So DISH now leads in national hd channels.

[bumblebee8]

Smart money says Dish gets ESPN-U HD before D*. I know D* is the sports leader, but Charlie loves college ball. Let's not forget who got Big 10 first!

Disney must want a grip for it. That's the only reason I can see neither one carrying it. Dish has plenty of HD-lite capacity right now.

I wish CHARLIE LOVED BRAVES BASEBALL!!!!!!!!!

 

[Laddyboy]

I think Fios is doomed to failure. It's just way too expensive to outfit a home. The NY Times reported the cost is somewhere close to $1000 per household just to get a fiber connection.

I think they are counting on nearly all content being delivered via the innertubes at some point in the future and want the bandwidth and infrastructure in place to do so. I think providers like D* and E* may end up sucking the hind teat in the future as their market will be relegated to the rural areas without internet. Even that may not save them as wireless internet is pretty inexpensive to set up in areas without hills and mountains. It's a big financial gamble for them for sure.

 

[riffjim4069]

But Fio's and U-Verse are not available as widely as the Satellite providers...

I don't disagree, but neither is Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, etc. Based on this standard, only D* and E* could ever be considered the HD Leader.

 

[JEFFinINDY]

I think they are counting on nearly all content being delivered via the innertubes at some point in the future and want the bandwidth and infrastructure in place to do so. I think providers like D* and E* may end up sucking the hind teat in the future as their market will be relegated to the rural areas without internet. Even that may not save them as wireless internet is pretty inexpensive to set up in areas without hills and mountains. It's a big financial gamble for them for sure.

Yes, I totally agree on this. There's still a lot of work to be done on the broadband infrastructure side, however, as anyone who tried to watch streaming video of the inauguration will remember (or anyone who is/was affected by the Silicon Valley cable cut this week will attest to).

IPTV and switched digital video on private networks will be the next big winners, in my opinion. It sure looks like AT&T Uverse is eating Comcast's (and satellite's) lunch in this area.

Maybe FiOS is included in this group of winners if the churn is low enough to justify the $1K/household initial costs, and Docsis 3.0 is slow to deploy widely.

 

[tomcrown1]

I think Speed, FX, and MSNBC will come this year. Can only guess on the others.

MSNBC HD will be on dish.

NO FOXHD fir dish---fox loves to sue dish

so untill fox and dish can kiss and make up no FOXHD

 

[DodgerKing]

Once E* adds FX, Speed, and Fuel, they will definitely outgun D* in the HD department. Would leave D* as only having Smithsonian and MLBTV (outside of RSN's and Showtime West HD, which E* subs have the option of DVR'ing 3 hours earlier). It basically would position E* as the HD leader with D* returning to the leader in sports only. Because of this, I have to think Charlie will work to have FX, Speed, and Fuel this summer as well as MSNBC, so I'd say by September we will have these 4.

Too many, like myself, until they add MLBNet Hd, EI, and ST, they will never be on par.

There are 2 HD channels Dish currently has that I wish Direct had, Travel and WGN

 

[DodgerKing]

I have FiOS to my house, but their DVR only holds 17-18 hours of HD, perhaps less with the local channels. There is no HD sharing either. Very little MLB EI in HD too. The DISH DVR (622) outshines all others.

FiOS Pros:
Sheer number of channels
Number of movie channels
HD and SD channel bandwidth (Quality)

Cons:
DVR hard drive size
DVR not as reliable as E*/D*
Cost of multiple HD/SD boxes, needed at every TV
Sports packages in HD

I may try FiOS TV this fall after baseball and perhaps reduce my DISH to a minimal sub. FiOS 20/5 Internet and phone rocks, and is less than my DISH sub.

You forgot the two biggest cons of FiOS:

You cannot take FiOS with you (this give DBS providers an advantage for those who travel).

FiOS does not have near the HD coverage on their sports packages and does not offer ST (something very important to sports fans)

 

[DodgerKing]

I think Fios is doomed to failure. It's just way too expensive to outfit a home. The NY Times reported the cost is somewhere close to $1000 per household just to get a fiber connection.

What is the cost of launching satellites and installing Dish or Direct? It takes DBS providers a while to recoup their costs as well. The cost will be high at first, but after enough subs join for a period of time, they will then start profiting off of them.

 

[mike123abc]

I think Fios is doomed to failure. It's just way too expensive to outfit a home. The NY Times reported the cost is somewhere close to $1000 per household just to get a fiber connection.

Dish and DIRECTV subscriber acquisition costs are in the $700-800 range now and that does not even count the billions they have spent on satellites. FIOS is really about the same price as putting in a cable system.

 

[HDRoberts]

Verizon FiOS Availability Map - dslreports.com (also Uverse by clicking the appropriate tab)
Fios Availability - Where is Fios Available? - FiOS Map

It can be in your area and still not be available to you if there is no cable nearby. I don't see how they will ever make any money given the infrastructure costs.

The second one is better. The first one lists it as available in many areas it is not, including my home town of Cleveland.

 

[DishSubLA]

I think Fios is doomed to failure. It's just way too expensive to outfit a home. The NY Times reported the cost is somewhere close to $1000 per household just to get a fiber connection.

True, but I think the success will come with the quality of service for TV, broadband and telephone. FiOS is a growth industry now, just like satellite was (well, still is, to an extent) and that means years of spending lots of $$$ before the real money rolls in. The fact that Verizon is as huge, deep pocketed, and pretty healthy as it is, means they can afford this growth period. Now, FiOS and its cost for smaller companies would mean bankruptcy. Verizon had made the bet that we still need a huge "pipe" and the advantages of fiber optics rather than the cheapskate approaches of Cable and Uverse. In the end, I think FiOS will be among the most successful services.