Statement from HBO Regarding Cinemax on Dish Network.

www.skyreport.com

EchoStar Takes HBO to Court

Finding itself in familiar territory, EchoStar is once again going to battle in the courts after recently filing a programming access complaint against HBO. On Nov. 15 the company filed its initial complaint and requested that the filing remain confidential pursuant to FCC rules regarding proprietary information.

A redacted version of the complaint was made available to the public a short time ago.

Specifics of the case are not available as the redacted version says little about the dispute. However, in the filing the company said in order to compete in an increasingly crowded multichannel distribution marketplace, "EchoStar must be able to obtain access to programming on fair and non-discriminatory terms" as required by law. The satellite company said it believes that the program access rules are being broken by the programmer in such a way that EchoStar's ability to compete is being significantly obstructed.

HBO filed a response with the FCC last week requesting that the issue receive enhanced confidential treatment arguing program carriage contracts are its most sensitive documents "which contain information that is at the very hear of how HBO conducts its business."
 
Is there anything new in the pipeline for HBO? I haven't seen any ads for new shows. I get the feeling HBO is no longer trying to be the leading premium channel and going to try and milk the existing base as long as they can.
 
Well at least we are getting some idea as to the true matter of the "beef" E* has with Time Warner on this....

Sounds like E* wants to call attention to an inequity they've discovered and Time Warner wants it to stay hidden. Maybe the dishies want the same price Time Warner is charging itself on its cable outlets, who knows?

It all makes sense now.....
 
Interesting as our TWC has this programming alert:

Be advised that Time Warner Cable may be forced to end carriage of all Encore movie channels, HGTV, Showtime/TMC, GAC on Demand and Spike TV shortly. We remain hopeful negotiations will resolve this issue but we're alerting you to the possible loss of these networks.

Seems everybody got some sort of beef going nowadays.
 
www.skyreport.com

However, in the filing the company said in order to compete in an increasingly crowded multichannel distribution marketplace, "EchoStar must be able to obtain access to programming on fair and non-discriminatory terms" as required by law. The satellite company said it believes that the program access rules are being broken by the programmer in such a way that EchoStar's ability to compete is being significantly obstructed.

Doesn't Cinemax have several channels that are available only to cable systems?
 
Yet another interesting tidbit. Tonight on Charlie Chat while they showed HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Starz logos prominently on the screen, Charlie referred to each one by name but neglected to say Cinemax as he read them off.
 
I called to make a few minor changes and add Showtime and the guy promoted a deal on HBO and Cinemax for $20. I passed and went with Sho.
 
I think the issue is that Charlie doesn't want to pay for the lesser Cinemax channels, not that they're not available to him.

For the 94,274th time :)

Premium channel "multiplex" channels are essentially free. The channels are sold to program providers as one package. The cost per subscriber is the same whether 1 Cinemax channel is provided or 8. The only costs are uplink costs.

It's a question of diminishing returns...having 4 different Cinemax channels may entice, say, 10% more subscribers to pay for Cinemax than when they had 2. But perhaps adding the other 4 channels would only attract another 1%. They'd be better off using the bandwidth for something else that might entice more people to upgrade.

The premiums started offering "multiplexes", because they were a cheap- nearly free- way of adding value to their product. The programming is already licensed- all they need to do is uplink a separate feed. In the early days, HBO 2 & 3 and Cinemax 2 had virtually no branding or "personality." Between movies, you just saw a slate telling what was on the rest of the day on all the HBO or Cinemax channels.

Digital Cable and DBS were hungry for programming. It gave program providers an edge, without paying much extra. "Buy the digital tier and get more HBO channels for free!" Since digital cable has lower transmission costs, they usually snap up ALL the different feeds. DBS has to pick and choose a little more.

But eventually, the novelty wore off. Cinemax and Showtime were last to go all out, winding up with 8 channels each. DBS didn't bother picking up the last batch, just certain Cable systems.

ALL premium channels work this way...except Encore. Each Encore channel has a separate, though tiny, fee. This is primarily because there channels do not duplicate much programming.

I and many other people have posted this info dozens upon dozens of times. If anyone has any evidence to the contrary, they haven't presented it. It's possible that contracts have changed in the last few years, but I doubt it.

My guess...Cinemax is trying to force them to carry all 8 channels. They've been pushing the issue, advertising on Cinemax for OuterMax, ThrillerMax, ect. On the other hand, you never see ads for Next or FamilyZone on Showtime. DISH probably doesn't see much profit in Cinemax, because it's usually the last one picked and people are only paying a couple bucks for it.

But in any case, they wouldn't be "charged" for the extra channels. They just don't want to waste the bandwidth.
 
If people want multiple movie channels, just get c band and either a DSR 905 or DSR 922 receiver and enjoy the "true" value subbing to the movie channels. Get more for less money.
 
If people want multiple movie channels, just get c band and either a DSR 905 or DSR 922 receiver and enjoy the "true" value subbing to the movie channels. Get more for less money.

Now here is another opportunity for NPS. They can offer the stations E* doesn't carry. They already have contracts to sell them via c-band. They can call it the "premium extras package".
 
Contracts with programmers may restrict that. Then again why have second or third generation feeds when you can watch the master feeds? It's the ONLY way of getting the best picture.
 

622 UHF remote, control TV1 functions?

622 Sd Ota?

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts