A little Voom fall-out speculation

[Bear]

So, regardless of what happens to the Voom service itself, it looks like Charlie and the E*folks are getting a new bird at a fairly decent price. Now, does Charlie go for HD LIL (I can't remember whether Rainbow 1 has spots on its TPs) or an expanded HD line-up? If he goes for more HD channels, does that put the spur into D* to give us additional channels earlier?

I can't imagine that there is that much additional SD foreign language programming that can be added to R1 to fill up the bandwidth there.

Later,
Bill

 

[charper1]

The 61.5 slot seems to limit its use a bit to me. SD LiL, foreign language services, maybe even HD regional sports for those in the eastern half of the US? Isn't that what E* uses their current transponders for in that slot? except the sports part.

 

[Bear]

Can they move the sat, though? I'd think that it might give them better capability at one of their other CONUS slots. Of course, they would probably need additional licenses, but heck, that's what speculation is about, right?

 

[rkr0923]

What other HD channels are out there?
I know ESPN2 and TNT...........what else can D* add?
Worth having of course and not pay channels.
I hear alot of crying about not enough HD, but really, what is out there?

 

[vurbano]

What other HD channels are out there?
I know ESPN2 and TNT...........what else can D* add?
Worth having of course and not pay channels.
I hear alot of crying about not enough HD, but really, what is out there?

I think this is out there, most are premium channels though.:

 

[rkr0923]

I just saw that over on your board.......thanks
and just as I thought..........nothing much out there so I'm not really worried about what Voom offers or what D* doesn't offer at this time in the game. As more compelling HD arrives I'm sure all DBS will add them.

 

[vurbano]

I just saw that over on your board.......thanks
and just as I thought..........nothing much out there so I'm not really worried about what Voom offers or what D* doesn't offer at this time in the game. As more compelling HD arrives I'm sure all DBS will add them.

yeah but filling out starzhd and cinemaxhd would be like a freebie for exisiting D* subs already subbing to those packages. Thats one thing I hated as a D* sub. Not enough value for the HD viewer in the movie paks. That and TNTHD are whats missing for me.

 

[rkr0923]

I don't pay for HBO, Showtime or any of those things. By the time a movie is on one of those I've already seen it and if I liked have it on DVD. So it's in HD, whoopie!
My DVDs look just as good and with bonus stuff and can pop it in anytime I want.
Not enough value I agree with.....10.99 is WAY to much for what you get right now. If not for ESPNHD I would drop my HD Package, unless I lost my network HD too. Don't wanna lose those

 

[Covebum]

"My DVDs look just as good "

What display do you have? Perhaps it needs to be adjusted.

 

[rocatman]

The 61.5 slot seems to limit its use a bit to me. SD LiL, foreign language services, maybe even HD regional sports for those in the eastern half of the US? Isn't that what E* uses their current transponders for in that slot? except the sports part.

The Rainbow-1 (R-1) satellite has 22 spotbeams with each spotbeam having 4-7 TPs. Five of these spotbeams are for out west and probably would not be used by Dish because of line of sight and rain fade issues. Using the R-1 satellite in spotbeam mode could probably provide HD LILs for the top 20 - 30 markets east of the Rockies using just MPEG-2. For west of the Rockies, Dish still has extra DBS capacity at 148 W and has an agreement with a Canadian company to use at least 16 TPs at the 129 W DBS slot. An application for this has already been filed with the FCC to move the Echostar-5 satellite that is in a storage orbit at 119 W to 129 W. DirecTV has already set a precedence with using a Canadian assigned DBS orbital slot with their use of the 72.5 W location so FCC approval is extremely likely since the Canadian authorities have already approved it.

In addition, Echostar-10, a large spotbeam satellite is scheduled to launch in late summer 2005 to 110 W that should free up 5-6 TPs at 61.5 W and 148 W each that are currently being used for SD locals. Echostar-10 may also free up to 3 TPs at 110 W that are currently being used for non-distant network SD locals. Dish also has leases for the AMC-15 and AMC-16 satellites that have been launched and are having their Ka band capabilities tested on-orbit currently. Both these satellites have Ka band spotbeam capabilities and Dish use of this is unclear but both satellites have Ku band capability as well. AMC-15 will replace AMC-2 at 105 W and should provide Dish with an additional 8 - 10 TPs capacity above the SD LILs currently provided from 105 W. AMC-16 will be used at 85 W and Dish will have use of all 24 TPs there.

DirecTV of course has their 2 Spaceway and DirecTV 8 and DirecTV 9S satellites to launch this year with the announced significant capacity but it is apparent that Dish has not been sitting still and the acquisition of the R-1 satellite will help them a great deal especially with HD LILs. I think over the next 12 months, there is going to be some great competition between DirecTV and Dish when it comes to HD that should benefit subscribers of either service.

 

[rkr0923]

maybe I did stretch that a bit but the DVD's do look Awesome..........only thing that needs adjusting is D* HD lineup

 

[texansgal8]

I wish Direct tv would buy out voom so maybe we could get NFL sunday ticket...BUT NOOO, E* has to be involved. That really ERKS me.