[purtman]

This just moved on tvpredictions.com. Any thoughts?
http://www.tvpredictions.com/malonehd123006.htm

 

[HDTVsportsfan]

40 Channels by mid 2007 would abviously be awesome. Are there even 40 national HD channels out there.

To bad the article doesn't give anymore information about what type of relationship it would entail.
I wonder what "projects" means.

 

[JLucPicard]

The talk to this point has been that D* will have the capacity for 150 national HD channels. The general consensus from numerous posts on the subject is that there isn't even close to that many available at this point.

Could this mean that D* would lease space on their sats to E*? Totally don't know if they're even compatible so I don't know if that's even possible, but what was reported in that article seems so ambiguous I don't even know what they were getting at.

 

[HDTVsportsfan]

With all of the bandwidth issues D* has now you'd think they would keep as much as they could so they can act or re-act to content offerings.
However money is money.
If they can make a buck renting some transponders.....

 

[purtman]

Right now, D* has contracts to add Versus, National Geographic, and A&E (I believe). Also, the Food Network, HGTV, Starz, Cinemax, and a few others have HD programming. That would only put D* at roughly 15-20. Some other threads mention the HD channels which D* does not have. I'm sure others will start going HD next year.

 

[celticpride]

what they should do is trade ,directv could let dish use their new sats for HD and dish could replace the hr20s with their 622 HD receiver WIN ,WIN,WIN!!!

 

[harsh]

The talk to this point has been that D* will have the capacity for 150 national HD channels. The general consensus from numerous posts on the subject is that there isn't even close to that many available at this point.

There are already 40 HD nationals available (if you count the movie channels). Whether or not the "new" DirecTV can negotiate successfully to carry them is another issue that has nothing to do with 150 channels of bandwidth.

Could this mean that D* would lease space on their sats to E*?

The Ka band stuff is useless on the E* side.

I suspect that the joint venturing would involve coming up with new content.

I want to point out again that Mr. Hill is on dope (and shame on Mr. Swann for perpetuating the myth). There is a negligible chance of having enough bandwidth by "mid 2007" if everything goes perfectly. I'm betting that this is a re-quote of the seemingly impossible statement regarding more than 40 total HD nationals made a month ago.

 

[Greg Bimson]

And let's not forget the 20 or so HD regional sports networks. If those can be added nationwide, DirecTV will most likely have all of the sports packages in HD. Talk about a cable killer. Only if it isn't HD-lite.

 

[lwilli201]

A merger would make good buisness sense. Cable companies have an advantage in that they have exclusive areas and no compitition. Are there any areas where two cable companies that have strung cable on the same poles so each house would have a choice of providers? Cable companies do not have to compete for subs like the sat providers have to. Cable companies are monopolies in the areas that they serve but that is changing fast. The big problem cable companies have is the Telcos. They do have wires on the same poles as the cable companies.

How many would agree with the statement that cable is on the way out and that D* and Dish will have to merge to compete with the Telcos.

 

[purtman]

A merger would make good buisness sense. Cable companies have an advantage in that they have exclusive areas and no compitition. Are there any areas where two cable companies that have strung cable on the same poles so each house would have a choice of providers? Cable companies do not have to compete for subs like the sat providers have to. Cable companies are monopolies in the areas that they serve but that is changing fast. The big problem cable companies have is the Telcos. They do have wires on the same poles as the cable companies.

How many would agree with the statement that cable is on the way out and that D* and Dish will have to merge to compete with the Telcos.

Cable will stay in business for a while. An example of this is my 79-year-old mother. She's had cable for while and will stay with it because "I've always done it that way." Cable is also offering packages which encourage customers to cut their costs. However, when D* was taking forever to get our HD installed, I tried the cable and the picture was brutal. I couldn't wait to switch.
I would love to see D* and Dish merge, provided they do not forget the customer.

 

[RAD]

what they should do is trade ,directv could let dish use their new sats for HD and dish could replace the hr20s with their 622 HD receiver WIN ,WIN,WIN!!!

Not unless the 622 get's a 2nd ATSC tuner in it, or the combined operation carries every ATSC channel, including the subchannels, via satellite. If not then it's a LOOSE, LOOSE, LOOSE!!!

 

[Herdfan]

An ideal solution would have been/could still be to share LIL and HD-LIL assets. There is no reason for 50+ markets to be on satellites 4 times.

 

[Steve Mehs]

How many would agree with the statement that cable is on the way out and that D* and Dish will have to merge to compete with the Telcos.

I couldn't disagree more. Cable won't be going anywhere. I feel it's satellite that will be in trouble due to the lack of bundling options and overall lack of direction these past few years. Cable and FTTP will own the multichannel provider market. DBS will continue to be for rural areas, low end subscribers and niche programming like international content and NFL ST. Dish and DirecTV tried to merge once, no go, it will never happen. Telcos only if you have Verizon in ATT in your area, FTTP might be a threat in 5 years. In the market that my cable company covers, if things stay on track, by mid 2008 guess who will be the areas largest telephone provider? Time Warner Cable. TW is already the #2 VOIP provider in the country.

