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DirecTV CEO: “Never Say Never” To A Merger Deal With Dish Network

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#1 ·
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."

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#127 ·
The last four or five cars I bought have come with Sirius. No mention of XM, no fliers received on that. So, one way to get everyone on one system is to promote, produce and install just one of the systems. From my tiny data point, that's what they are doing.
 
#131 ·
Diana C said:
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).).
I've never had a real issue with the gran I had it, though thud activation process was bizarre! had a three minute window to have the car on. But they certainly keep sending me offers to cone back.
 
#135 ·
Update: Dish-DirecTV Merger 'Makes A Lot Of Sense,' Says Ergen

DirecTV's CEO may believe regulators would never allow a merger of the two big American satellite TV companies, but Charlie Ergen's ardor for such a deal remains undimmed.

"There's obviously a business case that [consolidation] makes a lot of sense in the satellite industry," Ergen, the billionaire chairman and founder of Dish Network, said on the company's third-quarter earnings call. "Whether it ever comes to fruition is another story. But both Dish and DirecTV realize that it could make a lot of sense."

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#136 ·
A DirecTV/DISH merger has a lot more hurdles to overcome than satellite radio or US Airways and American Airlines.

USAir and AA had to give up significant slots at airports where they had 80% share (like DCA). That increases competition for those routes. There's no way to increase competition in the satellite industry, unless the FCC requires that they give up some of their licenses. Even then, that doesn't guarantee new competition because the barrier to entry is significant. To realistically ensure another party could enter the market would require that a combined DirecTV/DISH also give up physical assets at a reasonable cost, like hardware on orbit and ground stations. Even though USAir/AA will be the biggest carrier, they still have significant competition. In many areas of the country, Dish and DirecTV are the only two MVPDs available.

Sirius/XM also were in a situation where they have other competition. They have FM, AM, iPods, Spotify, Pandora, CDs, Music Choice/Sonic Tap/DMX all competing with them. Combining Sirius and XM did not meaningfully reduce the number of options available in the music market, even if you take out internet based solutions. There is not such a robust marketplace in the video market at this time, even if you consider Netflix and Hulu, since in most of the areas where DirecTV and Dish are the only options, internet access is likely insufficient for an IP-based over the top provider to be viable.
 
#138 ·
Athlon646464 said:
Update: Dish-DirecTV Merger 'Makes A Lot Of Sense,' Says Ergen

DirecTV's CEO may believe regulators would never allow a merger of the two big American satellite TV companies, but Charlie Ergen's ardor for such a deal remains undimmed.

"There's obviously a business case that [consolidation] makes a lot of sense in the satellite industry," Ergen, the billionaire chairman and founder of Dish Network, said on the company's third-quarter earnings call. "Whether it ever comes to fruition is another story. But both Dish and DirecTV realize that it could make a lot of sense."

Full Story Here

Of course the merger makes sense in Charlies eyes,
He's the one who desperately needs it.
 
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#139 ·
woj027 said:
After reading this whole thread (and the Sirius/XM subthread :sure: ) I was thinking when I was reading Stuarts Post What if the merger did happen, but the hardware changeover started with 4k distribution? Essentially DirecTV and Dish say we run parallel until everyone is switched over to 4k? Long term plan of 2020 conversion?
To make it work economically, they'd essentially have to pick one existing platform or the other and standardize on it. That's what SiriusXM is doing. While you can still buy Sirius radios, over the next year everything will be on the "XM 2.0" platform which is essentially standardizing on the XM platform and then letting Sirius shut down through attrition.

For it to be economical on a DirecTV/Dish system, it would need to work on one of the two systems now. They don't have the capacity to broadcast in triplicate. Given that DirecTV has significantly more subscribers, it would make sense that they'd standardize there. That means every DISH customer would need to have every box and dish swapped out.

However, a complication comes into play that makes it not so simple: What would they do with all of the orbital slots they have? Would they continue the WA/EA paradigm that they have now? With their combined licenses at 99/101/103/110/119, they could standardize on that arc of satellites but doing that would essentially waste 129, 61.5, 72, and 77 (though, I suppose 129 is close enough maybe they could squeeze that into a 99-thru-129 dish?) If they went with a nationwide 99-119 or 99-129 arc, they could just swap out all DISH customers for DirecTV equipment, giving them the latest and greatest hardware and dish, and then pick off DirecTV customers with the new "bigger" dish much more slowly.
 
#140 ·
I said it once and I'll say it again.

Dish will be gone if a merger happens.
Charlie will get a Big check, Directv will gain 13 million customers.

Just the same as PrimeStar take over.
 
