Any of you guys think Dish Network and Directv might merge next year,
the government said no in 2003, could that change now with the economy?
I doubt that they will change the findings. It had to do with it becoming a monopoly.
I doubt that they will change the findings. It had to do with it becoming a monopoly.
whatchel,
Highly doubtful, but that does NOT mean that DirecTV and Dish won't build a common platform and share bandwidth to deliver Local into Local service.
Think about what could be accomplished if both companies didn't have to transmit the very same Local into Local channels all across the country.
As Satellite customers both DirecTV and Dish could ramp up national HD channels and deliver local into local at astonishing picture quality all across the board.
John
It looks like something odd may be going on with TSReader at 72.5°. Attached is a sample transponder from 72.5°. No channels are shown in the PAT. Just to be sure I wasn't having a brain fart, I went to 101° and 119°. TSReader shows active Directv channels on both of those satellites. The last time I checked 72.5°, a few months ago, TSReader did show active Directv channels.
John, why not continue along those lines and create a common platform to deliver national content? Right now you have Dish and DirecTV delivering three copies of many of the same national channels.
Rad,
Simple, the packaging of National channels are different between Dish and DirecTV. Dish and DirecTV's also do not offer the same channels, Dish has several DirecTV does not and Visa Versa.
I would much rather have both companies instead of just one, Local into Local is exactly the same between two providers in that they offer the National network affiliates from each local market for more or less the same price. The National packages are different between the two in the channel choices as well as price points, also DirecTV offers two OOM packages that Dish does not, namely MLB Extra Innings, and NFL Sunday Ticket.
Many would argue that Extra Innings and NFL Sunday Ticket exclusive deal has added a slight burden to all DirecTV subs.
Competition for National networks is better than having one National DBS carrier.
John
If you disable DSS-to-DVB, you'll find that all of the DSS SCIDs are still there. The old builds of the plugin don't detect channels not in the guide data as well as they should, but it doesn't mean the channels aren't there.
This image shows TSReader after tuning into 72.5W with DSS-to-DVB 0.3.2, then disabling the plugin for a bit so that the PID Chart shows the DSS SCIDs and the bitrate display balances out.
DISH actually leads DIRECTV in the amount of cities they carry in both sd and HD channels of the big 4 networks.
I don't know why DISH doesn't carry PBS in hd , unless they are trying to get one national hd version and use it for each market. As for the Cw , I have mine in hd for Houston market from DISH. They have been adding CW in hd to many of the bigger markets like Houston , L.A. , New York etc. I don't think that Pbs being in hd is that big of a deal to many customers , but CW in hd is in my book.
From looking at n2yo.com Nimiq 5 now seems to be stationary at 83.18W. One presumes the testing of TPs is now ongoing.