DirecTV CEO: "Never Say Never" To A Merger Deal With Dish Network
This was a lousy day for DirecTV after it reported lower-than-expected earnings, with especially weak results in Latin America. But CEO Michael White gave investors at least one reason to stick with the company: He signaled in a call with analysts that he'd be receptive to the idea of a merger with Dish Network. "I don't think it's productive for me to speculate what regulators may or may not do, but the competitive landscape is very different than it was 10 years ago" when the FCC rejected a Dish-DirecTV merger plan, he said.
For one thing, "the balance [of power] between content distributors and providers is out of whack." He has long charged that programmers are demanding dangerously high new fees for their content -a position he reiterated today. "I've seen more customer complaints about the price increases," he says. "My own view is that it's not going to change in the short term. But it's clear that this isn't sustainable beyond the next couple of years. Something is going to have to give."
And the market is staying away in droves. It it wasn't for all the Sirius radios that are pre-installed in vehicles, satellite radio would be dead. Both of our cars (a Ford and a VW) have Sirius radios, but both also have iPod jacks. Guess which one is used more often?
Stuart got right to the point. Wall Street has the future outlook of a fly. While a DirecTV/Dish merger would be great for the investment bankers and some investors, it would leave a company that is best characterized as a "dead man walking." The time and money a merger would consume would prevent the company from taking the steps it needs to take to survive in the long term.
The most attractive part of merger is that it would give the current owners of the two companies a very profitable exit strategy.
SiriusXM has 25 million subscribers. If that is "staying away in droves" I hope people stay away from DISH and DirecTV in droves.
BTW: I bought a car with a broken built in radio ... and ended up replacing it with a modern Sirius radio with the ability to do a la carte. I probably should have just followed the cancel every six months for a discount plan but I decided to pick my favorite 50 channels and pay a fixed fee instead of playing games. I am one of the 25 million subscribers.
So where is NASCAR on those services (or Stern or Oprah or whatever else one wants to listen to)? SiriusXM is more than "Musak" - and it works without burning up my data plan and in areas with limited cell phone coverage. You're only lying to yourself if you think their 25 million subscribers come from new car sales. Most of their customers are retained customers.
So where is NASCAR on those services (or Stern or Oprah or whatever else one wants to listen to)? SiriusXM is more than "Musak" - and it works without burning up my data plan and in areas with limited cell phone coverage. You're only lying to yourself if you think their 25 million subscribers come from new car sales. Most of their customers are retained customers.
It isn't a personal subscription. Trying to minimize the reach of SiriusXM by using the wrong index (population of the US) is like saying DirecTV sucks because they only have 20 million subscribers out of 300 million people in the US. (Or worse yet, further padding the number of DirecTV subscribers to create a fictitious number of estimated "people".)
For example, in SEC documents DirecTV reports 20.021 million US subscribers - on their US website DirecTV reports 30 million customers strong (including Latin American customers). And then there are the "commercial equivalent viewing units" that make up an unreported portion of the subscriber count. 20 million looks good against 100 million US TV households but that number is NOT US households - and it is not even a count of accounts. It is a calculation. 30 million looks even better against 100 million US TV households ... but again it is a bad number. If one uses the 30 million number one must compare it against the greater number of TV households in ALL of the areas served.
Find a basis and stick with the same basis. Don't compare subscriptions which can be multiple device/multiple radio with a total population count that includes infants and children. It just makes you look bad.
BTW: Yes, NASCAR. Don't insult other people's listening/viewing choices unless you are willing to have your own choices ridiculed.
It isn't a personal subscription. Trying to minimize the reach of SiriusXM by using the wrong index (population of the US) is like saying DirecTV sucks because they only have 20 million subscribers out of 300 million people in the US. (Or worse yet, further padding the number of DirecTV subscribers to create a fictitious number of estimated "people".)
For example, in SEC documents DirecTV reports 20.021 million US subscribers - on their US website DirecTV reports 30 million customers strong (including Latin American customers). And then there are the "commercial equivalent viewing units" that make up an unreported portion of the subscriber count. 20 million looks good against 100 million US TV households but that number is NOT US households - and it is not even a count of accounts. It is a calculation. 30 million looks even better against 100 million US TV households ... but again it is a bad number. If one uses the 30 million number one must compare it against the greater number of TV households in ALL of the areas served.
Find a basis and stick with the same basis. Don't compare subscriptions which can be multiple device/multiple radio with a total population count that includes infants and children. It just makes you look bad.
BTW: Yes, NASCAR. Don't insult other people's listening/viewing choices unless you are willing to have your own choices ridiculed.
I didn't say they sucked because they have only 25 million customers , they suck cause all you need is 4 hours and you just heard then entire library.
Nascar on radio is bad. Its auto racing its meant to be watched.
You can claim what you want , but for the fact there is only one source for satellite radio, 25 million is weak for a service that's available everywhere.
Directv is not available everywhere. Many factors effect Directv service.
Also Sirius XM require separate subscriptions per device. So how strong are you going to standby that 25 million
Our Grand Garavan and Charger are in my name, Our Ram Truck and Darango are in my wifes name , all have Sirius, That count as one?
That is your personal preference. I'm sure that many of the 313 million other people in the US disagree with you.
There is more to NASCAR than the weekend races. Just like people come to this site to discuss television, NASCAR radio provides a place where people can listen to the latest news and commentary on the sport. They can hear interviews with the drivers, crew chiefs, owners and others in the NASCAR community that simply are not available on TV. And like other talk radio, they can call in and join the conversation (or tweet, email, Facebook, etc.) When race time comes, they can listen to coverage from MRN or PRN (depending on track) and hear every race. There are even people who PREFER the MRN and PRN announcers describing the action (some of the voices one will even hear on TV in their reviews of the races). People who prefer radio coverage to the point where they turn down the sound on their TV and listen to SiriusXM while they watch.
