DirecTV Q1 2019 Results - 627,000 Net Loss Subs (DirecTV & Directv Now)

[EarDemon]

Plenty of cable companies still get most of their channels via satellite.

Five or six years ago my manger friend at Time Warner Cable, now Charter told me for NY State (not sure if this includes NYC or not) all TV channels come out of the main NOC in Syracuse, NY and are distributed to individual headends around the state via fiber. Not sure how they are delivered to the NOC though.

 

[Don in CT]

Five or six years ago my manger friend at Time Warner Cable, now Charter told me for NY State (not sure if this includes NYC or not) all TV channels come out of the main NOC in Syracuse, NY and are distributed to individual headends around the state via fiber. Not sure how they are delivered to the NOC though.

I'm told that is how Cox does it now too.

 

[NashGuy]

I would expect a Netflix only type of service from Directv in the future, no hardware just stream right to your TV and an app built into the TV.

That already exists. It's called DirecTV Now. The app is available on smart TVs from Samsung as well as less expensive brands that have built-in Roku and Fire TV smart platforms.

And although they don't really advertise it, you can already subscribe to the full satellite channel packages (with just a few minor channels missing) -- Choice, Entertainment, Xtra, Ultimate -- through the DTV Now app.

So we're already there, really.

 

[Inclined Orbit]

Directv still takes in a boatload of programming off satellites.

Not the big boys

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[Juan]

Directv still takes in a boatload of programming off satellites.

Att owns a huge fiber network...what ever is cheaper will be the future

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[Inclined Orbit]

Directv has lots of satellite receive antennas and distribution at most facilities bought and paid for long ago.

Before ATT bought Directv, they had the largest privately owned fiber ring around the country. When ATT bought Directv we had a discussion if they could transfer everything off the Directv fiber circuits onto ATT and some friends on the telco and cell phone side of ATT said no at that time. The Directv fiber network is or was finely tuned for broadcast video and seamless transfers from a main uplink facility to a backup facility. On the other hand, ATT might route cell phone traffic from Los Angeles to Phoenix via Seattle on a whim and incur latency that would not work for broadcast video. Maybe they are doing that now, which would explain the increase in outages and glitches over the last few years.

Att owns a huge fiber network...what ever is cheaper will be the future

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[Soccernut]

No. It's mostly over ISP pops that all of the major program providers have. It's a direct fiber connection, for instance, there is a pop in LA for Disney and ABC, one in The Woodlands, TX for Fox, ect. ATT gets its programming from a fiber connection between these network distribution points and offloads it onto their network. The stuff you see on Cband is primarily used as a backup.

So all the network affiliates in all the different time zones in the country are getting the signal that way? What about the hundreds of other channels like HBO that are not OTA services?

 

[Inclined Orbit]

And much of C-band satellite for video distribution is going away due to frequency reallocation.

No. It's mostly over ISP pops that all of the major program providers have. It's a direct fiber connection, for instance, there is a pop in LA for Disney and ABC, one in The Woodlands, TX for Fox, ect. ATT gets its programming from a fiber connection between these network distribution points and offloads it onto their network. The stuff you see on Cband is primarily used as a backup.

 

[Juan]

So all the network affiliates in all the different time zones in the country are getting the signal that way? What about the hundreds of other channels like HBO that are not OTA services?

Just like the old days before satellite...broadband landline connections..but now it fiber and ip based

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[Soccernut]

Just like the old days before satellite...broadband landline connections..but now it fiber and ip based

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Got it, thanks.

 

[Gobucks]

I keep hearing this year after year after year. Broadband will go up your going to lose out and have data caps.

Thing is here in Columbus Ohio prices have come down. At least here competition is working. Companies here dont charge for the modem now. Imagine that.

I know I'm lucky to live where there is competition. Still I see you guys on here always with the...... you'll see its coming.


I also remember some here saying Verizon and AT&T would never offer unlimited again. That T mobile is niche. Guess what wrong again.......

The streaming craze will stop when the cable providers (Comcast and Spectrum) stop becoming drug mules by feeding people with cheap fast internet with high or unlimited data caps.