#141 ·
When I go on vacations,usually in the mountains, Dish is there, not Directv....I personally do not like the remote controls nor how their stations are set up with the Dish network...if goes together, lets hope and pray it goes the way of Directv!!! I hate Dish remotes and their programming!!
 
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#142 ·
damondlt said:
I said it once and I'll say it again.

Dish will be gone if a merger happens.
Charlie will get a Big check, Directv will gain 13 million customers.

Just the same as PrimeStar take over.
DirecTV will also get a ton of spectrum and hardware. I have to think Charlie would have something else up his sleeve, though, because if it were basically a DirecTV takeover and replacement of Dish with DirecTV (which is the way I would see it happening), Echostar would be almost worthless
 
#143 ·
JosephB said:
To make it work economically, they'd essentially have to pick one existing platform or the other and standardize on it. That's what SiriusXM is doing. While you can still buy Sirius radios, over the next year everything will be on the "XM 2.0" platform which is essentially standardizing on the XM platform and then letting Sirius shut down through attrition.

For it to be economical on a DirecTV/Dish system, it would need to work on one of the two systems now. They don't have the capacity to broadcast in triplicate. Given that DirecTV has significantly more subscribers, it would make sense that they'd standardize there. That means every DISH customer would need to have every box and dish swapped out.

However, a complication comes into play that makes it not so simple: What would they do with all of the orbital slots they have? Would they continue the WA/EA paradigm that they have now? With their combined licenses at 99/101/103/110/119, they could standardize on that arc of satellites but doing that would essentially waste 129, 61.5, 72, and 77 (though, I suppose 129 is close enough maybe they could squeeze that into a 99-thru-129 dish?) If they went with a nationwide 99-119 or 99-129 arc, they could just swap out all DISH customers for DirecTV equipment, giving them the latest and greatest hardware and dish, and then pick off DirecTV customers with the new "bigger" dish much more slowly.
If I had to guess they'd centralize on the 99/101/103 and maybe include 110/119. So they'd have to give up the other slots but it costs a log of bucks to put satellites up there.
 
#144 ·
RAD said:
If I had to guess they'd centralize on the 99/101/103 and maybe include 110/119. So they'd have to give up the other slots but it costs a log of bucks to put satellites up there.
99-119 makes the most sense, especially considering that dishes and LNBs already exist to handle that.

I wonder how feasible a 61.5-101 dish would be as well as a 101-129 dish. They could put all the core programming at 99/101/103 and use birds east and west of those for locals and other data services. With that much bandwidth they could put up every local channel + subchannel + low power + localized weather/cable news channels. Especially if they used the event of swapping everyone out as an opportunity to get all HD capable equipment out there and killed SD.
 
#145 ·
Considering what happened with American Airlines and US Airways; it is quite possible that a DirecTV/DISH merger would be approved. Despite screams from rural interests. For a while, though, there will be two distinct systems, but it would eb less expensive to merge DISH subscribers into DirecTV, then vice versa. If it is possible to use the combined fleets of DirecTV and DISH satellites, this would provide a great deal of capqcity. If the FCC alos it, even oribital slots could be slightly changed so the most LNBs anyone needs would be three or four. Though, I do remember reading, in these forums, that DirectTV and DISH use different technology to beam satellite signals to receivers. Hopefully, newer receivers could be manufactured which receive both technologies, thus rediucing a satellite fleet to space junk.
 
#146 ·
JosephB said:
99-119 makes the most sense, especially considering that dishes and LNBs already exist to handle that.

I wonder how feasible a 61.5-101 dish would be as well as a 101-129 dish. They could put all the core programming at 99/101/103 and use birds east and west of those for locals and other data services. With that much bandwidth they could put up every local channel + subchannel + low power + localized weather/cable news channels. Especially if they used the event of swapping everyone out as an opportunity to get all HD capable equipment out there and killed SD.
LIL must be received with one dish, according to the FCC
 
#147 ·
peds48 said:
LIL must be received with one dish, according to the FCC
Right. That's why I was wondering about the feasibility of a dish that could get 61.5 all the way to 101 (or 103), and then a dish that could get from 99 or 101 all the way to 129.

Then you could still have eastern and western arcs and continue to use the bulk of the licenses that both providers have while minimizing duplication.
 
#148 ·
JosephB said:
Right. That's why I was wondering about the feasibility of a dish that could get 61.5 all the way to 101 (or 103), and then a dish that could get from 99 or 101 all the way to 129.

