Dish Sheds 334,000 TV Subscribers in Q4, Taking a Hit From HBO and Univision Blackouts

This is not just a Dish problem, the top five providers (AT&T, Spectrum, Comcast, Dish, Verizon ) all lost 1.1 Million TV Subscribers in the 4th Quarter 2018.

Prices too high, crappy service ( glad I left Comcast with their bitrate starved video), too many other options spells disaster for the traditional TV Providers.


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That is correct . All tv video providers are suffering loss. I prefer to watch tv that does not watch me. That's why I like direct broadcasting. I really do not see myself ever being an online only tv subscriber.

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I think naming it SlingTV, a name already associated with Dish in the Sling Media, was a smart move. How many people have gotten passed at Dish and said “I am going to cancel you and go to SlingTV”. I can tell you it is usually a multiple times a day occurrence online. It’s a two-ffer
 
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I think naming it SlingTV, a name already associated with Dish in the Sling Media, was a smart move. How many people have gotten passed at Dish and said “I am going to cancel you and go to SlingTV”. I can tell you it is usually a multiple times a day occurrence online. It’s a two-ffer

Yeah, starting with a new brand makes sense in this industry, and Sling is close enough to Stream that the general public would probably get the idea. To appeal to Cord Cutters/Nevers, having a somewhat vague name that is unrelated to existing "dinosaur" brands, but related to something that streams video across the Internet seems like a good idea. Also, Dish already owned all the Sling trademarks, and they are probably using some Sling patents (and engineers) to make it work, so it makes sense to me.
 
I think DirecTV Now is rapidly catching up, and it has Fox News and HBO for only $5 a month. Plus Sling TV isn't close to making a profit, nor is anyone else in streaming TV. Google and AT&T can take losses like this and barely feel it. Not so with a smaller company like Dish.

Sure, when you are Number One you charge more. Last time I checked, Fox News and FBN charge providers $1.50 a month, compared to ESPN which charges $7.00 a month, and FNC has more viewers than ESPN.

Well, aside from losing those 267,000 subs last quarter anyway, but I am sure that is all part of the plan (to lose less money on DNow so AT&T can pay the interest on their mountain of debt).
 
That is correct . All tv video providers are suffering loss. I prefer to watch tv that does not watch me. That's why I like direct broadcasting. I really do not see myself ever being an online only tv subscriber.

Sent from my SM-G930T using the SatelliteGuys app!

Too late.

Modern TVs have software installed that can detect what you are watching by examining the screen. Even OTA. They plan to use that to target advertising. I forget the name. I plan to block such at the router to stop my new Sony from snitching on me.


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One concern I have is with Dish losing subs, does this mean Dish is less apt to add new channels?

If there were new channels to add maybe. With so many fewer viewers that's less potential advertising revenue.
For quite sometime notice the only channels added are meant for OTA like MeTV, Grit etc and I would guess those they can add and I believe were good additions. Are there many channels DISH does not have that keep people from getting or keeping DISH? (Aside maybe from some of the ones they are in dispute with?)

I don't want to overstate it but I think the mistake DISH continues to make is not having every channel they carry in HD, assuming they are available in HD of course.
 
Too late.

Modern TVs have software installed that can detect what you are watching by examining the screen. Even OTA. They plan to use that to target advertising. I forget the name. I plan to block such at the router to stop my new Sony from snitching on me.


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They are beyond the planning stages. My 2012 Samsung Plasma started showing me banner ads during programming back in 2014. Needless to say, that is when I stopped connecting my smart TVs to my home network. If they need a firmware update, I do it via USB or a temporarily connected ethernet cable (if I am desperate).
 
One concern I have is with Dish losing subs, does this mean Dish is less apt to add new channels?
I look at it this way. Less subs , less buying power for potential new channels and then there is the contract. They can't guarantee a large amount of subscribers for the channel if they are continually losing subs. This means to me that they will charge more for DISH to carry the channel since they can't use volume of subs to guarantee a certain dollar amount to the channel itself. Kind of like what is happened with HBO. DISH couldn't guarantee a certain amount of subs and didn't want to pay a straight dollar amount to HBO ,because it would mean passing the cost on to every subscriber, just to get that guaranteed dollar amount to HBO. DISH loses leverage with every lost sub in my view.
 

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