AT&T Again Exploring a Deal For DirecTV—Update

Not an industry, but certainly a segment of the MVPD marketplace.

DIRECTV drew their quarterly average significantly below 1 million lost with today's announcement of only 590,000 lost in Q3.

The actual revenue is around $37.5 billion. While DISH's DBS ARPU is over $100, DIRECTV's ARPU is considerably higher.

While Q3 is usually one of the better quarters, DIRECTV has decidedly decreased their net subscriber losses and I expect that DISH's DBS losses will also diminish (they may even post a gain). While DIRECTV is sloughing off customers at around 17-20% rate per year, DISH DBS is evaporating in the mid single digits annually.

 

What is Directv going to be able to add to ancient H2x receivers that they haven't already? They are barely updating them anymore, just very minor tweaks at this point. These are also 'antique receivers' and Directv will more than likely have customers using them until the day they shut down.

 

That's not how it works. You get a big surge of people leaving, then the numbers start to fall off - you might get the same losses over time in percentage terms, but when half the subscribers have left that x% loss is only half the customers.

Don't forget Directv has a near monopoly on commercial service for public viewing accounts, and streaming live sports to dozens of TVs isn't going to be a more attractive proposition for such a business than putting a satellite dish on the roof for years to come. There's enough revenue there to keep Directv around even if every residential customer left.

 

What is there to worry about folks???????

 

also NFL ticket is unlikely to go streaming only for commercial service

 

The subscriber losses of around 600K was net of ATT TV signups and D* losses. I am sure they will lose a big portion of the ATT TV subscribers when they receive their bills for year 2. Probably D* lost around 900K subscribers this quarter just like last quarter but was offset by 300K ATT TV signups.

 

H series receivers aren't the problem as I see it as they have access to most everything but 4K. The problem the D series receivers and older that are still seeing non-negligible use. While many here can't conceive of it, there are still a number of these devices out there that people are dutifully paying their $7 TV Fee for.

That said, if more customers were exposed to modern DVRs as a tecnology, many would likely catch the time-shifting bug. Of course the $20-something in monthly DVR, HD and Whole Home fees is a major sticking point for anyone who gives it a thought.

 

If DirecTv wanted to stop losing subscribers, quit charging them twice as much as the competition. The inflated 2nd year pricing is a big turn off, especially with all the competition.

 

They don’t charge twice as much as the competition. YTTV. Hulu live etc are not there competitors

 

Get real. It's well known that cable service providers and satellite service providers lure new customers with freebies and discounts the first year of their two year contract which increase to full price the 2nd year of their contract. When their two year commitment is over they have the choice of leaving DIRECTV, staying with DIRECTV and continuing with their package selection, changing their package selection to a lower tier, or begging DIRECTV for more discounts like a housewife on the TV show "Queen for a Day". As I have often said people "need" local channels, weather channels, news channels and government channels and they are very affordable. They "want" movie channels, entertainment channels and sports channels which are a "luxury" and luxury is always expensive.

 

Do you really believe that a majority of those fleeing DIRECTV (remember we're talking about over 4 million households per year if you subtract out the "new" customers) are going to DISH or conventional cable TV?

 

Is DIRECTV's offering 30% more more "luxurious"?

For some, luxury is not having to make choices (compromises) and DIRECTV DBS is probably doing as well as anyone there.

It is clearly much more expensive (though maybe a better cost/channel than AT&T TV).

 

As I have stated many times DIRECTV is a business. In business the name of the game is profits. If you have a problem with the way DIRECTV makes it's profits then take your business elsewhere. No one is forced into a commitment with DIRECTV.

 

I agree and, unfortunately for D, that is exactly what people are doing...

 

It doesn’t matter where they are going. Directv is not trying to compete with the streaming services

 

A better way to say it is they are trying to avoid competing with streaming services.

Given the recent losses reported for ATT TV Now, it appears they really aren’t competing with them!

 

What they're not trying to do is be price competitive.

DIRECTV is competing with every service (or combination of services) that has the potential to steal customers away.

 

Wrong

 

Then where are all those customers going? Just because you ignore or don't acknowledge the competition doesn't mean that they aren't stealing your lunch.

Cadillac is losing tons of customers to other automakers because they don't offer a pickup. They're competing with the other marques for customers even if they don't offer a pickup anymore.