satellite internet is not friendly to streaming. the data cap and slowdowns will kill you
The End of DIRECTV?
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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Directv is going to be around for decades (in one form or another).
How many other providers have 19 million customers? That is nothing to sneeze at.
Their KA satellite fleet has plenty of bandwidth and probably something like 13 years life remaining.
The need for KU satellites which are older can probably be eliminated by moving channels to the KA satellites.
And, if they need to replace a satellite someday, there are companies that provide satellites on a lease basis, which keeps the debt off their books.
What we will likely see is a cut back in the development of new receivers .
And, with 183 billion in debt , they have decided to start divesting less profitable business segments.
The year will come when they decide to spin off Directv and use the cash to reduce their debt.
None of it means Directv is going away, just smaller and perhaps, again, masters of their own fate.
How many other providers have 19 million customers? That is nothing to sneeze at.
Their KA satellite fleet has plenty of bandwidth and probably something like 13 years life remaining.
The need for KU satellites which are older can probably be eliminated by moving channels to the KA satellites.
And, if they need to replace a satellite someday, there are companies that provide satellites on a lease basis, which keeps the debt off their books.
What we will likely see is a cut back in the development of new receivers .
And, with 183 billion in debt , they have decided to start divesting less profitable business segments.
The year will come when they decide to spin off Directv and use the cash to reduce their debt.
None of it means Directv is going away, just smaller and perhaps, again, masters of their own fate.
They can't really spin off DTV over SatelliteTV because they needed the customer base to do OTT. They couldn't do it with just UVerseTV's 6 million customers when they bought DTV. They needed both customer bases to have channel contract negotiations. That could be another reason to keep SatelliteTV around for awhile because it will take time to transition from SatelliteTV to OTT since DTV over SatelliteTV still has 20 million customers and UVerseTV has about 3.7 million customers. They could eventually stop ordering the servers from Humax and Technicolor and the last one would be the HS-27. Plus not order the dishes from whoever makes those. That would be another sign they are getting out of the SatelliteTV business.
But Charlie has the majority of voting shares of both. So he controls the fate of both corporations.
At&t will not 5g the rural areas. They will stick to dense population areas. The spectrum they are using needs lots of close towers.
T-Mobile will do it. They bought up a pile of lower frequency bands that will work well covering rural areas.
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AT&T really needs to tell their executives to stop talking because they are adding to the confusion. If I was a marketer at Dish I'd have a field day putting these quotes in flyers and trying to get Directv customers worried that they are dropping satellite soon and switching to Dish.
As mentioned, Directv is launching a new satellite early next year. That will be their last launch. All the satellites they have will then last at least a decade, probably longer. They won't shut down service until those satellites stop working, so it will be around for at least a decade.
If you don't believe me, believe AT&T in this FierceVideo article: Deeper Dive—DirecTV soldiering on despite drastic subscriber losses | FierceVideo
“We have no plans to discontinue satellite service. Our video strategy involves offering our customers choices in how they want to receive their video service, including via satellite, our wireline service or streaming over home broadband, regardless of their provider,” AT&T said in a statement.
That was the response FierceVideo got from AT&T when it shared with it concerns that readers shared with us in response to this article.
As mentioned, Directv is launching a new satellite early next year. That will be their last launch. All the satellites they have will then last at least a decade, probably longer. They won't shut down service until those satellites stop working, so it will be around for at least a decade.
If you don't believe me, believe AT&T in this FierceVideo article: Deeper Dive—DirecTV soldiering on despite drastic subscriber losses | FierceVideo
“We have no plans to discontinue satellite service. Our video strategy involves offering our customers choices in how they want to receive their video service, including via satellite, our wireline service or streaming over home broadband, regardless of their provider,” AT&T said in a statement.
That was the response FierceVideo got from AT&T when it shared with it concerns that readers shared with us in response to this article.
I am fortunate enough to be in an area with FTTH available.
It is a very rural area, only about 10 homes on this road that is over four miles long.
Our electric cooperative has built out fiber around the county.
They are just about complete building down this road, doing the splicing now to add drops. According to the network engineer, I should be installed before Christmas with 1 Gbps / 1 Gbps service.
I said that to say this, I will probably be in the minority, of those with FTTH service, but I plan on keeping my DirecTV via satellite as long as they have a bird in the sky. I have used satellite in one way or another for decades, and don't want to change. If your internet service goes out, (a rarity) but it does happen, you don't have any TV. Satellite is always there as long as you have a signal.
The only thing the fiber will allow me to do is to enhance my usage of VOD services. Currently it is a pain with a 4.0 Mbps DSL connection.
I might change my mind in the future, but I don't see me leaving satellite delivery for IP based delivery, of course, I am probably an outlier there.
It is a very rural area, only about 10 homes on this road that is over four miles long.
Our electric cooperative has built out fiber around the county.
They are just about complete building down this road, doing the splicing now to add drops. According to the network engineer, I should be installed before Christmas with 1 Gbps / 1 Gbps service.
I said that to say this, I will probably be in the minority, of those with FTTH service, but I plan on keeping my DirecTV via satellite as long as they have a bird in the sky. I have used satellite in one way or another for decades, and don't want to change. If your internet service goes out, (a rarity) but it does happen, you don't have any TV. Satellite is always there as long as you have a signal.
The only thing the fiber will allow me to do is to enhance my usage of VOD services. Currently it is a pain with a 4.0 Mbps DSL connection.
I might change my mind in the future, but I don't see me leaving satellite delivery for IP based delivery, of course, I am probably an outlier there.
If I was AT&T and I wanted to save money I would basically kill all dish install in the urban areas. Save on equipment, install, staff and maintenance. And continue using Satellite in the Rural as much of the saving in the city would offset the rural but then it's depending on how many customers they have in rural areas it may not be worth the cost of launching and maintaining the SAT. But the sad part about technology is that Americans don't realize that the more technology they receive is the more Jobs are lost and these are not being replaced. And new Technology and robots is still not making these services any cheaper.
I suspect that is EXACTLY what they will do, to start the ball rolling, in a year or two.
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They don't have to "kill all dish install". Some people will prefer satellite even if they have the option for streaming, because it isn't like the internet is 100% reliable and trouble free. It is just a different type of problem from rain fade.
What I think they'll do at first (once the new product is mature) is advertise it in preference to satellite. If you call up and want Directv, they'll try to sell you the streaming version. Since the install cost is lower they should offer a better deal - whether it is a better deal over the long term remains to be seen. It isn't like it is cheaper to deliver with streaming than satellite AFTER install, and programming costs will be the same for them regardless of delivery method.
Down the road they might start charging up front for a satellite install, or stop doing it themselves and instead refer you to a third party installer in your area.
What I think they'll do at first (once the new product is mature) is advertise it in preference to satellite. If you call up and want Directv, they'll try to sell you the streaming version. Since the install cost is lower they should offer a better deal - whether it is a better deal over the long term remains to be seen. It isn't like it is cheaper to deliver with streaming than satellite AFTER install, and programming costs will be the same for them regardless of delivery method.
Down the road they might start charging up front for a satellite install, or stop doing it themselves and instead refer you to a third party installer in your area.
Not here, thankfully ...
They got rid of a bunch last year .... we got plenty of work at the moment, till the district guys think of something else that we aren't doing the way they want.
Around here this year I believe they will get rid of managers more than employees ...
That statement sounds like the exact opposite of what was said in the other statement.
I wonder why AT&T always has conflicting statements? Remember when they said they were getting rid of UVerseTV by getting rid of the UVerseTV boxes. Then later an AT&T spokesperson said they were going to lead with DTV and still offer UVerseTV to customers.
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