[phrelin]

Ok. In one thread I started, its been suggested that it was a bash Dish Network thread. But I have concerns that Dish Network is way behind the curve because the new Dish Network's business is not technology, its business is generating sales and advertising revenue through services provided to a customer base.

Revenue is derived directly from customers - you and I - or from third parties. When a service company's competition creates a third party revenue stream, it can leverage that revenue to keep charges to the customers artificially low for a period of time, bringing in more customers which usually increases the third party revenue. DirecTV has quite literally allied itself with Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, Cablevision, Bright House Networks and other cable operators in terms of targeted, shared advertising revenue.

From Media Daily News:

In a move that at one level brings competitors together, a rep firm owned by three large cable operators will begin selling time on DirecTV. National Cable Communications has a deal to take over national spot sales for regional sports networks carried on DTV in nine markets.

The deal also calls for NCC to meld those DTV-carried networks into cable interconnects in those markets, giving NCC wider reach to sell to advertisers in a single package.

Spot cable firm NCC is jointly owned by Comcast, Cox and Time Warner Cable, all of which compete with DTV for customers.

...In addition to representing the three MSOs that own it, NCC represents Cablevision, Bright House Networks and other cable operators.

A pact with the Devil or smart business move?

It does immediately raise questions. If your signal provider is selling the ad time, you aren't going to be able to skip over it. Would Dish customers pay15-to-30% more for service to avoid the third party ads?

I'm sure there are things I don't know about Dish Network's business plans. Has anyone heard rumblings of Dish's intent to counter the cable companies' joint major third party revenue stream activities?

 

[James Long]

Since you brought it up (and made it the first comment of your post) I will say you do seem to want to find ways that DISH is behind ... seeking out those ways, as it were.

If I understand this correctly, this is a marketing deal where DirecTV is going to allow a consortium of cable providers to sell ad time on RSNs carried on DirecTV. Are these the "insert ads" that cable providers normally insert to cross channel promote and advertise local businesses? If so this just means that DirecTV subscribers are more likely to see the same regional inserts as cable subscribers in those areas.

I don't see any particular benefit to letting someone else sell your advertising space ... the only benefit is if the cable company consortium does a better job of selling the insert ads than DirecTV could do.

I also do not have the fear that DirecTV will come up with "unskippable" commercials just because they have a deal with the consortium to sell that space. Unskippable commercials are a bad idea. I would not expect DISH or any other company to raise their rates because their commercials can be skipped (although it would be a cool feature to have the commercials automatically skipped for you by the satellite provider).

It sounds more like DTV is having problems selling their insert spot inventory and believe their competitors, the cable consortium, can do a better job. If so, good for them.

 

[jclewter79]

Right now it seems that most of the ad time that Dish Network has control over they are using to sell turbo HD ads.

 

[James Long]

DISH has done a fair job of buying TurboHD ads on outside channels as well ... including billboards and Olympics coverage. As far as their "insert ads", I'd rather see DishHD ads than another medical disfunction product advertisement.

 

[phrelin]

DISH has done a fair job of buying TurboHD ads on outside channels as well ... including billboards and Olympics coverage. As far as their "insert ads", I'd rather see DishHD ads than another medical disfunction product advertisement.

The Turbo ads on NBC Olympics coverage were pretty solid.

Let's hope there are no insert ads for TurboHD since it's not available to existing customers. I'd rather see an insert ad that brings revenue into Dish Network's coffers. Enough of those, and they might be able to keep the rates lower come February which will keep them competitive.

And actually I don't seek out this stuff. I subscribe to a number of news sources in the media industry and the advertising business. The latter provides a whole different perspective on what's going on as they are the folks making a living creating, marketing, and evaluating the ads you see on TV, in print, and your computer.

In this case, it is significant news within the advertising industry that DirecTV signed with the Comcast-Cox-Time-Warner-owned company that already sells insert ads for its owners plus Cablevision, Bright House Networks and other cable operators.

Partly I worry about it because Dish is the only big player in the signal provider business that I can't find any evidence of signing with a system to report viewing habits. This is part of the potential cash flow and every one of the other players are selling this information. Now I'm seeing a similar situation with advertising.

 

[James Long]

Partly I worry about it because Dish is the only big player in the signal provider business that I can't find any evidence of signing with a system to report viewing habits. This is part of the potential cash flow and every one of the other players are selling this information. Now I'm seeing a similar situation with advertising.

I believe there is a clause in their customer agreement that allows such information to be collected, but I have not seen any reports of the data being used. We've seen some paranoid posts worrying about DISH monitoring the customer's viewing habits, and DISH will occasionally make a claim about the popularity of a channel when a negotiation for renewal falls apart. It may be that they are just keeping tighter control over the data.

 

[harsh]

If the ads are targeted at SPORTS PACK and Sunday Ticket viewers, that's not a very large demographic. While DIRECTV is the go-to provider for that content, it doesn't draw a very large following.

The one possible good outcome is that it will force DIRECTV to make the Sports Pack and Sunday Ticket products more attractive to their customers so that they can get a bigger share of the co-op money. There isn't much money in it if you only bring a few hundred thousand customers to the table.