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Pay TV is changing rapidly

9K views 177 replies 24 participants last post by  slice1900 
#1 ·
It's important to pay attention to the innovative leaders in every industry -- the companies with new ideas that are transforming old technologies. It's not so long ago that Blockbuster was the leader in the video rental space. Not that much time has passed since Kodak was the leader in the camera space. Many of us have experienced the shift in music listening media from vinyl records to cassette tapes, CDs, and then downloadable digital files. Things often change very quickly. Pay TV is changing rapidly as well.
They talked about creating three bundles of services using DirecTV -- for low, medium and heavy users.
Three bundles? What/How would this work?

http://www.technewsworld.com/story/84104.html?google_editors_picks=true
 
#2 ·
Bedford11 said:
First Bundle: Would Include ONLY the Regular Channels.
"Three Packages", Basic, (20 Channels) $ 20.00 - Medium, (50 Channels) $ 30.00 - Full, (ALL Regular Channels). $ 40.00
ALL Packages would Include the NETWORKS, and some additional Channels. - ALL in HD. - NO Extra Charge for HD
Second Bundle: Would be ONLY SPORTS Channels. These could be Added to any ONE of the First Bundle Packages.
Example: A Sports Fan could order "ONLY the BASIC Package" (20 Channels) $ 20.00 and then ADD Any or ALL Sports Channels.
Third Bundle: The MOVIE CHANNELS, Same rules as Sports. A First Bundle Package, then ONE or More Movie Packages.
To Subscribe to a Pay TV Service, you would need at Least the "BASIC" Package. $ 20.00
 
#3 ·
ragweed10 said:
First Bundle: Would Include ONLY the Regular Channels.
"Three Packages", Basic, (20 Channels) $ 20.00 - Medium, (50 Channels) $ 30.00 - Full, (ALL Regular Channels). $ 40.00
ALL Packages would Include the NETWORKS, and some additional Channels. - ALL in HD. - NO Extra Charge for HD
Second Bundle: Would be ONLY SPORTS Channels. These could be Added to any ONE of the First Bundle Packages.
Example: A Sports Fan could order "ONLY the BASIC Package" (20 Channels) $ 20.00 and then ADD Any or ALL Sports Channels.
Third Bundle: The MOVIE CHANNELS, Same rules as Sports. A First Bundle Package, then ONE or More Movie Packages.
To Subscribe to a Pay TV Service, you would need at Least the "BASIC" Package. $ 20.00
Why have a high base fee to add HBO when you can get HBO on it's own for about $15 /mo
 
#10 ·
Yeah, uh you might want to actually READ the details on that.

You're not getting actual channels for that $2.99 a month, you're just getting channels that already stream online for free like CBSSN, QVC and Bloomberg while channels like MSNBC, Animal Planet and Fox News Channel are not the live linear feed you get on cable and just clips curated from their player. The VOD is just links to those stations TV Everywhere players like FX Now and Watch Disney where you only get a limited selection without logging in with an actual provider like DirecTV, Dish or a cable provider.

The locals are from an antenna marketed as "HDTV" that they'll ship to you, even though there's no such thing as a "HDTV" antenna, when in reality it's one of those crappy vanity antennas that you need to be close to the towers to get reception and has very poor reception of the VHF band, and you can probably pick up more channels from a classic VHF/UHF loop from the dollar store in the same area, while most other areas more than 30 miles from the towers will need an actual VHF/UHF antenna in the attic or roof to get reliable reception where the signal doesn't breakup by someone walking in front of the antenna, turning on a vacumn or a gust of wind. They're kind of setting themselves up for trouble claiming 100+ channels OTA, that's usually limited to within major cities where in addition to the full powered networks and independents, there's a bunch of low power digitals with signals that don't make it outside of the city limits, the majority of which carry subchannels that are nothing but infomercials, shopping channels and multiple ethnic channels that only appeal to expats from those countries. In the suburbs of those same markets you'll be lucky to get more than 50, in areas where you just have the Big 6, PBS and possibly Ion, you'll be lucky to get more than 30 channels OTA, and in smaller markets where you just have the Big 4 and PBS, you'll be lucky to get more than 20.

The "Premium" stuff is things you can already get now without them or any other provider like CBS All Access, WWE Network, HBO Now, MLB.tv, Netflix, etc.