I sell for all of them, and every month they tell us we need more video sales, and what can we do to get more video sales.

The problem is Comcast for example has 25 meg service starting at $30 in most areas. People ask how much more to add Tv and we are a little over $100 by the time we add taxes and fees.

So then the customer is like sell me “just internet”

When the price of streaming content becomes the same as traditional video, and the internet providers get together and charge more money, only then will streaming be on the same level as traditional video.

When the time comes the only ones doing streaming are going to be the internet providers themselves as they will be initiating content on their own network without going through the actual internet.

Wait and see. Data caps are coming down.

You’ll still see $30 internet, but with a much lower data cap.

You want the higher caps needed for streaming, you’ll need a bigger package and any money you think your saving streaming will go right back to the ISP.

The only reason why AT&T is rolling out Fiber is because DSL doesn’t service all homes and they can’t keep up with the gig speeds offered by the cable companies.

Comcast was 6 megs in my area when I got 18 meg U-verse internet.

When Comcast offered 150 meg, U-verse offered 45 and U-verse got dumped.

U-verse wired 1 gig fiber and I’m back with AT&T until Comcast wires fiber to my house.

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[Claude Greiner]

I think this says it all.

From my you tube channel

 

[DS0816]

One thing I just thought of.

When I first started in this business 22 years ago the key service was Tv and people then wanted a home phone.

You do a new satellite install and the big deal was hooking receivers to phone lines which EVERY customer had at the time.

People had cell phones, but they where primarily kept in the car and used in emergencies as most of the plans where per minute.

As cell phones became more popular, the first thing that went away was the home phone.

Not everyone wanted internet at this point, but with traditional pots lines costing upwards of $70/mo the cost savings getting rid of the home telephone went to pay for higher cell phone bills and the ever increasing Tv service cost.

As more and more people got internet, the typical household subscribed to atleast 1 streaming service such as Netflix.

But the reason why video is becoming unpopular is because in most households the cell phone bill comes first, followed by internet service, then Tv, and then a home phone.

Even though cell phone rates are generally going down, the cost of the phones go up and if you have the latest iPhone, your paying $50 per month just in the finance charges.

The cell phone bill is what’s replacing the traditional Tv bill

There is also economics. And that also goes to politics. It is life here in the United States.

We have problems with incomes. Half the people, who are employed, are earning around $30,000 or less per year.

Things are out of whack. For television, for a lot of people, to be over $100 per month—and for their incomes to not go up sufficiently—they are finding themselves not willing to continue putting up with the high costs for cable television.

So, there is a prioritization. And it is very personal. It cannot be otherwise. So, you mentioned those priorities. Among them is that the Internet is more important than television (that is cable television) for people.

 

[Soccernut]

And that's people working, for retired people is even worst, I bet the average income is less.
What percentage of US population is retired?
47.8 million. The number of people age 65 and older in the United States on July 1, 2015. This group accounted for 14.9 percent of the total population. The age 65 and older population grew 1.6 million from 2014.Apr 10, 2017

 

[Don in CT]

There is also economics. And that also goes to politics. It is life here in the United States.

We have problems with incomes. Half the people, who are employed, are earning around $30,000 or less per year.

Things are out of whack. For television, for a lot of people, to be over $100 per month—and for their incomes to not go up sufficiently—they are finding themselves not willing to continue putting up with the high costs for cable television.

So, there is a prioritization. And it is very personal. It cannot be otherwise. So, you mentioned those priorities. Among them is that the Internet is more important than television (that is cable television) for people.

The internet has become a necessity, right up there with a cell phone. Everything else is expendable now.

 

[goaliebob99]

So all the network affiliates in all the different time zones in the country are getting the signal that way? What about the hundreds of other channels like HBO that are not OTA services?

Yes, the locals are delivered via fiber, as well as nationals. Everything is fiber. All over AT&T's backbone.