Cable has plenty of competition, Dish Network and DirecTV. Thanks to them, my cable company did a complete 180 and they are provide me with superior service then I had with either satellite provider.

 

[lwilli201]

I couldn't disagree more. Cable won't be going anywhere. I feel it's satellite that will be in trouble due to the lack of bundling options and overall lack of direction these past few years. Cable and FTTP will own the multichannel provider market. DBS will continue to be for rural areas, low end subscribers and niche programming like international content and NFL ST. Dish and DirecTV tried to merge once, no go, it will never happen. Telcos only if you have Verizon in ATT in your area, FTTP might be a threat in 5 years. In the market that my cable company covers, if things stay on track, by mid 2008 guess who will be the areas largest telephone provider? Time Warner Cable. TW is already the #2 VOIP provider in the country.

Cable has plenty of competition, Dish Network and DirecTV. Thanks to them, my cable company did a complete 180 and they are provide me with superior service then I had with either satellite provider.

The point I was trying to make about competion is that the Cable Cos dont have to compete with another cable company. All they have to do is put one cable down the alley and they got you. The Sats have to have duplicate and very expensive delivery systems and they have to compete with each other and cable cos. The Cable cos dont have to compete with another cable co, making them a monopoly when it comes to delivering cable service in a designated area.

Just curious , if you are a cable guy, how come you are hanging in this fourm.

 

[Steve Mehs]

Just curious , if you are a cable guy, how come you are hanging in this fourm.

I had satellite TV from 1998 to 2006 (Dish Network, then DirecTV) I've been visiting this site almost every day since I discovered it on August 13, 2001 about two months after Chris created it. I'm also a former moderator of 4 years and used to be very active here. Over the years I lost interest, DBS used to be something cool, now it has matured and I found cable in my area is superior then DBS in many aspects. It is ironic though, if you look at the member list and sort by posts, three out of the top seven posters no longer even have satellite TV.

I'm just here to defend cable ( ), talk about satellite radio and have fun with the people I've 'known' for the past 7 years going back to dbsdish.com. This is like my second home.

 

[purtman]

I had satellite TV from 1998 to 2006 (Dish Network, then DirecTV) I've been visiting this site almost every day since I discovered it on August 13, 2001 about two months after Chris created it. I'm also a former moderator of 4 years and used to be very active here. Over the years I lost interest, DBS used to be something cool, now it has matured and I found cable in my area is superior then DBS in many aspects. It is ironic though, if you look at the member list and sort by posts, three out of the top seven posters no longer even have satellite TV.

I'm just here to defend cable ( ), talk about satellite radio and have fun with the people I've 'known' for the past 7 years going back to dbsdish.com. This is like my second home.

You said cable is superior in your area. What system do you have? We have TW here and the picture was terrible.

 

[MikeR7]

Charter cable in my area sucks.

 

[cmoss5]

:sure:

This just moved on tvpredictions.com. Any thoughts?
http://www.tvpredictions.com/malonehd123006.htm

Well....here is the latest and could and may happen in next 2 years...
AT&T will probably buy DIRECTV...they have the money and all the bundles now
existing thru their telcos like BELLSOUTH they just bought out...perfect fit to get back at the cable companies the up against...with the new laws passed by the FCC, this is quite possible...perfect partnership...that is what is being speculated now in the Southeast where AT&T would be welcome with Directv....

 

[Steve Mehs]

You said cable is superior in your area. What system do you have? We have TW here and the picture was terrible.

Time Warner Cable Rochester, NY. Cable systems vary from one franchise to the next. Not noticeable on my 32" Philips tube TV, when I hooked up my 42" Sony HDTV DirecTV was terrible, the over compression was insane. TW has almost nil compression on the premium movie channels (premiums are sent out in 527 x 480), the HBO channels were night and day between the two. A few channels on cable could be better, Comedy Central is overly compressed and so is ESPN, but I hardly ever watch the SD version of ESPN.

 

[Chris Freeland]

:sure:

Well....here is the latest and could and may happen in next 2 years...
AT&T will probably buy DIRECTV...they have the money and all the bundles now
existing thru their telcos like BELLSOUTH they just bought out...perfect fit to get back at the cable companies the up against...with the new laws passed by the FCC, this is quite possible...perfect partnership...that is what is being speculated now in the Southeast where AT&T would be welcome with Directv....

I doubt it, why would they? Like Verizon, they are in the process of going fiber and adding TV service in areas that have fiber, why compete with themselves by buying D* or E*? AT&T South (formally BellSouth) and Verizon will just continue to contract with D* for the TV part of the bundle in areas where their fiber networks are not in place, and then drop D* once their is an upgrade to fiber, AT&T will do the same with the E* contract. Why buy D* or E* when they will eventually phase out their dependence on the DBS providers? D* and E* need the phone companies more then the phone companies need them. That is why D* and E* need to start working together and sharing infrastructure since the government will not yet allow a full DBS merger for the foreseeable future.