Darkman
09-13-06, 02:06 AM
Fate of pay TV tied to housing
Slowdown would be ill-timed for satellite as cable gains share
By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News
September 13, 2006
The slowdown in the nation's housing market could hurt more than homeowners.
EchoStar's Dish Network and other pay-TV providers might get pinched too, according to a report released Tuesday by Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein.
Both cable and satellite- TV providers saw a surge in subscribers in 2004 and 2005 as new homeowners signed up for pay-TV services for their living rooms or vacation homes. If the housing market were to slow so dramatically that new households effectively stopped being formed, that could translate into a 7 percent drop in gross additions of new customers for cable and satellite companies, and a much steeper drop in net additions, Moffett said.
Such a slowdown could come at a bad time for Douglas County-based Dish and larger satellite-TV rival DirecTV, which are already seeing a dropoff in subscriber growth this year as cable rivals step up their "triple play" bundles of Internet, phone and video service. The technology used by satellite-TV companies limits their ability to offer phone and Internet service on top of video.
A slowing housing market "should pressure basic subscriber growth for both cable and satellite," wrote Moffett, who rates EchoStar "underperform."
( the entire article is at the following source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_4988303,00.html )
Slowdown would be ill-timed for satellite as cable gains share
By Joyzelle Davis, Rocky Mountain News
September 13, 2006
The slowdown in the nation's housing market could hurt more than homeowners.
EchoStar's Dish Network and other pay-TV providers might get pinched too, according to a report released Tuesday by Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein.
Both cable and satellite- TV providers saw a surge in subscribers in 2004 and 2005 as new homeowners signed up for pay-TV services for their living rooms or vacation homes. If the housing market were to slow so dramatically that new households effectively stopped being formed, that could translate into a 7 percent drop in gross additions of new customers for cable and satellite companies, and a much steeper drop in net additions, Moffett said.
Such a slowdown could come at a bad time for Douglas County-based Dish and larger satellite-TV rival DirecTV, which are already seeing a dropoff in subscriber growth this year as cable rivals step up their "triple play" bundles of Internet, phone and video service. The technology used by satellite-TV companies limits their ability to offer phone and Internet service on top of video.
A slowing housing market "should pressure basic subscriber growth for both cable and satellite," wrote Moffett, who rates EchoStar "underperform."
( the entire article is at the following source: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/tech/article/0,2777,DRMN_23910_4988303,00.html )