Help For The Hd Crowd???

[dragon002]

NEWS BRIEFS: ViaSat Delivers Big Dishes for DirecTV
ViaSat said it was selected by DirecTV to provide four 9.1-meter Ka-band earth station antenna systems. The antenna systems will enable DirecTV to expand its HDTV services over new Ka-band satellites, including recently launched Spaceway satellites, the companies said. The systems will be located at DirecTV's Uplink Facility in Arizona.

source;SkyReport, 4.11.06

 

[Questioner]

I guess that's good news, but when? I doubt it will help directv catch up with cable.

 

[theslag]

How much more HD do you have in your area with cable vs D-TV?? I dont have that much more, exp the prices are higher and the non-digital channels blow. Thats why i went with direct.

 

[kentuck1163]

Yeah, it constantly amazes me when folks on this forum make positive comments regarding their cable service. I had horrible cable service for years. They just now started even offering HD channels at all and to get them you had to be at such a high level (tier + digital + HD) of cost that Directv is much cheaper.

I do have a couple of problems with DirecTV: 1) overcompression of SD channels to the point of ridiculousness. 2) Too few HD offerings. I hear they are working on number 2, and I would rather they DROPPED some SD channels and reduced the compression rate on the remaining channels to address problem 1.

 

[dragon002]

kentuck,

drop which ones??

remember, ones mans garbage is another mans gold..

 

[FlyingJ]

Oh, I don't know. I can think of about 50 channels on D* that have to be just about everyones garbage!

 

[charper1]

Remember that public interest and religious channels (the easiest target by far), are for the most part, off limits by law. There is some mechanism in place that requires that the providers must have a certain number of these channels vs the percentage of their total offerings. (regardless of users wanting them or not)

 

[kentuck1163]

I vote for getting rid of the shopping channels, myself.

Honestly, if DirecTV circulated a survey and said "we can deliver a sharp, flawless picture if we drop about 25 channels from our current lineup, please vote for which ones you would like to see discontinued..." I would be thrilled. There really aren't that many public interest channels - and some of those are quite good.

They have this marketing idea that "the more, the better." I think they need to rethink their marketing. Wouldn't it be better to say, "we deliver the CLEAREST, SHARPEST, picture -- as certified by (insert a major independent lab name here)."

 

[charper1]

From what I have read, I do believe that shopping falls into the HI category by rule.

 

[dragon002]

so do the "church" channels. so do kids programming.

 

[FlyingJ]

Yup, I fall into those categories, shopping, religion can all go away...wish they didn't show up on the guide...probably can do that but never looked at it that close.

 

[charper1]

correct

 

[Fgsilva]

what would really be awesome would be A LA CARTE service!!! Ideally, you'd pay by channel, or at least like ExpressVu does with channels bundled together as themes.

 

[slimoli]

I vote for getting rid of the shopping channels, myself.

Honestly, if DirecTV circulated a survey and said "we can deliver a sharp, flawless picture if we drop about 25 channels from our current lineup, please vote for which ones you would like to see discontinued..." I would be thrilled. There really aren't that many public interest channels - and some of those are quite good.

They have this marketing idea that "the more, the better." I think they need to rethink their marketing. Wouldn't it be better to say, "we deliver the CLEAREST, SHARPEST, picture -- as certified by (insert a major independent lab name here)."

No way. Shopping channels PAY Directv to be on air, as opposed to the "good channels" which demand a fortune from D*. If 50 more shopping channels become available you can bet they will be added immediately. I wish we had a totally a-la-carte system and all these junk channels would disappear very quickly.

 

[joedekock]

I vote for getting rid of the shopping channels, myself.

Second

 

[charper1]

Well not really; they wouldn't dissapper (aka relieve any bandwidth stress) they would simply not be on an account that didn't subscribe to them. They would still be "in the stream". I too would like a-la-carte, but for other reasons.

I wish we had a totally a-la-carte system and all these junk channels would disappear very quickly.

 

[joedekock]

what would really be awesome would be A LA CARTE service!!! Ideally, you'd pay by channel, or at least like ExpressVu does with channels bundled together as themes.

No... that would suck! Congress is actually trying to work this out right now. And the Cable companies and Dish companies are fighting against it... with good reason.

Each channel costs the carrier so much money per the previous years subscription base. So if D* had 33 million subscribers in 2005.. then Nicolodian says that in order for D* or E* or any cable comany to carry it Nicolodean charged them all $.08 per subscriber. So Nicolodean makes $2,640,000 off of D* alone. That's fine. Except when alacart service is available, and only 8 million people want Nicolodean... then Nicolodean will lose 2 million dollars off of just D*. So now they will charge the subscriber directly, and all of the sudden your paying $0.36 for Nicolodean.

O.K. fine right? NO! Nicolodean is a cheap channel for subscribers to carry. Fox News is currently $0.36 per subscriber, and ESPN is $0.34. So you could plan on those channels going up over 1 dollar per subscriber if alacart was available. Other channels like MTV, Comedy Central, CNN, VH1, Discovery, TNT, TBS, are also in the high $0.20's, per channel. Costs will go up if you like to have about 50 channels. If you only want 10 to 30 channels... then yeah alacart will work. however, majority of Americans who subscribe to a television service, watch programming on roughly 45-50 Channels.

Also, because channels like Discovery are a higher costing channel, and the feds put some money into educational T.V. stations, like PBS, Discovery, TLC... you can plan on them putting more money into them if alacart is available.

 

[JustBob]

No... that would suck! Congress is actually trying to work this out right now. And the Cable companies and Dish companies are fighting against it... with good reason.

Each channel costs the carrier so much money per the previous years subscription base. So if D* had 33 million subscribers in 2005.. then Nicolodian says that in order for D* or E* or any cable comany to carry it Nicolodean charged them all $.08 per subscriber. So Nicolodean makes $2,640,000 off of D* alone. That's fine. Except when alacart service is available, and only 8 million people want Nicolodean... then Nicolodean will lose 2 million dollars off of just D*. So now they will charge the subscriber directly, and all of the sudden your paying $0.36 for Nicolodean.

O.K. fine right? NO! Nicolodean is a cheap channel for subscribers to carry. Fox News is currently $0.36 per subscriber, and ESPN is $0.34. So you could plan on those channels going up over 1 dollar per subscriber if alacart was available. Other channels like MTV, Comedy Central, CNN, VH1, Discovery, TNT, TBS, are also in the high $0.20's, per channel. Costs will go up if you like to have about 50 channels. If you only want 10 to 30 channels... then yeah alacart will work. however, majority of Americans who subscribe to a television service, watch programming on roughly 45-50 Channels.

Also, because channels like Discovery are a higher costing channel, and the feds put some money into educational T.V. stations, like PBS, Discovery, TLC... you can plan on them putting more money into them if alacart is available.

joedekock - Where did you get your numbers for how much each channel charges DirecTV to carry? I've been looking for that type of information for a while. What else can you tell me? PM if you'd prefer.

-JustBob

 

[scotsmanron]

I'm not sure about those numbers either. I've been told by a local TV person here that ESPN was BY FAR the most expensive thing that local cable carried. I would love to see a source for those numbers.

 

[stevo/65]

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