AT&T Wants to Move DIRECTV Customers to Streaming Services Like AT&T TV & HBO Max

[navychop]

So is now the time to start a rumor that Orby is buying that latest satellite from AT&T?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Inclined Orbit]

An in orbit satellite transponder has a value in the vicinity of $30k/month for continuous operation pricing like DTV would use. Add up all the available and spare DTV transponders and you will have an idea what the monthly assets in space cost. That does not include broadcast centers and payroll. I used to know what the monthly cost and payroll was of a few DTV broadcast centers but its changed some over the years. Its a lot. Just the monthly electricity bill at each site is staggering.

ATTs justification for dumping satellites and going streaming was best described by them as wanting to go with the Netflix model, where the customer calls for new service and its done over the phone or Internet. No truck roll, no warehouses full of receivers and dishes and coax, and bla bla bla, no installation and warehouse employees, etc. Just stream them some crap and take their money.

The cost of the satellites is tiny - about 50 cents a month per customer INCLUDING REPLACEMENT. That's at current customer counts, obviously if they lost half their customers that doubles to a buck a month. Even including other costs for maintaining the uplinks it is probably like a buck a month currently - like 1% of your bill. All the bandwidth, CDNs, storage for cloud DVR and so forth isn't exactly free. I wouldn't be surprised if satellite delivery is actually cheaper per customer, but when you are talking 1% of your bill it is basically irrelevant. The only real difference between the two is the up front cost for the install, and that's easily paid for by the $7/month fees for second, third etc. TVs.

Maybe look at my math before pronouncing me wrong. Directv is making ALL their profit on the equipment fees for the FIRST TV. Additional TVs are gravy, that more than pay for the install. If they price the packages the same between Directv and AT&T TV, and give similar discounts, I don't see how AT&T TV is profitable.

 

[slice1900]

OK so you assume around 100 transponders adding up to $3 million per month, that's 15 cents per Directv subscriber per month. Chicken feed.