DIRECTV Names Michael White as New President and CEO

[Scott Greczkowski]

Hes a financial guy, no word on how he is with technology. I was hoping for a guy who was good with financials but also understood the technology so that DirecTV could make some much needed advances in their receivers.

Even the new HR-24 they are working on is still based off of the HR-20 and has most of the issues.

They need a real next generation box. Something fast with memory with HD guides.

How long are they going to stay with the old?

[Don Landis]

I dont want to jinx him, but the last time I saw a beverage company guy take over a technically oriented company was John Sculley taking over Apple in 1985...

[Don Landis]

Having a history in the food chemical business many years ago, I know the way to raise bottom line is to water down the product. That is exactly what they did at Pepsi. So, how does that equate to the Satellite TV business? ans. water down the channels with compression!

White enters a company that is already #1 in subscribers so all he needs to do is maintain that position even if it means some level of churn now. He can offset a level of dissatisfaction by his subscribers by a double digit % since the company has a healthy lead over Dish Network. To improve profits, he needs to water down the product. aka as cutting costs. I know that DirecTV is a good paying company so payroll freezing and salary / benefits cutting may be on the table. Slowly reducing expenditures on programming is another. It has appeared over the years that DirecTV never had a fierce programming negotiator as Dish does. They just accepted price increases and passed it on to the subscribers with rates. That may change with a new Programming negotiator, one with ruthless skills at the table.

Scott is correct in that DirecTV has poor rating with the equipment. I would never go back to D* with their present linup of receiver choices. It's a no brainer with their features and reliability. Heck the latest Dish receivers even run rings around TIVO. The best advice I have for White is to just go with TIVO to even stay in the equipment race with Echostar.

Sports- Once again this has been D*'s main draw but Dish is right at their heals. Their best chance to remain on top is to spread the costs of NFL ST a bit and get more people on board with a more affordable subscription rate. Scott had a good idea recently and drop the HD surcharge for starters. Next negotiate a no blackout rule for subscribers. If necessary, some of the NFL ST money could go back to the locals to help defray that blackout policy. Soimething needs to be done about blackouts for people who pay to see the games. Blackouts should only affect the freeloaders.

[yorktown]

When the prices of the programming packages go up a little bit in February or March like they always do there will be someone posting -

The new Pres. raised the prices of everything !!

[cfb]

Don - Fantastic post. I agree with everything you said.

[stonecold]

Going to start a Online petition to get me to the top. lol

[raoul5788]

Sports- Once again this has been D*'s main draw but Dish is right at their heals. Their best chance to remain on top is to spread the costs of NFL ST a bit and get more people on board with a more affordable subscription rate. Scott had a good idea recently and drop the HD surcharge for starters. Next negotiate a no blackout rule for subscribers. If necessary, some of the NFL ST money could go back to the locals to help defray that blackout policy. Soimething needs to be done about blackouts for people who pay to see the games. Blackouts should only affect the freeloaders.

Ask a Yankee fan if they would consider going to Dish. There are more fans of the Yankees than any other baseball team. Ask an NFL fan if they would consider going to Dish. As far a blackouts, they are up to the leagues. I doubt what little money local stations could get through your idea would make much of a difference. I agree that blackouts are a bad idea, but they are here to stay.

[scoop8]

Ask a Yankee fan if they would consider going to Dish. There are more fans of the Yankees than any other baseball team. Ask an NFL fan if they would consider going to Dish. As far a blackouts, they are up to the leagues. I doubt what little money local stations could get through your idea would make much of a difference. I agree that blackouts are a bad idea, but they are here to stay.

I agree. If one is a Satt Sports fan, imo, there's only 1 choice at present. I never did comparisons with Dish due to ST, but it surprised me when I read here that Dish doesn't carry YES. Correct me here but Dish doesn't carry EI ?

Do they carry CI? NBA League Pass? College football Gameplan? (I admit GP is a weak pkg, imo). How about the March Madness college basketball pkg? I know about Vs but they had that svc turned off a while back by a similar dispute, right?

I'm not trying to be "anti-Dish" sarcastic, I really haven't done the comparisons. I know that a lot of guys here have done that and know the info.

If one is primarily a movie HD fan, that may be a different comparison. Just from what I read, it is my perception that Dish is ahead of DTV in that area.

[Don Landis]

raoul- I was not attempting to debate the Dish vs. D* sports packages for existing fans of D*. I was making suggestions on what D* needs to do to bring in additional subscribers to their packages, how they should adjust them to attract additional revenue. None of what I recommended would hurt the die hard ever faithful no matter what anyone else has D* fanatic.

Personally, I admit, I am not a NFL zombie on Sundays. I support my home team, have n8ot only attended the games but have worked a camera in the north tower a few years back. BUT, it is not a major factor in my viewing budget. IMO, the NFL ST has two negatives for the non-Sunday NFL zombie prospect subscriber, it is cost and blackouts.

I doubt what little money local stations could get through your idea would make much of a difference. I agree that blackouts are a bad idea, but they are here to stay.

Sorry, but I don't believe blackouts are here to stay. One day they will be put on the negotiating table and one day it will be decided that those who PAY TO SEE THE GAME, don't get blacked out. When I said back to the locals, I didn't mean the TV stations ( sorry, I know the way I wrote it was confusing). TV broadcasting is done regardless of the ticket sales and local blackouts. It is NOT done by the local stations but by independent production companies who specialize in that type of sports casting. The come in from out of town most of the time and sometimes hire local people when they are short staffed, which is how I got on the job a couple of times. What I meant about NFL ST revenue going back to the locals was going back to the local NFL franchise team. It offsets the ticket sales money that is lost when the team doesn't sell out and creates a blackout. The local stations get paid just for the time they carry the feed by selling local advertising and insert time is granted by the NFL for that purpose.
Heck, I'm even going to go out on a limb here and suggest the NFL develop a way to generate revenue through PPV event sales through cable, and all sat and tele services. The secret to improving revenues is to develop additional ways of generating that revenue by targeting a new potential market, not by raising the rates on existing fans.

[rey_1178]

Hes a financial guy, no word on how he is with technology. I was hoping for a guy who was good with financials but also understood the technology so that DirecTV could make some much needed advances in their receivers.

Even the new HR-24 they are working on is still based off of the HR-20 and has most of the issues.

They need a real next generation box. Something fast with memory with HD guides.

How long are they going to stay with the old?

agreed.