Has Charlie Bought the Farm?

[NightRyder]

So the question then becomes, simply and straight-forward enough, what is E* going to do with all that capacity? If it's just more SD LIL and and international channels, then when D* gets their HD capacity in-gear, I seriously think E* is going to see a hemorraging of subs to D*.

Wonder what that will do to E*'s stock?

E* will use the capacity in a way that is most likely to generate the largest income. Right now there are estimated to be approximately 600,000 to 750,000 true HD satellite subscribers. D* has 500,000 as of their last report. The remainder are split between E*, V* and C-Band. If the subscriber numbers reach 1M by the end of this year HD will make up less than 1/25th of the total.

My Point? Even if D* can make good on their short term HD plan, the resulting effect on E* is more likely to resemble a pinprick than a hemorrhage. The numbers just aren't there. IMHO


NightRyder

 

[long_time_DNC]

I agree, as far as E* goes, if there is a movement of subs to D*, it won't be a big hit on them, unless the number of people wanting HD increases (which sales of widescreen TVs seems to be indicating).

I talk about this subject often with co-workers at the office. One is a D* sub, the other two are Comcast subs. They (like myself) have widescreen displays and love the HD channels they get.

Personally, I'd love to get the networks in HD, but I'm not going back to cable to do it.

 

[boy921]

Dish will have an interesting problem. Which will customers like/dislike more... A superdish or 2 dishes? AMC-15 and 16 offer single superdish reception, Rainbow-1 would need 2 dishes.

I spoke to E* advanced tech. support three days ago and was told that they will make it so only one dish is required for reception of all programming, including programming with HD content. The how, when, & where, are unanswered.

 

[dodge]

Directv 1500 channels

Most of those 1500 channels will be locals, Most Hdtv'ers get their locals off air, sound like rupert is blowing lots of smoke again!!!!

 

[NightRyder]

Personally, I'd love to get the networks in HD, but I'm not going back to cable to do it.

I'm looking North for my solution to this problem.


NightRyder

 

[hdtvtechno]

and yes its 3 times the bandwidth with mpeg4

 

[SimpleSimon]

I never did the math, but I don't doubt yours.

This is from 2002: "Charles Ergen, has a personal fortune of $7.1 billion, good for No. 22 on the Forbes 400.) "

This is from 2004: "#34 on Forbes list, Net Worth: $9.1 bil"

E* may only make up 1 billion of his net worth.

On the subject of this post, if Charlie wanted to buy the farm, I think he could afford it!

Hmmm. Note I claimed "1.7B" - a transposition of "7.1B". With your followup of 9.1B, either I am misremembering my other post, or my source tranposed the digits.

I sadly stand corrected. Tunaboy having 1.7B was bad enough.

 

[rad]

Most of those 1500 channels will be locals, Most Hdtv'ers get their locals off air, sound like rupert is blowing lots of smoke again!!!!

They do that now since except for cable that's the only way to get it. Have you looked over at AVSForums's OTA HD section and read all the threads about how to get such and such channel to come in? The average consumber doesn't want to mess around with having to put and OTA antenna back on their roof and a rotor to allow then to receive all their stations when one little DBS dish will do the job for everything. Rupert isn't dumb, he knows people want a plug and play solution.

 

[wmhjr]

Um.... No

More and more cable providers are delivering locals in HD. As a result, I'd guess that cable is now providing a greater percentage of locals with respect to new users than OTA.

Also, the fact that HD/SD transmissions for locals come in from multiple directions (azimuths) means that either multiple antennas are often required or else you really can't even use OTA for recording if you're not there and need to record on two different networks.

Most of those 1500 channels will be locals, Most Hdtv'ers get their locals off air, sound like rupert is blowing lots of smoke again!!!!

 

[bippi]

Can't most people get local HD through broadcast over-the-air tuners? What's the point of sending it out through a satellite?

1500 channels of actual content....I have a hard time believing there would be 1500 different channels of HD content. Unless there's like MTVs 1-50... 300 different HBOs....

 

[rad]

Can't most people get local HD through broadcast over-the-air tuners? What's the point of sending it out through a satellite?

For folks that don't want to put up an OTA antenna and a rotor to get their stations. For the folks in Chicago that can't get the local CBS station ,WBBM-DT, which is on channel 3 which is a bitch for many to get. For the folks in Denver which has most of their ATSC stations at low power, if up at all, due to the NIMBY folks that don't want new transmitters. For the folk in LA or San Francisco that can't get a digital signal to lock due to multipath from all the mountains in the area. There are more then enough reason why folks would want their local HD channels via DBS then OTA antenna.

 

[wmhjr]

The main reason HD hasn't grown

is that there is so little sat and cable coverage. Unfortunately, a huge amount of the country can't get HD via OTA due to environmentals and geographic constraints. Fortunately, cable has rapidly risen to the task and is adding HD content pretty rapidly - including locals. At this time that's the best way for most people to get locals in HD - assuming that their provider carries them, of course.

As an example, the networks range from azimuths of 14" to 99" at a range of 12.5 miles here with some mild hills and buildings. There is no way to receive it without a rotor on the antenna. Can't do anattended recordings that way.

OTA is great - when it's OK. Unfortunately - for the same reason cable and sat became popular to begin with, it's not the real answer.

Can't most people get local HD through broadcast over-the-air tuners? What's the point of sending it out through a satellite?

1500 channels of actual content....I have a hard time believing there would be 1500 different channels of HD content. Unless there's like MTVs 1-50... 300 different HBOs....