Then you could still have eastern and western arcs and continue to use the bulk of the licenses that both providers have while minimizing duplication.
Directv is already licensed for enough capacity to double their current bandwidth, and that's before licenses they could potentially try to obtain like Ku from 99 & 103 (if/when the FCC approves 2* spacing for Ku) and RDBS from 101 (if they ask the FCC for a waiver for the 4* spacing requirement, since they already hold RDBS licenses for 99 & 103 and would only interfere with themselves) Those would add another 30% on top of the doubling if they obtained them, and everything they have could be served from 99/101/103 alone. The 61.5 and 129 sats are really only useful for part of the country, so using them for anything other than spotbeams is a waste of resources/money. If Directv owned them they'd never replace those, unless they could use them for PR and Latin America.

Basically, Directv doesn't need Dish for capacity, they already have more than enough. Yeah, "it would be nice" if they offered every local, but where's the market for that? How many people really care if they get every subchannel from their local market? Not enough to make it worth acquiring Dish if that's what it took to provide it.

I also don't think a dish with a wider arc than the current 5LNB Slimline is likely to be too feasible, and even the possibility depends on some other factors. For instance, there is some technical reason I'm not too clear on why it wouldn't have been possible to add another LNB to receive the 95* on the Slimline, and that always required a separate dish.

No, the only reason Directv would want to buy Dish would be to get a better bargaining position with providers, and to eliminate their biggest competition. That's not good for consumers. Even those for those who wish they could get all their subchannels. That's easy enough to fix, change the software so the receiver can scan for channels like every other ATSC receiver out there. That's much cheaper to fix than buying Dish!
 
#149 ·
slice1900 said:
Directv is already licensed for enough capacity to double their current bandwidth, and that's before licenses they could potentially try to obtain like Ku from 99 & 103 (if/when the FCC approves 2* spacing for Ku) and RDBS from 101 (if they ask the FCC for a waiver for the 4* spacing requirement, since they already hold RDBS licenses for 99 & 103 and would only interfere with themselves) Those would add another 30% on top of the doubling if they obtained them, and everything they have could be served from 99/101/103 alone. The 61.5 and 129 sats are really only useful for part of the country, so using them for anything other than spotbeams is a waste of resources/money. If Directv owned them they'd never replace those, unless they could use them for PR and Latin America.

Basically, Directv doesn't need Dish for capacity, they already have more than enough. Yeah, "it would be nice" if they offered every local, but where's the market for that? How many people really care if they get every subchannel from their local market? Not enough to make it worth acquiring Dish if that's what it took to provide it.

I also don't think a dish with a wider arc than the current 5LNB Slimline is likely to be too feasible, and even the possibility depends on some other factors. For instance, there is some technical reason I'm not too clear on why it wouldn't have been possible to add another LNB to receive the 95* on the Slimline, and that always required a separate dish.

No, the only reason Directv would want to buy Dish would be to get a better bargaining position with providers, and to eliminate their biggest competition. That's not good for consumers. Even those for those who wish they could get all their subchannels. That's easy enough to fix, change the software so the receiver can scan for channels like every other ATSC receiver out there. That's much cheaper to fix than buying Dish!
I don't think a purchase/merger of Dish would be based purely on bandwidth, or a desire to be able to offer subchannels or 100% local coverage. It's obvious that most of the benefits of the merger come from a larger customer base and eliminating duplicative backend services, install networks, etc.

However, those orbital slots are very valuable as are the satellites on orbit. If they could do it with minimal cost, it would close some of the gap between satellite and cable. Honestly I'm just curious at a technical level if you could have a dish spaced out that far and make it work. I thought 95 wasn't on the Slimline dishes because it's FSS or whatever the lower power Ku services are and requires a bigger dish. All of the core licenses and satellites at 61.5 through 129 (except for 95 of course) are high power DBS.

A merged DirecTV/Dish would have an insane amount of spectrum, both land based (the LTE network Dish wants to build) along with space spectrum. They could absolutely kill any and all terrestrial services with the number of channels they'd have the capacity for.
 
#150 ·
What is the "gap" between satellite and cable you're talking about? They are two different technologies, each with their own limitations, and more capacity won't eliminate limitations like rain fade or allow them to offer internet comparable to cable or DSL.
 
#151 ·
slice1900 said:
What is the "gap" between satellite and cable you're talking about? They are two different technologies, each with their own limitations, and more capacity won't eliminate limitations like rain fade or allow them to offer internet comparable to cable or DSL.
The gap in local channel capacity. Many cable systems carry every local subchannel, and of course have a localized version of The Weather Channel.

I'm not talking about non-video services, so internet etc is not part of the discussion. And, I am fully aware that rain fade isn't something that can be fixed by more capacity.
 
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