Dish and ESPN
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FROM CNN MONEY: "Right now ESPN charges Comcast (CMCSK), DirectTV (DTV) and their competitors about $55 per subscriber per year to carry the main ESPN channels. But the sports network, which is owned by Disney (DIS), just signed a huge new deal to carry Monday Night Football through 2021 at a staggering cost of $15 billion. There's no question ESPN is going to use that cost to justify further hikes in its subscriber fees."
This may be the best news yet for Dish Network, and other re-trans, subscribers!
The pricing has gone through the roof and the distributors are putting channels like Turner Classic Movies into the top tiers so they can force subscribers who want quality HD movie entertainment - WITHOUT COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTIONS - to subsidize the cost of ESPN and other networks.
Give me BASIC - BASIC - BASIC programming - EXCLUSIVELY in HD - let the distributors put a DOWN COVERT output on their set top boxes and cut out the wasted bandwidth, satellite, and equipment costs.
Now make that BASIC PACKAGE include all of the the BASIC LOCAL CHANNELS - including ALL the subs, IN HD, and INCLUDE ALL OF THE LOCAL PBS CHANNELS - IN HD - in that package.
Then give a MOVIES ONLY add-on; a SPORTS ONLY add-on; a CHILDREN'S / FAMILY add-on; etc. Each of these is a SEPARATE PACKAGE which cannot be purchased without the BASIC PACKAGE - they are ALL 100% HD. Some channels may have commercials, some may not. [PERSONAL EDITORIAL COMMENT - If we are paying a premium for a movie channel, there is no way in hell we will watch one with 39 minutes of commercials and 21 minutes of movie in every hour - BLOCKED!]
Keep the premium packages as they are: HBO, SHOWTIME, etc, but mandate HD on ALL channels available in HD and do not allow the originators of the content to charge one price for SD and another for HD.
This whole concept of "pay TV" has turned into "GREED TV" and MLB, the NFL, and ESPN are the ring leaders in promoting the GREED portion of the concept.
Your opinion may differ, but we are retiring in a year and will not be paying any more for television programming than we are now... Keep on raising the ESPN pricing; keep passing the ESPN pricing on to those who never watch it, and we will start pulling the plug if the prices go up again.
This may be the best news yet for Dish Network, and other re-trans, subscribers!
The pricing has gone through the roof and the distributors are putting channels like Turner Classic Movies into the top tiers so they can force subscribers who want quality HD movie entertainment - WITHOUT COMMERCIAL INTERRUPTIONS - to subsidize the cost of ESPN and other networks.
Give me BASIC - BASIC - BASIC programming - EXCLUSIVELY in HD - let the distributors put a DOWN COVERT output on their set top boxes and cut out the wasted bandwidth, satellite, and equipment costs.
Now make that BASIC PACKAGE include all of the the BASIC LOCAL CHANNELS - including ALL the subs, IN HD, and INCLUDE ALL OF THE LOCAL PBS CHANNELS - IN HD - in that package.
Then give a MOVIES ONLY add-on; a SPORTS ONLY add-on; a CHILDREN'S / FAMILY add-on; etc. Each of these is a SEPARATE PACKAGE which cannot be purchased without the BASIC PACKAGE - they are ALL 100% HD. Some channels may have commercials, some may not. [PERSONAL EDITORIAL COMMENT - If we are paying a premium for a movie channel, there is no way in hell we will watch one with 39 minutes of commercials and 21 minutes of movie in every hour - BLOCKED!]
Keep the premium packages as they are: HBO, SHOWTIME, etc, but mandate HD on ALL channels available in HD and do not allow the originators of the content to charge one price for SD and another for HD.
This whole concept of "pay TV" has turned into "GREED TV" and MLB, the NFL, and ESPN are the ring leaders in promoting the GREED portion of the concept.
Your opinion may differ, but we are retiring in a year and will not be paying any more for television programming than we are now... Keep on raising the ESPN pricing; keep passing the ESPN pricing on to those who never watch it, and we will start pulling the plug if the prices go up again.
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Read it. What did you think I missed? This quote in particular sounded pretty Jenga-esque:
TFA said:
"Let us aka the company save $5 x 14 million..." Goodbye ESPN, hello more cash for Dish, not necessarily Dish subs. Not saying it'd be a 1-to-1, but it's not like every tier of Dish with ESPN drops $5 if they don't re-up. Capiche?
Not sure what you think I missed. And yes, I realize it's the Post, but it's still a useful thought experiment that's not out of the realm of possibility.
That's what I thought until I saw this from the dbs talk thread. If whatever deadline.com is is worth a rip, only 2.5% of folk really care about ESPN. That seems much too low, but I might be reading my own bias into it. I do wonder if that's 2.5% of, as they say, viewers, rather than necessarily 2.5% of homes (ie, if one in four family members watches ESPN, that 2.5% could be a higher figure when it comes to those who would cancel if ESPN left).
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You missed the fact that the whole piece was a plant. There are no contracts coming up for Dish and ESPN. Scott told you that earlier in this thread. You keep giving a link to someone at dbs that missed that fact too. It is all RUMOR & INNUENDO plant by Disney to make people freak out.
Even if it is, it's, again, an interesting thought experiment that's not outside of the realm of possibility. How long can ESPN keep pumping up prices? Why isn't this story a Dish plant? It seems to me to be more sympathetic to Dish than Disney.
I know the Post isn't the Times, but that doesn't mean there isn't a little smoke. Heck, I'm surprised Dish doesn't carry Disney HD. That seems pretty hardball already to me. I'd be surprised if Dish dropped ESPN -- or even ESPN in HD -- but it's not impossible. Scott's first post in the thread seems to suggest he at least initially thought the article was credible.
So I think what you really meant to ask is if I'd read all of Scott's later posts (I assume this one, but maybe this one), not TFA. And it doesn't look like he knows what Dish's endgame is re:ESPN either.
I just wonder why Scott thinks that Disney had it written, not Dish, other than gut feeling. I mean, I'm sure Dish is always at least informally negotiating with content providers. And would Disney really ask for stuff like, "Disney-ESPN is already the highest-priced network, at $4.69 a month per subscriber, according to research firm Kagan," to be included? If so, they obviously didn't grease the Post's palm well enough.
Spill the beans, man!
E* did carry Disney in HD till Disney decided that they wanted payment twice for it. Once for SD & once for HD. Then it was pulled from E* and the law suits started. Disney is loosing every step of the way in court so far. So Disney is trying to undermine them by attacking E* every way they can. The wholesale rate card for all channels is common knowledge so it doesn't matter stating price. Alarming the public is all that this piece is for. BTW it was the 1st one of Scott's post you linked.Even if it is, it's, again, an interesting thought experiment that's not outside of the realm of possibility. How long can ESPN keep pumping up prices? Why isn't this story a Dish plant? It seems to me to be more sympathetic to Dish than Disney.
I know the Post isn't the Times, but that doesn't mean there isn't a little smoke. Heck, I'm surprised Dish doesn't carry Disney HD. That seems pretty hardball already to me. I'd be surprised if Dish dropped ESPN -- or even ESPN in HD -- but it's not impossible. Scott's first post in the thread seems to suggest he at least initially thought the article was credible.
So I think what you really meant to ask is if I'd read all of Scott's later posts (I assume this one, but maybe this one), not TFA. And it doesn't look like he knows what Dish's endgame is re:ESPN either.
I just wonder why Scott thinks that Disney had it written, not Dish, other than gut feeling. I mean, I'm sure Dish is always at least informally negotiating with content providers. And would Disney really ask for stuff like, "Disney-ESPN is already the highest-priced network, at $4.69 a month per subscriber, according to research firm Kagan," to be included? If so, they obviously didn't grease the Post's palm well enough.
Spill the beans, man!
