Weighing A Potential EchoStar-DirecTV Merger

[Poke]

Well Dish could buy out Direct but before anyone does anything the FCC will half to give the ok. Right now I dont see them doing that but if Direct is haveing money problems then they might let them go ahead and merge. But its going to be up to the FCC if anything happens at all. Right now I hope it does not due to useally things get really messed up when companys merge. But its NOT the end of EchoStar maybe Direct TV. Yeah I would say its easy to see that Direc TV is getting worse and see them getting bought out by Dish. Dish by far is the best Sat company out there!!

 

[Neutron]

excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is HD Lite?

HD Lite is what we have coined as not full HD. Full HD is 1920X1080. Directv, and DISH for that matter, have been notorious for passing the HD channels as 1280X1080, which isn't true HD.

 

[Mr Tony]

merged the two threads together

 

[Peter Parker]

Thanks for the info. This "merger" is going to happen because the FCC cannot say yes to TWC/Comcast takeover of Adelphia and say no to this. The first thing DirecTV will do is eliminate Dish's Installation service department and you can quote me on that.

Why not? They alreasy said no once before.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its no secret that Charlie will listen to and entertain any reasonable offer, I have personally talked to him about this on a few occations.

Abount once a year (about this time of the year) we hear that Echostar is going to merge with company X. In the past we have heard AT&T, Disney and even CBS in the mix.

Lets face it sooner or later Dish will merge with somebody, it HAS to happen. Personally I would like to see it be with DirecTV as long as some conditions are set. And one of those conditions needs to be the High Definition Channels are broadcast in the same format and bitrate as they are sent by the broadcaster.

With a joint DirecTV/DISH Network they could basically do it ALL with 3 Satellites 101, 110 and 119. And since both providers are moving over to MPEG4 equipment now is the time to combine as they would be saving money on the upgrade to MPEG4 by only replacing receivers once instead of twice.

In addition the dish requirement would be a lot more acceptable to all going back to the standard 3 LNB dish. No more of these huge SuperDISH units, Dish 1000 units etc.

Lastly Charlie is NOT the dummy you see on the Charlie Chats, Charles W. Ergen the man is a cold, calculating person always playing his next move in his head.

It will be fun to see where this goes, for me thinking about this is like thinking what I would do if I won the lottery. Imagine the posibilities.

 

[Neutron]

If the FCC were really that dumb to do that, I think a class action suit would be in order to try to stop it from happening.

 

[kissthesky]

I really don't see this happening.

This would constitute a monopoly, which is illegal.

You can't compare it to the TWC/Comcast takeover of Adelphia since there are still other cable companies.

the word monopoly has a different meaning now. The Telcos & Cable companies are monopolies and they are getting into each others traditional businesses, i.e., video, voice & data. Satellite companies are just going to be another player in this game of telecommunications and DirecTV and Echostar are wasting too much money now competeing against each other and the Cable and Telco's. It just makes sense that would combine forces. Plus with the TWC/Comcast takeover, the door is open for this to happen. Not to mention that the Bush Admin. is still running to the show and merging is back in vogue, i.e., SBC& At&t, Verizon & MCI, etc..,

 

[Peter Parker]

the word monopoly has a different meaning now. The Telcos & Cable companies are monopolies and they are getting into each others traditional businesses, i.e., video, voice & data. Satellite companies are just going to be another player in this game of telecommunications and DirecTV and Echostar are wasting too much money now competeing against each other and the Cable and Telco's. It just makes sense that would combine forces. Plus with the TWC/Comcast takeover, the door is open for this to happen. Not to mention that the Bush Admin. is still running to the show and merging is back in vogue, i.e., SBC& At&t, Verizon & MCI, etc..,

The last attemptata merger was justa few years ago---not ages ago. If the FCC disapprovd that one (and DoJ supposedlt would have) then why should they doa 180 now?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The last attemptata merger was justa few years ago---not ages ago. If the FCC disapprovd that one (and DoJ supposedlt would have) then why should they doa 180 now?

The landscape has changed, the technology is changing and the programming is also changing. Thats what could make the difference this time.

 

[Poke]

Yeah I agree with you on your points Scott. But what worries me the most is that sometimes when companies merge the overall service gets worse. Then sometimes you have more loops to jump through to get what you want. Like when you can in for something CSR will half to start asking are you a Dish customer or Direct. To me in these types of companies kind of like tech companies when they merge things seem to get worse. Overall they might save money and most times companies merge due to one having money issues. So the other one bails out the one with the money issue. Right now Dish stock is a lot higher than Direct but if this does happen. In many cases some CEO's or upper management will leave the company afterwards which is another hit to the company. Either way I can see good in this but right now I think their just too many negative things that could happen if they do merge. Again it’s going to half to go through the FCC but we will wait and see.