And that is just NASCAR. There are other sports channels and non-sports channels on SiriusXM that people can choose. Content that one CANNOT get on Pandora or other music services.
I'll let you know when my 2 free accounts are up on my Durango and Charger. As of now my wife and I each have an account for the Grand Caravan, and the Ram Truck. But more then likely won't renew since the new cars can use smartphone apps.
I'll let you know when my 2 free accounts are up on my Durango and Charger. As of now my wife and I each have an account for the Grand Caravan, and the Ram Truck. But more then likely won't renew since the new cars can use smartphone apps.
So you'll be down to two paid accounts ... not bad for someone who hates the service. :sure:
(See above for negative comments about SiriusXM including "all you need is 4 hours and you just heard then entire library".)
There are individuals with more than one DirecTV account. I suppose we should divide their subscriber count in half to account for the few that have more than one account. NONE of the accounting is 100% accurate when one does not have a base for the figures.
So you'll be down to two paid accounts ... not bad for someone who hates the service. :sure:
There are individuals with more than one DirecTV account. I suppose we should divide their subscriber count in half to account for the few that have more than one account. NONE of the accounting is 100% accurate when one does not have a base for the figures.
It is a natural part of the discussion when one is talking about merging the two primary satellite television providers. The SiriusXM merger was allowed and it created a sole satellite radio provider. It was a case of taking two struggling companies and combining them so as one they could survive. I don't believe either DirecTV or DISH need to merge with each other to survive ... and I wish they would stop entertaining the idea.
It used to be we could dismiss the annual merger rumors that have come every year since 2002. But when CEOs are saying "never say never" it deserves some discussion.
It was a case of taking two struggling companies and combining them so as one they could survive. I don't believe either DirecTV or DISH need to merge with each other to survive ... and I wish they would stop entertaining the idea.
It used to be we could dismiss the annual merger rumors that have come every year since 2002. But when CEOs are saying "never say never" it deserves some discussion.
There are at least 50 million vehicles on the road with Sirius or XM radios builtin (according to the Sirius XM annual report and 10k). Add in another 20 million or so stand alone radios sold over the last decade and there are 70 million radios but only 20 million active subscriptions. If you've ever tried to cancel a subscription with Sirius/XM you'll wonder how many of those 20 million are even being used. (Sirius/XM customer service is among the worst I have ever dealt with).
In any event, what I actually was referring to with the "staying away in droves" comment was the dual service radios. Other than the MLB play by play coverage, I'm not sure what you can get on a XM radio that you can't get on a Sirius radio and since the majority of subscriptions are for vehicles with Sirius only radios, the uptake on the hybrid radios is quite small.
And if you want to compare companies, look at market capitalization. Sirius/XM has a market cap of $24B as of Friday...DirecTV's market cap is $34B and Dish Network's is $20B. This is what the market says each company is worth.
And for a preview of what a Dish/DirecTV merger would mean for subscribers, an annual SiriusXM subscription today costs between $150 and $200 (list price) which is between 50 and 100 percent more than the pre-merger cost (depending on the pre-merger service and package being compared).
Diana C, you bring up an important difference between the Sirius/XM merger and a hypothetical Dish/Directv merger. All those vehicles that have XM only or Sirius only receivers built in. Sirius/XM didn't have any real choice but to leave both systems in both, because there isn't any practical way to convert XM only vehicles to Sirius or vice versa. Given the average life of a vehicle, there will be many pre-merger cars on the roads for years to come, so if they switched off one of the two systems they'd lose many current customers, and far far more potential customers.
The concerns for a Directv/Dish merger are somewhat different. There is no "potential customer" base with built-ins to be concerned about, since the only built-in some new customers have is an existing dish. Most of the acquisition cost for new customers is not the dish and its installation, but the free receivers and free/discounted programming. If a merged company decided to use Directv technology going forward, a new customer with an old Dish Network dish would still get a Directv install, whereas a new Sirius XM customer with a Sirius radio pre-installed must get Sirius service. There's no way they could eat the hundreds of dollars to retrofit it unless they could sign the customer up to a very lengthy contract to make it worth it.
The existing Dish Network customer base would still be a big concern, and very expensive to migrate. However, I believe those using the "new customer acquisition cost" as the figure to convert them are on the wrong track. Certainly they get a new dish and new receivers, and that costs a lot of money, but unless they're going to be given all the discounts, free NFLST and so on that new customers get (which would piss off pre-merger Directv customers) it might only cost half the figure being thrown around. That still adds up a few billion dollars, so it would just be a matter of whether the savings in doing so (selling off or re-purposing the Dish Network satellites/bands) allows them to come out ahead.
In any event, what I actually was referring to with the "staying away in droves" comment was the dual service radios. Other than the MLB play by play coverage, I'm not sure what you can get on a XM radio that you can't get on a Sirius radio and since the majority of subscriptions are for vehicles with Sirius only radios, the uptake on the hybrid radios is quite small.
SiriusXM probably should have done more to split the services and not duplicate so much on XM. This many years after the merger why are they selling anything other than dual service radios? They should have stopped selling single service radios as soon as they could after the merger ... then they could use one service's bandwidth to compliment the other. Every new Sirius only or XM only radio they sell is just another roadblock to a combined service.
Hopefully DISH and DirecTV would not make that mistake. There would be years that they would need to continue to support DBS and DSS transmissions but hopefully a combined company would cut the cord on any equipment that was not MPEG4 compatible. It is something both companies need to do even if they don't merge: stop placing obsolete equipment!
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