There doesn't need to be a corporate connection. Much of the press is spoon-fed info from one party and there are "personal" relationships between a reporter/editor and someone at the other corporation who has someone in the press as a "hired" mouthpiece at their usual "mailbox" or journalistic publication. This is done all the time, especially in non-hard news-press. I'm sure the Post reporter/editor will be getting a box of chocolates, or a nice expensive free lunch with his "buddy" from Disney/ESPN. That's how it works.
Scott Greczkowski said:
Scott dish does that on their own!
Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys
Don't kid yourself, there will be plenty of bitching from ESPN fans on this board if/whenever they are dropped from the lineup
The bitching won't last for long because the mass exodus from Dish will greatly reduce the followers on this board. ESPN and Dish will never ever split. Neither company is that stupid. Hmmmm, well, never mind.
Again there wont be no bitching, as the story is 100% false. DISH has a long term deal with ESPN.
I know that Scott. But there has been 192 replies to this thread even though we all know the story is false. I blame the current Dish shut down to this story.
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Last I checked this was a message board where people can give their opinion.
And, my opinion stated "if/whenever".
No need to criticize that.
Good night, children. Time to go to bed. ESPN will still be here in the morning. Sleep tight.
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Ever look at the package setups they have on BellTV and Shaw Direct? I wish they had that kind of variety down here in the states.
First off, all HD boxes can already down convert their output to an SD TV. The reason Dish still has MPEG2 channels is the enormous amount of MPEG2 only receiver still out there. It will take years and years to replace all those boxes. Now why they're STILL leasing equipment not capable of decoding h.264.... to save a few bucks I guess. It would certainly be nice to only have one h.264 stream for each channel, eliminate MPEG2 and maybe slash the number of HD chans from 8 to 5 per TP thus increasing the pic quality. Ain't happening any time soon though.
Now the rest of your post:
You really think ESPN hiking their rates is a good thing for Dish? If they were to drop ESPN in order to target themselves as the low cost alternative without sports programming, I assure you Disney (who owns ESPN) would play hardball and not allow Dish to carry their other channels, namely ABC Family and Disney Chan. So now Dish is left without major sports programming and 2 of the most popular family channels. That's going to REALLY narrow their potential costumer base.
Don't "allow" (I assume you mean federal regulation) channels to charge for HD and SD streams? Guess what, they'll just charge more for a single stream.
Why should subscribers pay more through the nose because the stations paid a stupidly high dollar amount for 1 show??? Disney channel is the only one of the channels you speak of that is commercial free. You think they're only going to raise the cost to Dish Network, Direct, and the rest, and not their advertisers??? I call 'shenanigans' I'm from the old school and remember the only channels you paid for (C-Band) were the premiums like HBO (at one time even they were free). I have no heartburn paying good $ for channels w/o commercials, how else do they make $? But why do advertiser supported channels (TBS, USA, ABC Fam, ESPN) get to charge us?
Not to be confused w/ paying Dish. Dish has to pay for each channel because they would charge you and I for the 1st gen signal. So Dish is having to pay for millions of "you and I's" (plus their "mark up" for infrastructure/maintenance). They, and us, shouldn't have to pay for the $Billion (w/ a "B") for one game a week. Let the advertisers pay like they do for the Super Bowl. Any of the big 4 that get Super Bowl broadcast rights don't force local affiliates to send you a bill for that FREE signal coming over the air to your attic, tower, or TV top, they charge $$ to the advertisers and say "Hey, you'll be seen during the Super Bowl"
I say the he11 w/ them. I don't even watch Disney or ABC Fam since they pulled this whole stunt of extra $$ for HD vs SD. Let them shut off they SD signal & broadcast HD only & let the service providers do a down convert for their SD customers. All networks put the water mark & graphics in the middle of the HD screen now anyways so that if you are on an SD television, it's not cropped off... If I had my way, there'd be a lot of things done differently in the broadcast world
[/rant]