 

[rcbridge]

I wonder how many shares of stock were sold based on this speculation!!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah I agree with you on your points Scott. But what worries me the most is that sometimes when companies merge the overall service gets worse.

There will bumps in the road no doubt about it.

But what this is saying to me is if this is true this could be satellites last real grasp at trying to stay alive.

As of now they dont have the bandwidth or transponder space to effectivly compete, especially with the threat of IPTV on the horizon.

Who would need Satellite when you could have ANY channel or ANY program at your fingertips matched with the fact that you can watch what you want when you want. (We are just at the starting point now for this technology, but I can personally see it getting better every day)

The way things are looking now without a merger in just a handfull of years Satellite once again might just only be a way or transmitting video from one point to a broadcaster for rebroadcast.

Take a look at AT&T's new HomeZone. The is the first piece of the pie. Sure it has a Satellite Tuner in it but effectivly as IPTV advances they could shut off the Satellite Tuner and go strictly IPTV, and in addition why do you think all the new Dish Network receivers have Ehternet ports, even Charlie recognizes that IPTV is the future.

 

[Poke]

Well right now Dish stock opens up with a 48 cents drop. Looking at the big picture if I was Dish I would stay away from Direct let someone else deal with them. Again it could save them money but you could also go down with the ship at the same time if they do anything with direct. Most of the folks that I know that have Sat service I see more and more coming over to Dish from Direct. Due to they feel like Dish offers more than what Direct ever will. It’s really showing in HD since right now that’s where everything is heading. What would be cool is to see Dish be the main Sat company taking on the Cable Companies which are hurting right now. In the long run Sat companies have the advantage since they can offer service to everyone in the U.S. To where with cable companies you have too many and their service is not that good. In the long run I can see that Sat companies totally dominating the TV service industry with just a few cables companies left out there. Anyway just my 2 cents.

 

[Lucky]

I don't there would be need for HD Lite. Think about how much satellite capacity the companies put together would have. If you eliminate all the channels that are duplicated both on Dish Netwok and DirecTV satellites and just have them on one satellite the capacity to add other channels at full resolution would be enormous.

 

[Poke]

Yeah but AT&T Home Zone I think is not going to be all that what they are makeing it out too be.

 

[kissthesky]

Yeah I agree with you on your points Scott. But what worries me the most is that sometimes when companies merge the overall service gets worse. Then sometimes you have more loops to jump through to get what you want. Like when you can in for something CSR will half to start asking are you a Dish customer or Direct. To me in these types of companies kind of like tech companies when they merge things seem to get worse. Overall they might save money and most times companies merge due to one having money issues. So the other one bails out the one with the money issue. Right now Dish stock is a lot higher than Direct but if this does happen. In many cases some CEO's or upper management will leave the company afterwards which is another hit to the company. Either way I can see good in this but right now I think their just too many negative things that could happen if they do merge. Again it’s going to half to go through the FCC but we will wait and see.

You right about the service side suffering, but thats the nature of the beast. The stock price really doesn't figure into this because we are talking about Mr. Murdoch. He is the "Media Mogul", when Charlie was denied his bid to buy DirecTV,( which Murdoch wanted and did everything in his power to stop) he did a end around and bought the contrlling interest in Directv and took it over.

 

[Poke]

Well we could see Dish go to being a private company which might not be a bad move then stocks so on would not be a issue.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah but AT&T Home Zone I think is not going to be all that what they are makeing it out too be.

This is just generation 1 of the AT&T Homezone.

Lets just put it this way I know quite a few channels that will be making themself available as IPTV services soon (including Starz)

This is just the beginning.

 

[Poke]

Yeah I think its smart what they are doing AT&T but IPTV is something that alot of big and small Telcos are doing so this is really nothing new. Well yes TV Networks will offer their service due to they want more money so this would be smart on their part. But we will half to wait and see how reliable it is with the telcos pushing video across. They will really half to crank out the bandwidth to folks home to do this. They dont want it to where if your kids are surfering the net or playing online that it effects your tv video.

 

[kissthesky]

This is just generation 1 of the AT&T Homezone.

Lets just put it this way I know quite a few channels that will be making themself available as IPTV services soon (including Starz)

This is just the beginning.

Scott, I've only been on this site a few hours and its' great that you this forum. I think you've got your finger on the pulse of what's happening in this industry. I know that this merger is going to happen because the timing is right now for it. If Charlie & Rupert wait any longer, they will both be buried alive. Like you said, the landscape has changed a great deal in 3 years.