 

[goaliebob99]

I saw some pictures from inside one of Directv's broadcast centers like five years ago and they had a monitor for every single channel. Are they doing something different now, maybe have 4x4 for 16 channels per LCD monitor or have they replaced that 'human eyes' monitoring entirely with technology?

Yes, because everything is all IP now, it's all monitored over the network. There are probes in place at various points in the network that monitor the IP flows of channels assigned to the probe and when something isn't right an alarm is generated alerting whoever (hopefully a human) at the technical operations center to the issue. Encoders and other gear are also monitored for alarms. Anything that's on a monitor now is primarily used for confidence and troubleshooting issues. (At least from where I'm at.) You dont need human eyes on it really any more other than to troubleshoot issues and once issues do pop up, the alarms will alert you so you can respond and correct any issues. It's actually more efficient this way, and I'm sure saves AT&T a ton of cash. A human is still involved because issues can pop up at any time, but can troubleshoot from anywhere in the network. While I cant get into too many details by nature of the beast, a lot of it is moving to a cloud-based infrastructure as the video is no longer HDSDI or ASI like it was 5-10 years ago, but is now strictly multicast video over the network for both monitoring and production.

Simply put the way we do video now is far more efficient than how we did it 5 years ago, and even now we're moving to an even more efficient platform. All of these separate platforms from mergers are now being merged into a single platform that will allow AT&T to use the same feed for everything. Uverse, DirecTV NOW, Osprey, DirecTV Satellite. I dont see AT&T spinning off DirecTV because of this and the benefits to this is ATT is now more efficient as they are only maintaining a single piece of encoding gear, versus multiple ones at every point of presence they need video. While this is great for the company and investors, I'm not sure how it will fair for me in the future and has been the big question mark over the past 2 years with the ongoing reduction in forces that have happened. Either way, the best thing I can do is keep a positive attitude and hope for the best. AT&T is a good company overall even with its quirks.

 

[raoul5788]

The internet has become a necessity, right up there with a cell phone. Everything else is expendable now.

I have several friends that don't have internet, get their TV ota, and don't even have a cell phone. They are all in their 60s.

 

[Don in CT]

I have several friends that don't have internet, get their TV ota, and don't even have a cell phone. They are all in their 60s.

I think that's the reason, older people are not likely to have either. But if you are under 50 you most likely don't have a landline anymore. Rely on Netflix and a smartphone.

 

[EarDemon]

I think that's the reason, older people are not likely to have either. But if you are under 50 you most likely don't have a landline anymore. Rely on Netflix and a smartphone.

I'm in my mid-30s, only have Netflix since I'm a T-Mobile subscriber, haven't logged on to it since December though. Have a landline since since there's poor cell phone reception where I live, plus I find talking on smartphones uncomfortable. Two years ago I was without a cell phone for almost a week while I sold my Nexus 6P to eBay and was awaiting my Pixel XL to arrive. Awesome week! I forgot how free you are without having that damn digital dog chain around. Most of the time my phone stays in my car or on my desk at work. If I forget my phone at work, no big deal, it will be there in the morning. I feel incredibly lucky to have grown up in the 80s and 90s, being one of the last ones to have a real childhood and to have all of this technology pushed on us and poison us.

If having mobile email and RDP capability wasn't a requirement for work, I don't think I'd even have a smartphone anymore. Might not have a cell phone period.

My aunt and uncle who are in their late 60s don't have cell phones, never have, never will. They don't even allow them in their house. We'll they don't allow use of them. If they see you with one, they'll either tell you to put it away or leave. Their school of thought is if you come over to visit, you visit with them. If you are bored and need something else to entertain you, or are having a conversation with someone else, then you are welcome to leave. And I 100% agree. A couple of my friends would come over and spend most of their time on Facebook or Twitter. After three times of this happening I blocked those sites and a few others on my home network. Again, if I bore you, you are free to leave, but I will not allow that trash in my home.

How many stories are reported every summer of so called parents forgetting about their young kids in a locked car? Or the so called mom that forgot her newborn at the airport a couple of months ago. You know what these people probably didn't forget? Their smartphone.