situation occured... I personally knew of at least a dozen Dish subscribers that went to either Cable or Direct... primarily because it was the "last straw". Only 2 of the dish subscribers I personally knew stuck with Dish.... On the other side of the fence, we should see soon how important Lifetime is. Once an example oft-cited by DirecTV zealots illustrating Dish's penchant for "petty disputes", it looks like DirecTV is doing everything possible to send Lifetime screaming.

Among the DirecTV HD subscribers the jury is split on the relative importance of HD LIL versus HD nationals. DirecTV has clearly dropped the ball on maintaining a technological advantage over all but C-band and mom-n-pop cable outfits. The uncharted territory in grabbing big-money subscribers is HD and DirecTV is at least a year away from being truly competitive in the marketplace. NFLST will help them hold on through the end of this year, but when that goes away, what are they gonna do?

You can't record what you can't receive.

[James Long]

New national HDs help .. 10 (or more) HD RSNs wouldn't hurt either. These are things that E* was talking about before the "final word" came over the past few days.

I believe E* will do everything they can to keep their DVRs active. It is too key to their service offering. Losing distants is going to hurt but can be managed. The really annoyed folks will be those who either illegally have distants with E* and will not be able to get them from D* (25%) or those who live in DMAs with D* locals who will not be able to get distants as new subscribers.

There will also be those who will have to make the choice of staying with E* without distants or going to D* without locals.

Any change to the status quo is going to hurt. Viacom was not that bad because eventually the channels came back and over time E* has continued to grow - although not at a fast pace. This is more permanent.

[John W]

I am not a Dish basher or anything like that.

But a few years back when the Viacom situation occured... I personally knew of at least a dozen Dish subscribers that went to either Cable or Direct... primarily because it was the "last straw". Only 2 of the dish subscribers I personally knew stuck with Dish....

They where able to survive that....... but this time around.
The DNS is going to be big...
And if something doesn't change with the DVR... that is going to be even bigger... Especially with the critical holiday (gifts) and start of the year (tax refunds, bonuses, ect... ) seasons just around the corder

These "personally knew" ancedotes regarding ANYTHING are less than worthless.Whomever you "personally knew" is not one iota in the big scheme of things.

[Nick]

Looks like my decision about a year ago to go with digital/HD-DVR cable (Adelphia > Comcast) was prescient.
As a PVR/DVR user since 2000 (Dishplayer 7200), I will not be without that capability again.

I currently use the SA 8300HD DVR which, while not as versatile, nor as elegant as the 7200, does a decent,
dependable job, and will record and save about 10-12 full-length feature films in HD. If Tivo comes after cable
DVRs, I already have plans to move up to a full-blown HTPC.

Finally, I've never used a Tivo, and because of their recent anti-consumer actions,

I will never, ever buy or use a Tivo!

Screw Tivo! :bonk1: