If that happened, then D* would have plenty of bandwidth with the extra sats. Correct?
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.VegasDen said:On the heels of Sirius/XM:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121784781012209687.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
Highly doubtful, IMHO
Yup -- every local station would be carried with plenty left over. Right now both companies have to carry the same locals.bigbsezwazup said: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....bigbsezwazup said:If that happened, then D* would have plenty of bandwidth with the extra sats. Correct?
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.Chaos said: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?
"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."
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.Ken S said: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.
+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.bidger said: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.
95% of the country is rural? Perhaps land-wise, but certainly not population-wise.longrider said: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.
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.gregjones said: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.