[VegasDen]

On the heels of Sirius/XM:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121784781012209687.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

Highly doubtful, IMHO

 

[bigbsezwazup]

If that happened, then D* would have plenty of bandwidth with the extra sats. Correct?

 

[gully_foyle]

On the heels of Sirius/XM:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121784781012209687.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo

Highly doubtful, IMHO

Possibly, but without a Murdoch using his political connections to scuttle the deal it just might work. It was pretty close last time, and there are more players now, namely the phone companies and widespread broadband.

 

[gully_foyle]

If that happened, then D* would have plenty of bandwidth with the extra sats. Correct?

Yup -- every local station would be carried with plenty left over. Right now both companies have to carry the same locals.

 

[inkahauts]

If that happened, then D* would have plenty of bandwidth with the extra sats. Correct?

It would take many years for them to combine all the sats... The receivers that are in everyone's homes would have to be converted from one of the companies to the others so that they could all receive the same kinds of signals in order to not be broadcasting everything on both systems and keep all customers up and running... YEARS....

Of course once that did happen... Bandwidth up the ying yang they would have!

 

[arxaw]

Anything's possible.

"DISH Network Unexpectedly Loses Subscribers"

 

[tcusta00]

One quarter of poor performance doesn't necessarily, by itself, force a company into merger mode. I think DISH can survive on its own. They saw this coming and laid the groundwork for a better third quarter with their big HD push.

It will take a lot of "friends in high places" to get a merger approved.

 

[Chaos]

Does anyone think that Dish Network and Echostar separating into two entities not too long ago was a push to make this a little easier the second time around?

 

[Ken S]

Does anyone think that Dish Network and Echostar separating into two entities not too long ago was a push to make this a little easier the second time around?

No, because the opposition to the merger was that the combination of DirecTV and Dish would leave some areas of the country with only one choice for TV services.

 

[ktk0117]

Wow, they actually admit that D* is part of their loos of customers:

"The company blamed "weak economic conditions, aggressive promotional offerings by our competition" and heavy marketing of high-definition programming by its larger rival DirecTV Group."

 

[longrider]

I dont see a merger happening, while there now is more competition in urban areas there are still only 2 choices in the 95% of the country that is rural.

 

[gregjones]

No, because the opposition the merger was that the combination of DirecTV and Dish would leave some areas of the country with only one choice for TV services.

Sirius/XM is much closer to the same situation than some would care to admit. Competion from Fiber and cable now cover a great deal of the markets, along with Internet delivery. From a regulatory standpoint, it would be hard to approve Sirius/XM without approving DirecTV/Dish.

I think the bigger issue is what benefit it would be to DirecTV. The selling point before was the ability to avoid the costly rollout of locals in all of these markets. They already spent that money, for the most part. The big value proposition last time was buying it quicker/cheaper than you could build it.

I am sure there are still reasons for a merger, just fewer of them.

 

[Jtaylor1]

If the merge happens, I'm getting a digital-to-analog box for my TV.

I suggest the D* should go back to Music Choice.

 

[bidger]

I didn't like it when it was proposed in 2003 and I haven't changed my feelings about it five years later. I'm fine with DIRECTV right now and I don't want Ergen anywhere near it.

 

[DarinC]

I didn't like it when it was proposed in 2003 and I haven't changed my feelings about it five years later. I'm fine with DIRECTV right now and I don't want Ergen anywhere near it.

+1. In 2003 they claimed it was impossible to compete with cable due to bandwidth constraints. Merger gets turned down and BAM! All of a sudden they come up with new ways to get around their bandwidth limitations. DirecTV still has unutilized Ka bandwidth, and hasn't even started on BSS. Getting additional bandwidth via having to see a bunch of different slots is NOT appealing to me. That is part of what is NOT appealing about Dish. There is nothing to be gained here, and only competition to be lost.

 

[bills976]

I dont see a merger happening, while there now is more competition in urban areas there are still only 2 choices in the 95% of the country that is rural.

95% of the country is rural? Perhaps land-wise, but certainly not population-wise.

 

[Grentz]

Competition is good, plus I dont see any benefits that would come instantly or within even a few years.

The systems are so different right now that it would take completely new gear to be able to receive both, and even then it would be a challenge for stacking and all that sort of stuff with no real benefit as most channels are just duplicates.

I would rather they both just stay separate and compete with each other.

 

[Ken S]

Sirius/XM is much closer to the same situation than some would care to admit. Competion from Fiber and cable now cover a great deal of the markets, along with Internet delivery. From a regulatory standpoint, it would be hard to approve Sirius/XM without approving DirecTV/Dish.

I think the bigger issue is what benefit it would be to DirecTV. The selling point before was the ability to avoid the costly rollout of locals in all of these markets. They already spent that money, for the most part. The big value proposition last time was buying it quicker/cheaper than you could build it.

I am sure there are still reasons for a merger, just fewer of them.

How many areas of the country don't get AM or FM broadcasts? How many areas don't have digital music players? I would say...just about none. There are still many areas that can't get cable TV so satellite is their only possibility.

 

[Grentz]

Including some areas right near or in large cities. I live in a somewhat large suburb and have no options for cable, so satellite is my only option for anything more than off-air.

Cable is available 2 streets over though...as it has been for the whole 12yrs or so that I have had directv and they have continually said they have no interest in bringing it over to us (I want it just for the internet, not TV)

 

[evan_s]

I have to agree I don't see much benefit for DirecTV and Dish to merge. They've gone 2 completely different routes on adding additional HD channels. There wouldn't be any real gain in usable bandwidth until they had done a lot of receiver and dish swaps because their existing systems are so different. I don't know that there would be any reasonable gain on the receiver side either as neither sides receivers can handle the others broadcasts as far as I know.

DirecTV has plenty of Ka bandwidth allocation and a solid plan in place to use it. It also has the advantage of being fairly centrally located and requiring a small LOS Arc. All in all the 99/101/103 setup seems to be a really good setup for DirecTV.

Right now DirecTV merging with Dish would just add a lot of costly redundancy in broadcast signals and installed hardware that would need to be supported and eventually migrated to a common setup. I think it would hurt DirecTV more than it would help it.