DIRECTV, EchoStar May See Declining Subscriber Growth in Next Five Years

[darrencp22]

This report claims 13.5 percent per year

DIRECTV, EchoStar May See Declining Subscriber Growth in Next Five Years, Pike & Fischer Study Predicts: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance

 

[8bitbytes]

Maybe they have a point but did you read this?

"Pike & Fischer, a BNA company, offers a host of legal and business products covering the telecommunications industry. This new report, "DBS-Telco Partnerships: Strategic Forecast," is priced at $499 and can be purchased at...."

$500 for a report???

 

[KAB]

Whoever wrote the study apparently has not heard about the possible AT&T sell-off. I find a lot of flaws in their logic. If any sector is going to face decline, It would be cable because of bandwidth capacity not keeping up with HD demand.

 

[Cyclone]

I think that the premise is the move towards triple play offerings will hurt those you can not offer it. Cable and FiOS can easily do this. IPTV should, but U-Verse is having complications with Bandwidth and Video.

DBS however really does not have a phone network, or internet service of their own. They have partnered, but many of those partners are also their competitors.

 

[David_Levin]

Gotta read that title carefully.
Declining Subscriber GROWTH.
Not declining subscribers....

Doesn't that go without saying? AS DBS becomes a mature technology doesn't growth HAVE to decline? There are only so many eyeballs out there.

The trick is to keep the 10 million customers they have. I think sat is ok for awhile. They seem to be staying ahead of cable on Hi-Def. Many cable companies are bandwidth starved trying to keep up with the new hi-def offerings.

Longer term I think VOD is going to give DBS a hard time. I think this is the direction TV is heading.

The PVR fell out of Genies bottle. Penetration is up to 20%. People are rapidly getting used to watching shows on their own schedules. Neilson is going to start reporting ratings of commercial viewing this year. The broadcasters are not going to be happy.

New methods of distribution are being looked at, and they may leave satellite in the dust.

According to the text of a speech Zucker is scheduled to deliver Wednesday morning at an anti-piracy summit in Washington, NBCU is focused on two areas: digital and international. And that means delivering its shows using more than one-dozen methods that, although he did not explicitly make the point, don't include delivering the shows to NBC-affiliated TV stations.

Broadcasting & Cable Print Page

But ad executives like Carat's Shari Anne Brill said that a full picture wouldn't emerge until the live-plus-7-day data -- taking into account DVR viewership -- is released by Nielsen. She noted a big difference in the percentage of DVR homes in the Nielsen sample: 20%, up from 9% last year.

TV season holds out for a hero

 

[SKrueger]

I think that the premise is the move towards triple play offerings will hurt those you can not offer it. Cable and FiOS can easily do this. IPTV should, but U-Verse is having complications with Bandwidth and Video.

I read some articles that FiOS too is having bandwidth problems handling multiple HD streams to residences that have more than one HD receiver.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

That would be UVERSE not FIODS.

I am hearing from retailers around the country that sales have died for Dish Network and DirecTV. Some of these folks are getting very worried about the future.

 

[Poke]

I dont think they have nothing to worry about.

 

[pduncan]

I dont think they have nothing to worry about.

So that being a double negative ("don't" and "nothing"), does that mean that you do think they should be worried or that they are ok?

 

[mdonnelly]

So that being a double negative ("don't" and "nothing"), does that mean that you do think they should be worried or that they are ok?

I think he means they ain't got nothin' to worry about.

 

[tigerfan33]

Probably due to the national housing market. Once the market starts back both will satellite companys will be selling again.

 

[damjr]

That would be UVERSE not FIODS.

I am hearing from retailers around the country that sales have died for Dish Network and DirecTV. Some of these folks are getting very worried about the future.

I can concur with this statement. We are down around 30% with our retailers and it's not getting better. The below statement is a BIG part of the decline as are the Veirzon & AT&T fiber offerings.

Probably due to the national housing market. Once the market starts back both will satellite companys will be selling again.

 

[dlsnyder]

Sure, FiOS and Uverse have the potential to become a major cause of concern to Dish and DirecTV in the future, but right now the major competitor is still the local cable company. It wouldn't surprise me if Dish and DirecTV subscriber growth still outpaces that of cable, even during a slow period as they face now. In my neighborhood DBS subscribers far outnumber cable subscribers, mainly because of Adelphia's high prices and poor service. TWC owns the system now, but they may never get those lost subs back. They sure won't be getting me back... I love my 622! FiOS looks pretty cool, but unless you really need the fast internet FiOS TV is not substantially better than Dish. They offer a lot of VOD, but how much value does that really have? If you own a DVR you know the answer to that question.

DBS providers need to find some way to really differentiate themselves. Perhaps dedicate some bandwidth to some robust video mode that can be received by small mobile antennas?

 

[jamesnet]

That would be UVERSE not FIODS.

Friend has had UVERSE out twice to try to install it, it is as bad as BAD DSL too far from the box. 1 DVR per household is the limitation on the HD according to the sales person. too much to cram through some copper.

UVERSE should be "The new ATT to the New Box 4,000 feet away, then we had it off to the old ATT"

 

[Stargazer]

I strongly agree that satellite tv is going to be on the decline within the next five years, if not sooner. The result will be bundling discounts / lack of internet and telephone services. Unless the satellite companies can come up with a way to offer these services just as reliably as cable/dsl then they will start to lose subscribers. They need to concentrate on keeping the customers they have. IPTV and VoIP is the next new thing that is going to continue to grow in popularity due to savings.