Charlie Approaches DIRECTV about a Merger.

[Ronnie-]

ME I had to go there for you all! Love you all even though we disagree!

haha, nah, I wouldn't.

Hell c spire is rolling out 1 GB fiber in rural Mississippi areas this year, why do I need google?

Next thing I know, you city folk will be moving here for our offerings.





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[mike123abc]

It might be hard to do that if the cable companies own all the networks.

Now as far as K9SAT goes I got to disagree with him, as a majority of satellite subscribers are those who live in Rural areas... these areas are under served by broadband providers. Rural customers are ultimately the satellite companies bread and butter.

Sure people can move but most won't

Not any more. Cable passes 96%+ of households in the US. DIRECTV and Dish have a combined market share over 30%, so less than 15% of their subs do not have access to cable.

 

[Ronnie-]

I have "access" to cable. I don't have any real competition besides dish or DirecTV however.

My local cable has no hd or DVR service offered.

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[Teehar]

Not any more. Cable passes 96%+ of households in the US. DIRECTV and Dish have a combined market share over 30%, so less than 15% of their subs do not have access to cable.

Yet here in our county that number is only around 50%.Nearly every home here has a sat dish of some sort.Who claims those numbers anyway?We just got cable 2 years ago,since then they have stopped expanding.And you can forget ota for most in these mountains,plus the fact that dsl still isn't available to everyone.If everyone had access to cable,and hsi,then perhaps a merger wouldn't look as bad,the way it stands now,it looks very bad.

Oh and no HD cable here either.

 

[Hall]

Do most people in rural areas have satellite over cable? Yes. Are there more people in rural areas with satellite than there are urban customers with satellite? I don't believe so. The sheer density pushes the numbers in favor of urban areas, IMO.

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[navychop]

Let's step back a moment- they're going to merge to produce outhouses?



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[Ronnie-]

Let's step back a moment- they're going to merge to produce outhouses?



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Power outhouses?

 

[Dah-Henny]

Let's step back a moment- they're going to merge to produce outhouses?



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They're gonna produce IN outhouses!

 

[navychop]

They're gonna produce IN outhouses!

A production I don't wanna see!

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[goaliebob99]

They're gonna produce IN outhouses!

With Power!

 

[radio]

The Verizon/Alltel thing wasn't so long ago and they still required them to sell one network or they other off in lots of areas. Some of them were in Michigan and I remember it being a big deal. Some Alltel customers were sold to Verizon, some were sold to AT&T and in some markets Verizon sold off their own customers and kept the Alltel network because it was superior in that area.

Excellent example of the consumer LOSING!
We were part of that issue. Alltel coverage was GREAT, Verizon was told to shut down some of the Alltel towers, and we lost our consistent coverage.
Granted, this is not a thread about phones, but it IS a great example of the consumer losing out to "bigger is better" which seems to be the way of our government of late.

Then there's the "we'll buy your debt" issue, (again, just like the radio industry.) There comes a point in which mergers where debt is acquired (along with the "positive things) that the acquired debt combined with existing debt creates a "new" debt so large that it cannot be properly serviced via normal business operations and the "system" starts to crumble.

I'm not a subscriber to either service and I still hope it does NOT occur. We're becoming a "one size fits all" country...and it DOESN'T! Radio's doing it too, with
consolidated playlists, regional management, and less local involvement.

Fingers crossed for this to never occur for the sake of competition being GOOD for consumers and our economic system.

 

[TazmanianD]

I think this could be a good thing. Streaming services seem like they're dramatically on the rise and is probably what the future has in store. Traditional television services like cable and satellite are probably in their golden years. Folks here are commenting that the merger reduces choice but I think that ignores all the other services out there like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. that increase choice. Granted, they've got a ways to go, but they're heading in the right direction. A consolidation between the two satellite companies seems like it could strengthen them in the face of that.

 

[nelson61]

The "Suits" at the FCC have a habit of inking a deal where the merger partners freeze prices or some other sweetener for 2-4 years and then the controls quietly go away.
The "Suits" put out press releases saying what a great job they did protecting the customers.

The merger partners cackle and rub their hands. 2-4 years is nothing in their business planning. They will sit back and wait it out and then stick it to the customers.
Anyone that lives in the sticks should fight against this to the bitter end.

 

[navychop]

No way satcos could freeze prices for 2+ years.

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[nelson61]

See ultimately what I see is there will only be two companies

DISH/DIRECTV and Comcast

Comcast will own most of the programming out there and make DISH/DIRECTV pay through the nose if they want to carry them. Of course those high costs will be passed on to the DISH/DIRECTV customers who are not in an area served by Comcast.

Absolutely correct. Just read the current Bloomberg Business news about Mexico's experience with 2 giants owning their TV market. They finally got fed up with higher customer costs with less choices and changed their laws last year to add more competition, not decrease it.

 

[nelson61]

A few big things I can think of:


Honestly, if 4k TV ever became ubiquitous, I see this merger being a necessity. Neither would have the needed bandwidth. But combine the 1.5 Ghz of DBS Ku bandwidth at 101, 110, and 119, plus 2 Ghz of Ka bandwidth at 99 and 103, not to mention the chunk of FSS bandwidth at 118.7 (plus whatever gets done with 61.5, 72.7, 77, and 129, together 2 Ghz of DBS Ku bandwidth), they would have all the bandwidth they need to offer nearly any service.

Just take a look at the list of Directv FCC approved slots that are currently in the design/construction phase . These "reverse band" slots will add a huge amount of capacity to their system

 

[dare2be]

Let's step back a moment- they're going to merge to produce outhouses?

C'mon, no one has said it yet??? You people are slacking.

The new product will be called the...















wait for it...
















The Plopper.

 

[nelson61]

I would love to see subscriber counts of rural customers versus customers that live within major metro populations and suburbs. I think the data is different. I am not saying that they don't exist, I am saying that the amount of subs in metro areas is more than the subs in rural areas.

I only count Senators and the rural areas have more Senators.

 

[loubon]

Can't they just merge enough for Dish to get back MSG and SNY?

 

[nelson61]

Can't they just merge enough for Dish to get back MSG and SNY?

Finally! A positive idea.