pax going off directv this month

[catman]

Directv is going to take PAX off the air this month yet . Directv willnot even try to keep the PAX channel on . Directv , if you want sports . Dish network if you want movies . Sounds like directv , wants to be known , as the sports network .

[Frapp]

Originally posted by catman
<snip> Sounds like directv , wants to be known , as the sports network .

They have been .... they are .... and they will be even after the merger is called off in the near future ;)

[James_F]

How about watching your local PAX station? :confused:

[catman]

I don't get locals in my area . I like the pax station .

[James_F]

Antenna???

[Geronimo]

I am with DirecTV on this. PAX asked for must carry and lsot their national carriage.

[BobCA]

You have PAX to blame for this, not D*. D* was going to carry the national feed until PAX went to the FCC and pushed for their local stations to be carried. The FCC sided with PAX and so D* now carries local PAX stations. I don't blame D* for dropping the national feed. Serves PAX right. IMO, that channel is a waste of space.

[BrettR]

But PAX has agreements with Comcast and Echostar and other providers for national carriage for markets without PAX. Baltimore region gets national PAX, national Univision on Comcast.

[scooper]

Brett - the key word there is "Agreements" ---

[Karl Foster]

Pax sued Directv to add the local Pax stations and won. Great victory for Pax. Now their paid programming won't reach as many people.

[Geronimo]

Echostar does not carry the locals. Pax made a mistake when it asked DirecTV for local carriage.

[James_F]

It will be interesting to see how these "agreements" pan out if the merger is approved.

[Geronimo]

Good point. One point i would mention is that I am less sure than others that the services will be merged immediately or that programming from one will appear on the other right away.


It is my personal opinion that it will be like the Primestar DTV merger and that there will be a lengthy transition period.

[James_F]

And that is why I seen no benefit to the merger. Its going to take time to sort all this out. Time Echostar doesn't have.

[Geronimo]

I will bite James. Why doesn't Echostar have that time? That's not a challenge. i a m curious about how yous ee things.

[James_F]

OK, here is how I see it...

Debt, the company must show increased earnings to pay down billions of $ of debt. To do this they will have to reduce promotions (unlikely) or raise rates (likely). If the kill promotions, people won't leave cable to come to DBS, if they don't raise rates, then how do the justify eliminating competition. I'm not talking raising them much. Couple of dollars, leaving the lower packages untouched.

OK, so they raise rates or cut promotions (either one will happen) to increase revenue, which makes the investors happy, how do they keep the growth that the currently have? Churn will go up and people will move back and forth between cable and DBS. That isn't good for Echostar since they have to use promotions to lure people back, reducing their earnings. Or they cut their rates and reducing earnings. Either way investors will want to see a return on investment since they loaned billions of dollars to the company. How does Echostar "pay back" the investors? Increase their stock price. How do they increase their stock price? Increased revenue or profit. The only way to leverage their monopolistic power over DBS is to increase rates. That would validate investing in DBS since they will still be cheaper than cable in most cases, keeping subs and attracting new ones, but still having increased revenue. Promotions, while they might get less prevalent, will still be needed to encourage subs to invest in PVRs and HDTV which in turn would keep them from leaving since they have invested hundreds of dollars in equipment. If subs don't leave, then the increased revenue would help the bottom line, increasing the stock price and making the investors happy.

It wouldn't take a huge increase since there would be what, 20 million dbs subscribers? So a $3 increase to 75% of the highest paying subs would be $45 million. Not a bad way to increase revenue.

Now look, I'm just looking at this from an economics standpoint. I don't know enough about what Echostar's plans are, so I could be talking out of my a**. The point is that its not about Charlie anymore, its about the investors who aren't going to wait 3-4 years to see a ROI (return on investment). The market is down and investors patience is poor. All they want to see is a good ROI, not that there were 5 million new subs this year. Unless those 5 million subs increase revenue this year (which is unlikely since they were lured with promotions), most investors would look down on that. What they want to see is the combined company having increased revenue without increased expenses. If Echostar can do that, they have nothing to worry about.

[BrettR]

On my bill this month, I got a notice, its official. Anyone know what DirecTV will replace PAX with? DirecTV increased package rate from $21.99 to $24.99 then removes a channel from their basic package. I know DirecTV is trying to kill the Select Choice package. Anyone know when they'll upgrade these customers? The last channel added into Total Choice was CNBC World which was added after CNNSI was terminated.

[PeterB]

My words to Pax, dont let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. You make a deal to get your national feed carried, go against that very deal, and end up cutting your distribution on DTV down to about an eighth of what it was.

Ha.

[BrettR]

I dont see PAX being the loser in this at all. It looks to me, DirecTV got the raw deal having to carry all the PAX stations. DirecTV's attempt to pull the national feed to decrease PAX's exposure (which would especially affect markets without full power stations carrying PAX) isnt effective if PAX still has national distribution on many cable systems and Dish.

PAX is adding new shows this season. DirecTV subscribers will not be receiving them in many markets like Baltimore and Harrisburg. But as DirecTV says, programming is subject to change. DirecTV has pulled programming off their channel lineups before.

[James_F]

PAX wanted to be must carry. Well now they are. They knew what they were doing when they asked DirecTV for must carry. Hell you guys can have my PAX station, its a waste of bandwith IMHO.

[Karl Foster]

My Pax station doesn't even show up in my guide (I deleted it). 16 hours a day of paid programming does not a station make :)

[catman]

on PAX I watched " doc " . Billy Ray Cyrus was a doctor that you go to . NOT a HMO . I bet that is why tooo . also that PAX did not want everyone to see the show .

[bryan27]

Did it occur to anyone that PAX might now be considered a "National Network" and since D* is carrying PAX locals that offering a national PAX feed would now be illegal in the eyes of SHVIA? Perhaps there will be a "waiver program" for PAX whereas E* may have a "blanket waiver". The PAX plan has been to be a national broadcast network since day 1.

Here are the 15 hours of programming that counts toward PAX as being considered as "National Network".

Young Blades (60min)
Body & Soul (60min)
Just Cause (60min/twice per week)
Candid Camera (60min/twice per week)
It's A Miracle (60min)
Friday Family Flix (120min)
Saturday Mystery Movie (120min)
The Weakest Link (60min)
Lip Service (60min/twice per week)
Doc (60min)

[Geronimo]

If that is true Bryan why are they on DISH? I don't know why they aren't but they must not be.