There are a number of Starz/Encore, Showtime and one Epix channel that isn't HD. Why not remedy that and make them all HD? Just fixing that would be nice, and still leave more bandwidth to spread around... I realize that it's not like the heady days when HD was new and new HD channels were being added almost weekly, but some gaps in the premium channels should be fixed and then with what's leftover, boost the bitrate for some other channels, oh, and make the NASA channel HD (it's 2019 for crying-out-loud)!
Dish is the same way. Of course, on Dish, Showtime Extreme is only carried in standard-def.
I remember that dispute well. The minor Turner channels were removed from Dish for a month, and then they were returned with a short-term agreement while they continued to negotiate. The long-term agreement was not reached until much closer to the expiration date for the TNT / TBS contract (or maybe those channels were also subject to a short-term extension before the final contract was reached) around April 2015. Interestingly, during the extension period, I started receiving HLN and TNT with my Welcome Pack accounts. (I had two Dish accounts with Welcome Pack. One account gained HLN, and the other one gained TNT.) Both of those channels were removed from my accounts later that year, after the long-term contract with Turner was reached. How sure are we that the long-term contract reached at that time was a five-year deal? If it was a three-year deal, then it could have quietly been renewed right before Dish started feuding with HBO / Cinemax. In other words, even if your theory is correct, we could be in for a much longer wait than you are expecting, before this is resolved.
I have mixed feelings on that. Switching providers to get specific programming is certainly nothing new. Consider the various sports programming that DTV carries that Dish doesn't as just one example. What I do object to is a service provider owning content and setting the price for it higher for a competitor than for their own service. Proving that's occurring could be pretty difficult though.
LOL I just did the same for CBS All Access. Watched both seasons of Discovery and a few classic Hawaii Five-0 and 1-hour Twilight Zone episodes
As I explained earlier, due to the relatively small size of the company, Orby may have been much more willing to agree to AT&T's demands for HBO / Cinemax carriage than Dish would be willing to agree to the same terms. The speculation had been that Dish's previous contract for HBO / Cinemax had a 20% subscriber requirement (or the actual subscribership was 20% of Dish's total subscribers, whether that was a requirement or not) and AT&T was wanting to increase that to a 30% requirement. I do not have the actual numbers, but using ridiculously low numbers as an example, if Orby only had 100 total subscribers, this increased requirement would mean that they would only need to convince 10 additional subscribers to add HBO / Cinemax to meet the new higher threshold. Meanwhile, a company the size of Dish would need to somehow find about a million additional HBO / Cinemax subscribers. So, it is easy to see why Orby may have happily agreed to these terms, while Dish would strongly object.
Orby isn't a main competitor to DirecTV. Dish is. It's like the 90s Wrestling boom. WWF and WCW worked with ECW at times, but WWF and WCW would do anything to destroy each other.
ECW has a partnership with WCW. They didn’t start working with WWE until after it was unreported purchased by WWE. That was the same time Tazz came over and won the championship.
Still goes to my point that both the bigger companies have no issue working with the far behind 3rd place group. Its each other who they won't work with.
American capitalism doesnt tolerate monopolies. Instead they institute 3 company oligarchies. They don't care how healthy the 3rd company is. Orby is the 3rd companyYes, it is just like the cola wars...
...and I can't take it anymore!