In reality you're just paying $2.99 to be lazy and have someone collect content on your behalf that you can already get now just by going to those station's websites and clicking on "Video" or downloading their apps.
 
#11 ·
In reality you're just paying $2.99 to be lazy and have someone collect content on your behalf that you can already get now just by going to those station's websites and clicking on "Video"
You are correct, only difference some are paying up to 150 dollars plus for the current/past subscription services that we currently subscirbe to. With the new services such as DirectTV Now , SelectTV and the myriad of others to come, Most if not all channels will be a la cart very soon. Pay TV is changing rapidly.
 
#12 ·
Bedford11 said:
You are correct, only difference some are paying up to 150 dollars plus for the current/past subscription services that we currently subscirbe to.
The difference is that $150 subscription is giving you a lot more things that bogus services like SelectTV and Rabbit TV won't get you. The only actual channels you're getting are stuff that already streams online for free like shopping channels, religious channels, government channels and stuff that tend to pay providers for their place on a lineup instead of providers paying for them (i.e. Newsmax). You're not going to get live streams of the most popular channels and next day episodes of most network and cable programming, that requires provider authentication, or for network programming a subscription to Hulu or CBS All Access. Even with Hulu, their next day episodes of Monday Night Raw, one of the highest rated shows on cable, is a 90 minute edit of a show that usually runs well over 2 hours when you take out commercials. While to protect their TV deals, WWE Network doesn't post full episodes of Raw, SmackDown and Main Event until a month after they air.

With the new services such as DirectTV Now , SelectTV and the myriad of others to come,

Most if not all channels will be a la cart very soon. Pay TV is changing rapidly.
Yeah...you keep believing that, I got a bridge to sell you. Actual legit OTT Services like Sling TV, DirecTV Now and PS Vue are NOT offering A La Cart services at all. (I already saw the details about DirecTV Now, and nearly every statement you made about the service in other threads is flat out wrong, for one thing only mobile phone streaming will be cap exempt on AT&T wireless for postpaid subscribers, it's not cap exempt from U-Verse internet or the future fixed wireless internet you keep on overhyping as something more than what it will actually be, and many articles took a statement about the starting price of their lowest tier and how many channels they'll offer overall to assume that you get that many channels at that price) They're just offering slightly cheaper versions of tiers you can get with regular providers, cheaper because they don't have to maintain a supply of settop boxes, an installer network or pay regulatory fees, and are missing a lot of content and come with a lot of restrictions on what you can watch and where. (i.e. certain channels are in home only, some content like NFL cannot be viewed on mobile phones, other channels have replacement programming because someone else has the streaming rights to 3rd party shows and movies that they or their parent company didn't produce, etc) PS Vue has a cloud DVR that only keeps content for 30 days, while DirecTV Now won't be offering any DVR features at all and instead will be relying on VOD and 72 hour rewind. Heck, with Sling TV you need to subscribe to both their Orange and Blue services if you want ESPN and FS1, and many popular channels aren't offered at all, even though their more niche sister channels are. The only reason why so many niche channels are less than 50 cents is because they are being subsidized by their more popular sister stations. As stand-alone, they won't keep that low price, the operation costs will just be spread out to all of them.

You want to know how "good" a-la-carte is going up in Canada? The moment they announced it every channel immediately filed to have their license modified to define them as general entertainment channels so they can survive, even with the protection that the CRTC has where certain stations must be carried by all providers, something channnels in the USA don't have. (So if what you like is a more niche channel, you might not have the option to subscribe to it at all, provided that the niche channel even keeps their programming format) Multiple niche channels either folded or drastically changed their formats to appeal to wider audiences, and no, the programming that was on those niche channels didn't get consolidated to their more popular sister stations, those programs are just not available at all anymore. (i.e. the food channel Gusto is using the license of what was MuchMoreMusic, the french language La Chaine Disney is using the license of the classic cartoon channel Teletoon Retro, and Cartoon Network took the license of the English Teletoon Retro, etc) Now they're just paying more for less content, and the majority who stuck with the tiers lost much of the content they used to enjoy because the networks now have to target the widest audience possible to keep their ad revenue. Some really niche channels took the step of intentionally limiting their distribution to the highest tiers so they can stay under the subscriber threshold and operate as a non-licensed exempt service, so if you still want to watch those channels, you need to switch to the highest tier possible, or switch to cable since some of them also removed themselves from satellite to stay under the threshold. Most people also found out the hard way that they won't be saving anything because most channels are about $5 each a la carte.

