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DirecTV unlikely to merge with EchoStar
By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:28 PM ET Dec 7, 2006
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Among all of the speculation on what might be in store for DirecTV if a controlling stake is transferred to Liberty Media Corp., one of the most tantalizing has been the prospect of a merger with satellite rival EchoStar Communications. However, analysts on Thursday said that that's unlikely due to regulatory concerns.
Shares of News Corp. advanced Thursday on published reports that it is close to securing an agreement with Liberty Media to buy back Liberty's $11 billion stake in the entertainment giant, avoiding a giant tax hit in the process.
In 2002, the Justice Department blocked EchoStar's (DISH EchoStar Communications Corp bid to acquire GM Hughes Electronics, the parent of DirecTV, saying that the number of competitors in rural markets would drop to two from one. "Absolutely nothing has changed on that score since 2002," wrote Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Co., in a note to clients Thursday.
Such a merger is impossible, according to Steve Mather, satellite analyst at Sanders Morris Harris in Los Angeles, until the regional Bell telephone companies have at least 5 million to 10 million video subscribers. After years of competing with cable for high-speed Internet and voice customers, some phone companies have recently rolled out video services.
Once the phone companies have penetrated the video market in a meaningful way, regulators would be less likely to see a merger of the two dominant satellite providers as an anticompetitive threat, Mather said in an interview.
In the meantime, DirecTV must find a way to kick-start subscriber growth, which has slowed down in the face of more rapid acceptance of cable's "triple play" bundle of digital video, digital phone and broadband services. It must also stave off the less-imminent threat of the phone companies.
In the third quarter, DirecTV picked up 165,000 net subscribers, shy of the 205,000 average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call. Part of this shortfall stemmed from installation and customer-service problems, which Mather said can be resolved.
In the second quarter, gross additions dropped 10% from a year earlier, but DirecTV said that the figure was impacted by the company's tougher credit standards and a restructuring of its network of third-party dealers.
Liberty Media Chairman John Malone's response may be to "be more aggressive in testing new ways to generate revenue," Mather added, because DirecTV will represent a bigger part of Liberty's strategy than it currently does to News Corp .
On News Corp.'s watch, DirecTV expressed little desire to rush in finding an application that could equal or surpass cable's triple play. It has looked into the possibilities of using wireless technologies, such as WiMax, to offer a broadband alternative. In the interim, it has a deal with broadband access provider EarthLink, signed this year, and a long-standing agreement to offer local and long-distance phone service from BellSouth.
Sanford Bernstein's Moffett said that a potential stumbling block for DirecTV is that for some time it underspent on high-definition upgrades of its channels, and even now that it has upgraded significantly, it will need to spend heavily on marketing to make sure consumers get the message.
The company is on track to offer more than 150 HD channels nationally by fall 2007.
Analysts point out that DirecTV's debt situation is more favorable than most video providers, with gross debt standing at $3.4 billion, giving Malone some flexibility should he acquire the company. Its gross debt to about one time Moffett's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization estimate on the company.
"Malone's not going to take the leverage to five times [EBITDA], but he's going to take it up," said Matt Harrigan, cable and satellite analyst at Janco Partners.
One possibility is that Liberty could pay out a special dividend of as much as $7 a share, according to Moffett.
Liberty will find DirecTV useful in securing better carriage for many of its programming assets, such as the home shopping channel QVC, added Harrigan. "QVC's channel position on DirecTV is not in a great spot, so I'm sure they'd bump that up. And they can use the regional sports networks to improve DirecTV's sports position."
David B. Wilkerson is a reporter for MarketWatch in Chicago.
By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch
Last Update: 6:28 PM ET Dec 7, 2006
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- Among all of the speculation on what might be in store for DirecTV if a controlling stake is transferred to Liberty Media Corp., one of the most tantalizing has been the prospect of a merger with satellite rival EchoStar Communications. However, analysts on Thursday said that that's unlikely due to regulatory concerns.
Shares of News Corp. advanced Thursday on published reports that it is close to securing an agreement with Liberty Media to buy back Liberty's $11 billion stake in the entertainment giant, avoiding a giant tax hit in the process.
In 2002, the Justice Department blocked EchoStar's (DISH EchoStar Communications Corp bid to acquire GM Hughes Electronics, the parent of DirecTV, saying that the number of competitors in rural markets would drop to two from one. "Absolutely nothing has changed on that score since 2002," wrote Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein & Co., in a note to clients Thursday.
Such a merger is impossible, according to Steve Mather, satellite analyst at Sanders Morris Harris in Los Angeles, until the regional Bell telephone companies have at least 5 million to 10 million video subscribers. After years of competing with cable for high-speed Internet and voice customers, some phone companies have recently rolled out video services.
