In the couple of years before ATT bought DirectTV, DTV put on a few dog and pony shows for ATT and the talk back then was ATT was interested in the contracts for content. Their U-verse TV didn't have enough subscribers to have much clout when negotiating the contracts.
AT&T exploring Deal to sell off DIRECTV.
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Besides the 16 tuners, what can the hopper really do that the TIVO can’t?
Great you got 16 tuners, but can’t watch HBO, can’t watch regional sports, and whatever channel Dish is in a pissing match with this month.
I just put a 14 TB drive in my TIVO.
So with the one pass option, wish list, and name based recording, what does the hopper do that my TiVo can’t?
I hate to say it, with the fact the minis cost $0 per month compared to a Hopper mini, I’m better off subscribing to a Comcast bundle using customer owned equipment.
Only fees I’m paying with Comcast is about $27 between regional sports, broadcast tv fee and local franchise fees and taxes.
They even give me a $2.50 credit for having a cable card. You truely own your equipment instead of paying a fee to use something you paid for.
Yeah. But I see no reason why Uverse TV couldn't have grown to have as many subs as, say, Verizon FiOS TV. I mean, yes, when you have a much larger subscriber base, as AT&T got when they acquired DTV, then you do get better carriage rates. But it's not as if an MSO can't eek out at least some profit on a cable TV service with a sub base of 3-4 million.
Bottom line remains that AT&T bought a major MVPD right at the point when that industry was peaking. And now they're going to sell it at a loss. AT&T TV will essentially serve as the next-gen version of Uverse TV, sold mainly to those with AT&T broadband, but with the ability to also be sold to off-network consumers since it's OTT.
As you probably know, the FCC killed the CableCARD mandate last week. So cable providers are no longer legally required to offer or support them. My guess is that you'll be fine on Comcast for quite awhile -- they're probably the most CableCARD-friendly operator -- although at some point in the next few years, they're finally going to completely dump QAM TV and switch completely over to IPTV. At that point, CableCARDs/TiVos will be completely useless with Comcast TV service. Hopefully that doesn't come until you've recouped your TiVo investment.
Do they have the bandwidth to go full IPTV. Wouldn't that require a whole upgrade to the headend.
They'll do it in phases. First the premium channels and extra stuff like MLBEI, then all the non "expanded basic" channels, and then finally everything once all boxes in use are able to handle it. Will take years - basically a similar project to when cable companies went digital.
The customers in the best situation WRT the cable card thing are probably ones of smaller operators like me with Mediacom. They've always been fairly friendly with cablecards, not giving much hassle about them and charging a pittance ($1.99/month) I suppose that could change but they don't care about forcing customers to use their boxes, they care about trying to sign you up for their internet.
They have made it pretty obvious they care much more about internet than TV so I very much doubt they will ever go IPTV. They only dropped analog channels 2 or 3 years ago, and dropping MPEG2 is nowhere in sight. Someday they'll just drop TV altogether, but my Bolt will be past its use-by date then and I will have already moved on.
Dont forget also alot of those smaller companies and even comcast are using cablecards in there boxes.... It will be a long while before it is gone
Actually Mediacom is already testing IPTV in certain markets, as well as multi-gig internet, such as in the Ames, Iowa area. IPTV is coming... along with multi-gig internet, Docsis 4.0, etc..
Docsis 4?? The spec was just released in March.. Lets see Mediacom hit Docsis 3.1 firstActually Mediacom is already testing IPTV in certain markets, as well as multi-gig internet, such as in the Ames, Iowa area. IPTV is coming... along with multi-gig internet, Docsis 4.0, etc..
Hers is what John Stephens just said about AT&T’s video business.
“But let me go this way with on the Entertainment Group and specifically on videos, our top focus is on entertainment our quality subs that we have today on a value-creative basis and attracting additional ones on a value-creative basis. That's going to adding subs on AT&T TV, which is a much lower cost customer acquisition model. That is we continue to provide good quality service to our customers but not chasing every customer. So rational marketing efforts, rational retention efforts. And that's going to be our focus that will continue.
And then bundling it with wireless bundling it with broadband. The success we've seen in the AT&T TV and bundling it with our fiber product inside our footprint has been encouraging. So we'll continue to focus on that. From an overall Entertainment Group perspective, continue to penetrate our fiber opportunity and continue to grow our broadband revenue base is going to be really important to that.”