People who think a-la-carte would be good should take a lesson from the mess in Canada and pay attention to cable ratings, since that's what will survive and other channels will try to emulate to keep their ad revenue. It's the reality shows on TLC, Bravo and MTV, Walking Dead on AMC, Spongebob reruns on Nickelodeon, Big Bang Theory reruns on TBS, Snoop and Martha's Potluck on VH1, Lip-sync battle on Spike, Family Guy reruns on Adult Swim, Monday Night Raw on USA and sports like Monday Night Football on ESPN and NBA on TNT that regularly get the highest ratings on cable. Those popular shows are also what let the networks take a chance with more critically acclaimed and award nominated stuff on their more niche sister channels where ad revenue and ratings aren't everything. (It also lets them run stunts on them like the non-stop 90s videos on MTV Classic this weekend, or The Splat on TeenNick overnight)
 
#13 ·
Don't build that railroad!

FCC chairman Tom Wheeler, serving as a reminder that industry incumbents whose businesses were threatened would try hard to impede progress.
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/fcc-chairman-on-leadership-and-guarding-technologys-future/

The competition for cable-like online services is suddenly fierce. YouTube has been working for months on the paid live-TV streaming service, called Unplugged. Hulu LLC, which is co-owned by Fox, Disney, Comcast Corp. and Time Warner, will introduce its own service in the coming months, and Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc. have explored the idea.
the company may experiment with "a la carte" programming, giving customers choice on what channels they pay to watch.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-25/at-t-to-offer-online-tv-service-for-35-a-month-test-a-la-carte

That 100-plus channel selection won't have "the junk nobody wants" and will touch some of the "third rails" of pay TV, like a la carte pricing, AT&T Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said at a conference last month.
If they lose at this, they can only blame themselves," he said. "The market is still wide open. You have to get up in people's purchase considerations. You are selling a $20 service to people paying $80. If you lose, shame on you."
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20161112/business/161119797/
 
#14 ·
Again, I already know the details about DirecTV Now, and those details counterdict that entire out of context statement you just quoted. I don't know how to make this any clearer to you, DirecTV Now is NOT going to be a-la-carte... (Also a quote from a FCC Commissioner who will be out of a job less than 2 months from now is meaningless)

Bloomberg is also the same site who posted an article claiming DirecTV Now will replace the satellite service based on another out of context quote. Considering the two session limit and the lack of an actual DVR service, that couldn't be any further from the truth.

And as for not having the "junk nobody wants", here's the latest announcement of what will be part of DirecTV Now:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/byron-allens-entertainment-studios-networks-to-launch-on-new-streaming-service---directv-now-300367093.html
Entertainment Studios, Inc., (www.es.tv) is proud to announce that its cable television networks COMEDY.TV and JUSTICECENTRAL.TV will be available on the new streaming service, DIRECTV NOW, when it launches later this month.
You want to know what will not be part of DirecTV Now? The P/I channels. Like them or not, some of those P/I channels get more viewers than the two channels listed above combined. (Two channels that were only picked up by DirecTV as part of a lawsuit settlement brought by the station's owner) One person's "junk" is another person's treasure.

All that was is just things to hype up investors and the media to get free publicity, google "forward looking statements", and you should know how valid they actually are. I'll give you the most famous one that obviously hasn't come true and everyone knew it was bogus the moment it was said
http://advanced-television.com/2012/10/01/37560/

Philip J. Goswitz, DirecTV's SVP for space and communications, told delegates at the recent Euroconsult conference in Paris that DirecTV were "huge proponents of [U-HDTV)". He explained that DirecTV expected to convert its current standard-definition Ku-band signals to U-HDTV by 2016.

He added that by 2016 all of its standard-def transmissions would have converted to HDTV, and using its local-into-local Ka-Band capacity. He said with standard-definition broadcasting ceasing the broadcaster would have 1 gigahertz of freed-up satellite spectrum available for use by U-HDTV, to a potential 20 million homes.
Unless they plan to announce tommorow that every pre-HD receiver will be replaced by a HD model and every 18 inch, Phase II and Phase III dish will be replaced by a slimline within the next month, it's not happening in 2016.
 
#15 ·
Just a short time before ESPN goes a la carte, the a la carte is coming from the channels/networks themselves. When ESPN goes it will bring down the house.

http://www.thesimpledollar.com/a-la-carte-cable-is-here/

What people are failing to see/accept is the average viewer only watches 19 channels out of the 200 channel mega pack, we don't need the mega packages

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/2016/10/11/cutting-cord-200-channels-but-only-20-worth-watching/91132396/

http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/news/2016/choice-cuts-consumers-have-nearly-unlimited-content-options-but-how-many-do-they-use.html

http://www.streamingobserver.com/least-popular-cable-channels-even-less-popular-think/
 
#16 ·
Do you read ANYTHING you quote? That's not going to be a full blown ESPN over the top. It's just going to be ESPN3 content, the stuff they don't want to even air on ESPN8 "The Ocho".

It's not anything new either, since 2004 that content has been available on the ISP level as ESPN 360 which became ESPN3 and on the mobile TV level as the now defunct ESPN Mobile TV. Outside of some stubborn ISPs like Optimum, you can still get that now without a cable subscription.


And again, you say that as if those 19 channels will still be the same price in the a-la-carte world. Or that everyone watches the same 19 channels. Give them all the gritty details instead of linking them to current pricing and saying "hey do you want to only pay for the channels you watch" the survey would have very different results. Those channels are only that cheap because the operation costs like paying the people who work at the master control and the offices are mainly with their most popular channels. No longer make the most popular channels a requirement, those operation costs get spread out amongst all the networks, and those niche sister channels are no longer less than 50 cents, change their format or fold. Unless your favorite programming is among the list of highly rated programming and channels, you'll be in for a huge disappointment. Oh you want to escape sports? But guess what, if ESPN, FS1 and NBCSN dip below a certain threshold, the leagues get to shop their games to other channels that still have more subscribers and then you'll have NFL on USA, NCAA on TBS, NASCAR on Spike, and NHL on Discovery. (i.e. Fox was planning to give providers like DirecTV, Dish, Time Warner Cable and a few others a barebones version of Speed if they didn't sign a new deal for FS1 until the last minute where they had to cave in because they would have lost the NASCAR rights without their subscribers on board)

Just look north and see how well that's going. Channels that were only 10 cents for providers are now $5 each if you want them outside of a tier. Multiple niche channels like MuchMoreMusic, GolTV Canada, Teletoon Retro, BPMTV, Pet Network, ichannel, Bite, Argent, Bold and Musiqueplus either folded or drastically changed their format, while the bulk of the others like Family, VRAK, E!, Bravo, Much, Comedy, Slice, W, Showcase, Space and Comedy Gold adopted more general programming. And that's with the protection the CRTC gave them that guarantees all providers have to offer them, something US networks don't have.
 
#17 ·
Remember the crash of the music industry? Industry guys kept saying everyone wants to buy the full album, look what you have now, Single songs purchased at .99 cents over the internet. It's swim or drown time for industry players, keep watching and you will see how this plays out. Out of all the players jumping on the online TV market, some of them will put together just the right channels to suit a majority of the pay TV customers, AT&T's DirectTV Now packages are just the beginning, stay tuned, more to come.

Among all major business models, the cable conglomerate is the only one that dictates what a customer must accept if they want to complete a transaction. The entire practice is madness.
Oh, You're Getting Fries with That. And an Apple Pie, too.
http://www.streamingobserver.com/least-popular-cable-channels-even-less-popular-think/

Perhaps the best part of SelectTV comes down to ease of use. Thanks to the organization offered by SelectTV, content is easy to find. Content filters include genre, rating, year, network, recently added, and popularity. You can also choose between finding only free movies and shows or adding in premium services like Hulu, Sling TV, and Netflix.

Basically you're getting convenience from SelectTV. Rather than having to hunt down everything you can want to watch, it's placed in a guide for you to find and watch in one place. SelectTV boasts that they offer over 300,000 TV shows, 200,000 movies, and 5,000 live channels that offer sporting events and other television. This does not include viral videos, pay-per-view, games, and video-on-demand options, which are also available. Finally, they offer more than 50,000 radio stations, as well. All in one place. In a neat and tidy guide for your perusal.
This is one of ( if not THE key) the key features that will make or break the coming onslaught of Internet TV companies.

You can bet that AT&T's DirectTV Now and all the others will be heading in this direction.

They all want to be a portal such as Google, Yahoo, etc., the winners in this TV war will be just that.

http://www.streamingobserver.com/selecttv-review/
 
#18 ·
Now you're just comparing apples to oranges... Can you make any point without linking to an out of context article that has nothing to do with the topic?

I guess you want all the people behind the scenes to work for free, and networks to invest in new unproven shows out of the kindness of their heart and bump proven and high rated reruns off the schedule of the main channel so they can fail miserably in the ratings and ad sales, instead of safely scheduling them on a more niche sister channel that doesn't have the same threshold for success. (i.e. Doctor Who, while popular, doesn't get anywhere near the ratings to justify its placement on a mainstream channel outside of a season premiere mass simulcast to get more people to watch the regular channel, like the AMC simulcast was full of promos for other shows that air on BBC America) Google "pilot season". For every Mr. Robot there's 20 other shows that never made it past a pilot and shows that actually got some episodes produced and never made it to air. The cast and crew of those pilots still get paid for the time, and that gets paid by the network who commissioned the pilot, even if that network doesn't pick up the show, and that includes Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. (i.e. Unbreakable Kimmie Schmidt was originally prododuced as a mid-season replacement for NBC and in the early episodes it was full of cameos by WNBC reporters and other NBC actors since those episodes were produced before NBC passed on the show) There's a reason why Netflix just raised their prices even though their movie library is a fraction of what it was less than 5 years ago. Kevin Spacey doesn't work for free. I guess the guy in the master control should take a pay cut even though his job is the same if it's a flagship channel with 100 million subscribers or it's a niche sister digital tier only channel with only 40 million subscribers.

Do you think sequels/new seasons of Arrested Development, The Mindy Project, Degrassi, Twin Peaks, Girl Meets World, That's So Raven, Fuller House and Gilmore Girls would have happened if it wasn't for the continued popularity those shows found in reruns on cable channels? (Disney's throwback block got so popular, they moved it off the non ad supported Disney Channel to the ad supported Freeform so they can sell ads that target the 20-30 year olds who were watching it, and was one of the big reasons why they gave That's So Raven a sequel, Viacom did the same thing with The Splat and moved those 90s cartoons off of Nicktoons) Heck Doctor Who wouldn't have returned in 2005 if it wasn't for the huge cult following it got during the 90s and early 2000s with reruns on PBS, especially after the disaster that was the attempted revival in 1998.

Bedford11 said:
You can bet that AT&T's DirectTV Now and all the others will be heading in this direction.
Again, I already know the details of DirecTV Now, every article you quoted, especially the ones from Bloomberg, got it wrong, along with all the false conclusions you made about it when it comes to how it applies to AT&T's own internet services. All those "leaks" coming out in recent days like the 2 session limit were things I posted in other threads here about DirecTV Now over a month ago.
 
#19 ·
Don't mean to throw you for another loop, but if you look out 4,5 6 years from now.

ALL TV will be VOD, Channels will be obsolete for the most part.
A lot of the programming will come directly from producers, bypassing the middle man ( this is why the race is on for these guys to become the GO TO portal and cheap aggregator for entertainment)

I don't see satellite service as speedy enough to keep up. (although there may be room for a premium service from sats)

Google is about to release their new TV service (man, do they knowa thing or two about portals) this is only going to get more competitive and bring lower margins and lower cost TV to the masses.

I say, bring it on.

Tomorrows DirectTV Now release will bring more details hopefully.

"
The video entertainment marketplace is ripe for disruptive change that benefits consumers, not incumbent cable companies," wroteRobert Quinn, AT&T's policy chief, in a letter to the agency
.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-at-ts-directv-now-streaming-service-is-unveiled-watch-the-details-1480161603

The million dollar question
https://deadline.com/2016/11/att-directv-now-help-save-pay-tv-speed-fall-1201859215/
 
#20 ·
Bedford11 said:
Don't mean to throw you for another loop, but if you look out 4,5 6 years from now.

ALL TV will be VOD, Channels will be obsolete for the most part.
I would love to take you up on this...

I'm sure people will love the Super Bowl, March Madness, the New Years Eve countdown, things that have huge real time social media presences like awards shows and shows like Walking Dead as VOD so no one is watching at the same time... I'm sure people will love the latency on New Years Eve when they countdown to see the ball drop at midnight and it's already 12:02 because of the time it takes to encode and stream it online... I'm sure people will love getting spoiled by that last minute touchdown because by the end of the game their stream is now lagging 5 minutes behind the actual game.

A lot of the programming will come directly from producers, bypassing the middle man ( this is why the race is on for these guys to become the GO TO portal and cheap aggregator for entertainment)
The middle man (i.e. the network) is the one who pays for the freaking productions. There's a reason why Kickstarter changed their policy to allow forced refunds directly from your account if you do not deliver. Nothing is for free. That's where they may go to FIND new talent, but that's NOT where they go to produce the content. i.e. Fred was found on YouTube, but his Nickelodeon show and movies were not produced at his home for free, it was produced in a studio in California. Even services like Pluto TV with fake channels have to make deals with "middle men" like Shout Factory for the bulk of the content they carry.

I don't see satellite service as speedy enough to keep up. (although there may be room for a premium service from sats)
This line alone...

Satellite is the BEST way to reach to the masses. You get the same content in New York City as you do in Cheyenne Wyoming at the same time and at the same quality.
You're not out of reach of someone who lives in an area where the cable system hasn't upgraded their plant since the 90s, or a telco who refuses to invest in their copper network and offer anything beyond 3 Mbps, uses garbage bags for "repairs" and no plans to expand their fiber network. You're not affected by reduced bitrates because of slower connections speeds and congestion from others in your house being online at the same or affecting people trying to use more time sensitive things at the same time like gaming or video conferencing. (And no do NOT bring up the constant out of context quotes you post in the Fixed Wireless thread, that service is NOT going to be what you constantly claim it to be, actual official information about it flat out contradicts everything you have posted)

Google is about to release their new TV service (man, do they knowa thing or two about portals) this is only going to get more competitive and bring lower margins and lower cost TV to the masses.
Everything official that has come out about Google's potential TV Service says it's going to be another PS Vue, Sling, DirecTV Now or Hulu's upcoming service, it's not going to be some game changer that's going to offer a-la-carte.

I say, bring it on.
Yes, bring on a world where instead of all you can eat from one place, you now need to pay $15+ each for services like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, WWE Network, HBO Now, Crunchyroll, Seeso, Acorn and whatever else is next, and not even come close to the content you can get now since they can no longer rely on having other networks commission programs and have to cover the cost on their own and can no longer rely on back libraries of shows from other networks for the rest of their content. Instead of getting 200+ channels for $100, you now have to pay $10 each for 20 channels that were less than $1 when it was part of a tier, and all your favorite niche programming and channels are gone because it is no longer profitable to sell ads on anything but reality programming that airs on channels like TLC, MTV and Bravo and live sports.

Bedford11 said:
Tomorrows DirectTV Now release will bring more details hopefully.
Is this thing on? I already gave you details. It's not a-la-carte, and with a 2 session limit and no DVR it's not going to be a disrupter or replacement like Bloomberg's bogus articles claimed it to be. It's just going to be yet another alternative to PS Vue and Sling and something that might appeal to college dorm users who want something more than locals, a few cable channels and a bunch of instructional channels that most campus cable systems carry. Or someone renting a room as their first apartment with no say in the actual TV service they can get since the lease isn't in their name and are stuck with whatever the cable company has on clear QAM because the roomate doesn't want to pay for more than one box. It's just going to be a stepping stone to hopefully convince them to get a full blown DirecTV system for the full experience like the early information always said it would be.

I repeat it is NOT going to be a-la-carte, NO DVR, 2 session limit. It is NOT going to replace DirecTV or "cannibilize" their subscribers like several clueless articles claim. From the beginning they ALWAYS said it was going to be a stepping stone to convert people to actual DirecTV subscribers for a full experience. You can post as many rediculous out of context quotes from articles written by people who didn't see the details of the service you want, it's not going to change this... (They even updated the section where I got this information to reiterate this once those articles started coming out with incorrect assumptions and claims about the service)

Since I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall or a rss feed at this point I'm out. See you all tommorow when the details counterdict every single article linked here and confirm everything I've been saying for over a month now...
 