Once the phone companies have penetrated the video market in a meaningful way, regulators would be less likely to see a merger of the two dominant satellite providers as an anticompetitive threat, Mather said in an interview.
In the meantime, DirecTV must find a way to kick-start subscriber growth, which has slowed down in the face of more rapid acceptance of cable's "triple play" bundle of digital video, digital phone and broadband services. It must also stave off the less-imminent threat of the phone companies.
In the third quarter, DirecTV picked up 165,000 net subscribers, shy of the 205,000 average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson First Call. Part of this shortfall stemmed from installation and customer-service problems, which Mather said can be resolved.
In the second quarter, gross additions dropped 10% from a year earlier, but DirecTV said that the figure was impacted by the company's tougher credit standards and a restructuring of its network of third-party dealers.
Liberty Media Chairman John Malone's response may be to "be more aggressive in testing new ways to generate revenue," Mather added, because DirecTV will represent a bigger part of Liberty's strategy than it currently does to News Corp .
On News Corp.'s watch, DirecTV expressed little desire to rush in finding an application that could equal or surpass cable's triple play. It has looked into the possibilities of using wireless technologies, such as WiMax, to offer a broadband alternative. In the interim, it has a deal with broadband access provider EarthLink, signed this year, and a long-standing agreement to offer local and long-distance phone service from BellSouth.
Sanford Bernstein's Moffett said that a potential stumbling block for DirecTV is that for some time it underspent on high-definition upgrades of its channels, and even now that it has upgraded significantly, it will need to spend heavily on marketing to make sure consumers get the message.
The company is on track to offer more than 150 HD channels nationally by fall 2007.
Analysts point out that DirecTV's debt situation is more favorable than most video providers, with gross debt standing at $3.4 billion, giving Malone some flexibility should he acquire the company. Its gross debt to about one time Moffett's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization estimate on the company.
"Malone's not going to take the leverage to five times [EBITDA], but he's going to take it up," said Matt Harrigan, cable and satellite analyst at Janco Partners.
One possibility is that Liberty could pay out a special dividend of as much as $7 a share, according to Moffett.
Liberty will find DirecTV useful in securing better carriage for many of its programming assets, such as the home shopping channel QVC, added Harrigan. "QVC's channel position on DirecTV is not in a great spot, so I'm sure they'd bump that up. And they can use the regional sports networks to improve DirecTV's sports position."
David B. Wilkerson is a reporter for MarketWatch in Chicago.
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I always get a kick out of how D* claims that they will be offering 150HD channels next year; even though they are almost entirely locals. Hell, there aren't close to 150 HD "channels" out there, in terms of separate programming.
E
True.. I got rid of D* cause the HD was just dissapointing. (was not happy with the out of Tivo also).
150's being local does nothing for anyone really.. I am not saying that all thoes Locals are needed, but I know why E* is not getting all that many HD's either because D* isn't.. it's going to be "we are just one step ahead" no compitition .
Cable in my area has a good selection but not worth the cost.
I don't want to step on other peoples feet, but what is the % of people who NEED local's from the Sat and get them from an Antenna?
e..b
I always get a kick out of how D* claims that they will be offering 150HD channels next year; even though they are almost entirely locals. Hell, there aren't close to 150 HD "channels" out there, in terms of separate programming.
True.. I got rid of D* cause the HD was just dissapointing. (was not happy with the out of Tivo also).
150's being local does nothing for anyone really.. I am not saying that all thoes Locals are needed, but I know why E* is not getting all that many HD's either because D* isn't.. it's going to be "we are just one step ahead" no compitition .
Cable in my area has a good selection but not worth the cost.
I don't want to step on other peoples feet, but what is the % of people who NEED local's from the Sat and get them from an Antenna?
e..b
Dish merging with Direct Tv would be kinda cool can you picture the amount of channels that would be available on our satellite's but like other's have already said fcc would probably sh#t on the whole idea.
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Lifetime Supporter
This should hit a lot of folks with a dose of reality. I can only imagine how much more common this will get as AI progresses.
I read several stories on this and most are clear as mud. They say a lot of the stolen bitcoin has been "locked out" and that everyone will be made financially whole. I guess time will tell if either of these statements are actually true.
www.cnbc.com
I read several stories on this and most are clear as mud. They say a lot of the stolen bitcoin has been "locked out" and that everyone will be made financially whole. I guess time will tell if either of these statements are actually true.
Hackers steal $6.3 billion from Binance in biggest-ever cryptocurrency theft
The company later added it began recovering assets impacted by the breach after pledging to cover losses using its Secure Asset Fund for Users.
www.cnbc.com
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Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Over the past year I have been tracking the changes on Western Arc. The past 3 months have had a lot of changes that I posted in the other MPEG2 Western Arc shutdown thread. Now that 129 is (basically) out of commission, here is where Western Arc stands. This is just a national channel list, (no local channels) based off what I can see and what others have contributed. Thanks to everyone who has helped me come up with the locations of some of the channels – I would try and list all of you out, but I know I would forget someone! As has been suggested in other parts of the forum, it would be great to collect the spotbeam data for those who could contribute!