“But let me go this way with on the Entertainment Group and specifically on videos, our top focus is on entertainment our quality subs that we have today on a value-creative basis and attracting additional ones on a value-creative basis. That's going to adding subs on AT&T TV, which is a much lower cost customer acquisition model. That is we continue to provide good quality service to our customers but not chasing every customer. So rational marketing efforts, rational retention efforts. And that's going to be our focus that will continue.
And then bundling it with wireless bundling it with broadband. The success we've seen in the AT&T TV and bundling it with our fiber product inside our footprint has been encouraging. So we'll continue to focus on that. From an overall Entertainment Group perspective, continue to penetrate our fiber opportunity and continue to grow our broadband revenue base is going to be really important to that.”
Mediacom has been 3.1 since, 2017. Is it everywhere for their footprint? I have no clue. But I do know they are testing multi-gig internet, IPTV, etc.. :shrugs: Since this is about selling Directv, I'll bow out. Have a great one!
I would be very very very willing to bet if they have deployed 3.1 at all it is in a very smallMediacom has been 3.1 since, 2017. Is it everywhere for their footprint? I have no clue. But I do know they are testing multi-gig internet, IPTV, etc.. :shrugs: Since this is about selling Directv, I'll bow out. Have a great one!
Footprint. That type of a equipment cost is a multi year almost decade process
Mediacom is barely able to push 60Mbps in some markets as there top package
Mediacom started their Docsis 3.1 in 2016 and I found plenty of articles from local news sources about their gigabit service. So you made the claim they don’t have it everywhere they are, so prove it.
:Sigh: I stated I was out but got drawn back in. Let's just say you're incorrect and I'll leave it at that. Perhaps IParsons would like some easy money? Regardless, have a great night. If you, or anyone wishes to discuss Mediacom and what they are doing, feel free to start a new thread.
I don't think it's a matter of bandwidth on the existing network. More a matter of swapping out the ~25% or so of STBs still in use at Comcast that aren't IPTV-compatible. (Most X1 boxes are hybrid QAM/IPTV devices while the most recent generation of X1 boxes they've been distributing -- the Xi5 and Xi6 -- are IPTV-only.)
Comcast is already running their entire TV service over IPTV. For past 18 months or so, in many areas Comcast has set up new broadband+TV customers as all-IPTV, with linear channels, on-demand, and cloud DVR all delivered as managed IPTV to their Xi5 and Xi6 boxes, or to the Xfinity Stream app on customers' own Rokus, smart TVs and smartphones. They've also added a few new niche upper-tier channels that are IPTV-only (meaning that folks with CableCARDs or pre-X1 STBs cannot access them).
At the point when they completely dump QAM TV, if not before, it's likely that they'll stream the most-viewed linear channels via multicast to conserve bandwidth (and channels can dynamically switch between unicast and multicast based on the number of current viewers in a given area). It's possible that they've already begun doing that in some places, I really don't know. In order to tune in IPTV multicast linear channels, the consumer will likely need a Comcast-issued broadband gateway (modem+router).
Found an internal Comcast slide deck from a few years back that referenced their plans to drop QAM and go all-IP. And those plans have been referenced in the industry media repeatedly over the years. Comcast has slowly been building toward that end.
Just this week saw a recent slide from a Cox presentation showing that they plan to dump QAM and go all-IP as part of their planned network upgrades about 2-3 years from now. I'd expect the Comcast transition to be complete by then, if not before.
Yeah, even Charter (16 mil TV subs) says that there's not much profit for them in TV. That's far truer for small MSOs like Mediacom (0.7 mil TV subs). As those MSOs try to figure out how to modernize their video product, some are buying an outsourced or semi-outsourced IPTV platform (e.g. MobiTV, TiVo) that can work with their customers' own retail streaming devices, and maybe with a customized Android TV device that can optionally supply.
But I think a lot of them will just decide to quit the business completely and resell stuff like YouTube TV, Sling and AT&T TV, as well as various SVODs, and then just get a commission on the sale of those subscriptions. That's sort of the play happening even with Comcast, as they give out their free Flex streaming box to their standalone broadband subs. Those folks are obviously going to use their broadband to watch video -- Comcast figures it may as well be on a box they control and can get revenue through. Will be interesting to see if other MSOs follow suit.