#21 ·
When Sling TV was first introduced, it was bare bones, then came the add ons, then multistream, all bets say a DVR or all VOD are coming,
Just look at the subscribers to their sat service has been in a steady down trend most quarters.

Watch DirectTV/AT&T go down this same road, industry has made it clear that sat subscribers have peaked, only downward from here.

In terms of pay-TV bundles, DirecTV Now might become the Toyota Camry of the industry - while the legacy satellite service looks more like a BMW.
Getting in front of cord-cutting: By using a big knife and fork to carve up pay TV, AT&T wants to make sure it's at the head of the table to nab consumers who want a better price/value equation - before its traditional video businesses start to contract. Yes, DirecTV Now will peel away higher-value satellite subscribers, but AT&T would rather cannibalize itself than let someone else do it.
The implications are huge for all players in the sector. That includes DirecTV and its parent company, AT&T, which will likely see their combined 25.3 million video subscriber base cannibalized to some extent by practically tempting its own subs to shift to the cheaper package. The strategy demonstrates that the telco is willing to suffer short-term pain to establish a pole position in the rapidly changing over-the-top marketplace.
https://variety.com/2016/tv/features/att-directv-now-pay-tv-1201918857/
 
#22 ·
Numbers don't lie, just look at the last quarters for Dish and you will see whats happening.

The advent of Internet streaming reduces the cost of entry for competition in pay-TV. As such, it's important for traditional companies such as DISH Network and Comcast to launch pre-emptive strikes with services such as Sling TV and Stream.
Overall, replacing a $100-per-month customer with a $20-per-month customer isn't as terrible as it looks. It's certainly better than completely losing subscribers to competition, whether that's an old cable company or a new tech start-up.
https://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Dish-Lost-Another-116000-TV-Subscribers-Last-Quarter-138294

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2016/02/29/sling-tv-is-cannibalizing-dish-network.aspx
 
#23 ·
Bedford11 said:
Copied from your link:
Dish also lost a net 20,000 satellite broadband subscribers during the third quarter, reducing the company's overall broadband subscriber base to approximately 593,000. That said, Dish still managed to see a profit of $307.4 million, up from $196.5 million one year ago. That's because most of its customers are paying more for TV than ever, the average Dish customer now paying $89.44 -- up from $86.33 the quarter before.

Losing customers and making 50% more And that is why they are leaving.
 
#24 ·
Your assumption is not necessarily correct. While the cost of sat/cable is a bit higher than many would like, the younger folks aren't sitting in front of the TV at home, instead choosing to watch on various devices if they watch at all. So even lower rates might not attract them to cable/sat.
 
#25 ·
Anyone who is asking for a la cart is asking to pay 120 a month for their 17 stations instead of 100 a month for 200.

The option for both will continue to be there for many years to come and data caps and other forces will never allow everyone to simply go streaming and Video On Demand.

And because of how it is today, all streaming is subsidized by linear cable and satellite. I think people don't get that when they think those methods of delivery are about to die.

It's not even remotely likely in the next decade. Heck Netflix is becoming more and more like
HBO. Not the other way around!

And anyone comparing what happened in the music industry to what is happening to tv is not paying any attention to what is actually happening or the market forces that are causing either to change or who owns and distributes the contents and how the industry is forming all this.

It's kind of like staring at a tree and thinking you are in a forest even though it's the only tree for 300 miles in any direction in the middle of a desert and it's only there because you just planted it there.
 
#26 ·
the current pay tv model will eventually die. How quick that happens nobody really knows

However, the content producers and distributors will make that lost money up somehow. My guess is the price of al la carte channels and streaming packages will start to go up significantly. Sites like netflix, amazon,hulu, etc will have be hit with increased rates by the content producers.

Netflix is already seeing the writing on the wall. that's why they are shrinking their library and instead producing their own shows. they are slowly becoming another HBO channel

We are living in the golden age of streaming right now. the current pay tv model is still profitable enough that they haven't fully targeted cord cutters yet. once they see that pay tv model is no longer profitable, they will start targeting the streamers with increased prices for internet and punitive data caps.

before you know it we will all be complaining about how we pay too much for tv again
 
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