While DIRECTV insists that they dropped the price, they also removed some features that you end up paying the difference to get, no?pretty funny since dtv dropped the price of sunday ticket this year!
While DIRECTV insists that they dropped the price, they also removed some features that you end up paying the difference to get, no?pretty funny since dtv dropped the price of sunday ticket this year!
i would like to hear something on this as wellAny news or info on the future of blockbuster@home
Sounds like Dish must me adding Showtime Anytime (currently available from U-Verse, FiOS & Comcast) they might also replicate the content via DISH Online.Showtime is suppose to have a bunch of content available this summer online.
Looks like the ad skipper is a big deal and may be a "hit" with a double meaning. The google news home page has it on page 1 of technology with a pile of links about stations vs viewers and billions of dollars in ad revenue possibly going up in smoke.
The early bird gets the worm
I talked to my wife back home a bit ago and she all of a sudden noticed the new auto hop feature. I didn't even tell her about it. She was pretty excited as she was about to watch American idol.
Honestly, I don't think this would ever be implemented. New shows have a flag in the guide information that drives recording new or repeat airings. As far as I know there is nothing like this for commercials. It would be a nightmare to implement if it were even possible.
He just replied.....
You are conflating "free" for you as a private citizen and "free" for other folks to make money from. Dish's most popular programming by a HUGE margin is network stuff. If they didn't have the locals, their subs would go way, way down (people just want the convenience of using the same input/gear for all of their programming). Our product adds the bulk of the value they offer to their customers. Is it fair they get to double dip (sub revenue and spot revenue) while we do not?
We local broadcasters are in a squeeze. We started getting retransmission revenue in meaningful amounts in the past 6 years or so, and now that it's an expected thing, our parent networks are expecting us to kick more and more of it back to them so they can continue to invest in more programming. None of us local TV guys are getting rich from retrans, I can guarantee you that. We are stuck because without our networks, we don't have the audience we need either, so we have to pay our share and shut up about it, and that new cost is what forces us to play hardball when it comes to retrans.
All we have is spot revenue these days, and if that deteriorates any further, we will go out of business. Simple as that.
Such auto commercial skipping features had been achieved and available long long time ago back in the 1990's and they worked very well from RePlay TV (digital tech) to the patented "Move Advance" and "Commercial Advance" for VCR's. I can tell you that as a regular user of the Commercial Advance on my old VCR's they rarely missed a bit, just about always PERFECT blissful commercial free watching without having to do a thing.
I think you may have misunderstood what I was commenting about. Certainly the commercial skipping features will work. I was commenting about a user who wanted to show the commercial the first time it was aired and skip it every other time. This was what I said would be a nightmare to implement. I agree completely with you on your point.
I'm surprised something about this had not been worked into the retrans agreements already. Seems shortsighted on the provider's side. Dish is not the first one to try this. They may just have to live with it until the current contract is up.
Even though ReplayTV died before the court case played out, I'm sure it gave Dish an insight into arguments the networks may have. Replay didn't have retrans agreements to contend with though.
JM42 said:Then it's already made up it's development cost in free press.
I haven't seen anyone comment on the "dark side" potential of this. If they can recognize and skip commercials, they could pretty easily insert their own. That could ultimately be the end game. When retrans comes up, offer the ability to put in a "mandatory" highly targeted to the specific viewer commercial every 15 minutes or so similar to hulu.