A couple of pieces of info:
When I talk about number of channels on a transponder, all my numbers are unique channels – for example, channel 101 and 199 are the same channel mapped to two different numbers, but in terms of space, only takes up 1 channel worth of bandwidth on the transponder.
Finally, I have to give Dish a ton of credit. When it was 110/119/129, Dish had 82 transponders they were using – it took a lot to get it down to 50 transponders and figure out where all the pieces were going to go. What are the things they did to get there? Here are the things I saw:
A couple of pieces of info:
- Out of the 64 transponders between 110/119, there are currently 50 transponders that Dish is licensed to use. 22 are Spotbeams, 28 are ConUS transponders (14 transponders are licensed to DirecTV and Dish doesn't have access to them)
- Those 28 ConUS transponders are divided as follows:
- 10 are dedicated to National HD channels (ESPN, CNN, Disney Channel, etc). Dish is maxing out at 16 HD channels per transponder (note – in an earlier post I said there was one transponder with 17 HD channels, that was an error on my part. When I double checked my listings, one channel changed transponders). Before the transition, there was a maximum of 14 HD channels per transponder.
- 1 transponder is dedicated to adult content
- 2 are a mixture HD PPV Movies/4k channels
- 3 are set aside for HD Sports channels that are only on for live games (NBA League Pass, the PAC 12 alternate channels, some PPV events, etc); 3 SD PPV Sports Channels are there as well.
- 7 are for SD and/or music channels. Dish is maxing out at 26 SD channels per transponder thus far on the SD transponders.
- 5 transponders on 110 I have no channels listed but Dish operates. (they are labeled as ConUS on my chart below) There are other things that could be on those transponders, like RV Distant Networks, internal testing channels, etc, that I can't see. They might be able to be used for additional content, but I am not sure exactly what is on those transponders.
When I talk about number of channels on a transponder, all my numbers are unique channels – for example, channel 101 and 199 are the same channel mapped to two different numbers, but in terms of space, only takes up 1 channel worth of bandwidth on the transponder.
Finally, I have to give Dish a ton of credit. When it was 110/119/129, Dish had 82 transponders they were using – it took a lot to get it down to 50 transponders and figure out where all the pieces were going to go. What are the things they did to get there? Here are the things I saw:
- During this migration from 129, Dish converted 7 ConUS transponders on 119 into Spotbeams – that is how they ended up fitting on all the HD locals that used to be on 129. (for those interested, TP 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13 are the ones that used to be ConUS on 119 that are now Spotbeam)
- Removed almost all SD duplicate channels that are offered in HD
- Converted remaining SD channels from MPEG2 to MPEG4
- There are also 2 subtle things that changed from the HD channel perspective
- At the beginning of the transition, Dish decreased the number of PPV Movie channels – prior to this transition the PPV channels HD PPV movies were 502-522; now they are 502-517.
- At the beginning of April when MLB, NBA, and NHL regular seasons were all going on at the same time and this transition began, there were a ton of games "joined in progress" for the HD feeds. That wasn't common since the days before the full time HD RSN's. The reason for that was prior to the transition, Dish had 4 transponders set aside for HD Sports – 2 transponders was the bandwidth set aside from the HD RSN's before Dish dropped the RSN's, then 2 transponders were for alternate channels. Now we are down to 3 transponders for HD sports.
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQTrN4agnHI
Direct YouTube Link - This Week in Tech 1108
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TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQTrN4agnHI
Direct YouTube Link - This Week in Tech 1108
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Er1eWhVNDhs
Direct YouTube Link - Proton's AI Manifesto
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Er1eWhVNDhs
Direct YouTube Link - Proton's AI Manifesto
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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Over the past few weeks, I have had problems connecting to streaming services (Netflix, HBO et al). When I go to the TV's native Channels, I have no problem. The Dish internet troubleshooter shows I have a good internet connection. I'm wondering whether it's an issue with my internet provider or a problem with the Dish software on the Hopper Plus. Anyone else seeing this?
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I've had a H3 receiver for years but just recently began watching and recording 4k content. I'm consistently having the display revert to the upper left quarter of the screen after fast forwarding or pausing the playback of 4k recordings.
Some research I've done blames it on the Hopper as not having the processing power to quickly shift between the FF or pause playback formats and it leaves the playback device in a mode thinking that it's no longer receiving a 4k stream. So it displays the 1/4 image.
I've found that I can quickly recover back to a full screen 4k display by using the remote sequence Pause / