Number of DirecTV, Dish Network subscribers

[IceRunner]

Is there a reliable place for lists by city, ZIP code or region of DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers. I'm just curious how many there are in my area. My local paper doesn't list channels such as CSTV in the sports listings only because it's not offered by the cable company.

 

[Hall]

My local paper is the same.... It's effectively an over-the-air and Time Warner program guide.

I suspect you'll never get the information you're asking about for competitive reasons.

 

[odbrv]

some facts

Is there a reliable place for lists by city, ZIP code or region of DirecTV and Dish Network subscribers. I'm just curious how many there are in my area. My local paper doesn't list channels such as CSTV in the sports listings only because it's not offered by the cable company.

I did a web search and could not find a free paper on this subject. I did find that satellite TV has about 25% of the tv marketplace( http://goliath.ecnext.com/comsite5/bin/pdinventory.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=2750&item_id=0199-2294932 ). So it would be safe to say that about 25% of your local market is served by satellite tv.

If Dish had 11.5% and Direct had 13.5%, it would make them the 3rd and 4th largest distributor of tv nationwide per the following breakdown( http://www.jou.ufl.edu/people/faculty/chanolmsted/Cable%20Industry%20Report%202004.pdf#search='satellite%20tv%20market%20share' ) for cable's 75%:

Comcast Corporation 30.0
Time Warner Inc 15.7
Charter Communication 9.4
Cox Communications Inc 9.0
Adelphia 7.7

There are 15.36 million U.S. TV households that do not subscribe to an MVPD( multichannel video programming distributors service) and thus rely solely on over-the-air broadcast television for their video programming, representing 14 percent of all U.S. TV households.

The most recent FCC report on video providers said "Approximately 94.2 million TV households subscribe to an MVPD service. It also found that the number of cable households fell by nearly 1 million, and cable's share of households with something more than an antenna fell to 69.4 percent from 71.6 percent a year earlier. At the same time, satellite TV's share of those households rose to 27.7 percent from 25.1 percent." This is as of 2/2006.

 

[Clancy]

I have always wondered about numbers that satellite providers release as their customer base. How accurate are they?
One thing I have noticed and one can draw from it what you will , this site at the moment for the Dishnetwork interests has 229,697 views. Direct TV has 86,683 views.
Does this mean that there is a swing towards Dishnetwork?
I can see the funny replies already.

 

[IceRunner]

I'd say 25 pecent is worth listing a game that's only on the two dish services. I know they don't likely have space on the big TV grid for dish services. My beef is not listing a local team's game as being on CSTV because it's on cable even though it's on BOTH dish services.

 

[damaged]

One thing I have noticed and one can draw from it what you will , this site at the moment for the Dishnetwork interests has 229,697 views. Direct TV has 86,683 views.
Does this mean that there is a swing towards Dishnetwork?
I can see the funny replies already.

No, not quite that simple, since the total combined site membership is only a small fraction of combined total satellite subscribers, add to that, this site is geared a bit more towards Dish Network than DirecTV, along with other numerous factors, including the fact we ('we' as in non admins) have no numbers of which of these site viewers actually HAS Dish or DirecTV, i.e., I have D* but read and reply to the E* forums just as much, so all my reading of Dish forums might make it seem I am an E* sub, when indeed I am not, and I won't even bring up the forum hits gotten from Google search results, or the fact that alot of views are counted on those who are not even logged in here, or subscribed (so even if the admins gave us the data they had, it would never be perfect), then there's referrers from other sites, the average amount of technical curiousity of each type of sub (perhaps more provider-specific inherent saavy results in more views and posts?), the amount of problems associated with each provider (perhaps more problems attract more posts and views?), etc.

Just way too many variables for one to extrapolate actual subscriber growth data with any kind of accuracy, without a better formula.

 

[Clancy]

No, not quite that simple, since the total combined site membership is only a small fraction of combined total satellite subscribers, add to that, this site is geared a bit more towards Dish Network than DirecTV, along with other numerous factors, including the fact we ('we' as in non admins) have no numbers of which of these site viewers actually HAS Dish or DirecTV, i.e., I have D* but read and reply to the E* forums just as much, so all my reading of Dish forums might make it seem I am an E* sub, when indeed I am not, and I won't even bring up the forum hits gotten from Google search results, or the fact that alot of views are counted on those who are not even logged in here, or subscribed (so even if the admins gave us the data they had, it would never be perfect), then there's referrers from other sites, the average amount of technical curiousity of each type of sub (perhaps more provider-specific inherent saavy results in more views and posts?), the amount of problems associated with each provider (perhaps more problems attract more posts and views?), etc.

Just way too many variables for one to extrapolate actual subscriber growth data with any kind of accuracy, without a better formula.

Exactly my sentiments. Besides, more interest in Dishnetwork doesn't necessarily mean less interest in Direct TV.

 

[Hall]

I have always wondered about numbers that satellite providers release as their customer base. How accurate are they?

Obviously they know exactly how many customers (households) they have but whether those numbers match up with what they claim in marketing literature or on their website, who knows. Check their SEC filings. They most likely give their customer base numbers there and they can get in big trouble for giving any false numbers. They are a publically traded company so they have to file this information every year. Their 2005 annual report states they had over 12 million customers.

 

[jerryez]

Just use Titantv.com. You can customize your tv guide to suit you and include CSTV or whatever. You can even include cable and sat listing combinded.

 

[Poke]

Yeah Dish has CSTV plus the most HD out there! I think Dish is over the 12 Million mark now on Customers. I think there is a chance before the end of next year I think there will be more Dish customers than Direct.

 

[Hall]

I think there is a chance before the end of next year I think there will be more Dish customers than Direct.

What makes you think Dish will gain substantially more customers than DirecTV will in the same timeframe ??

 

[Poke]

Well I just think overtime the folks that on Direct that are not happy will try Dish and see that Dish offers more. Overall it's just a better service and I know several folks that have made the change from Direct to Dish and wished they done it sooner. Plus as it seems Dish stays more in tune with their customers than Direct does.. Either way we will just half to waite and look at the numbers this time next year..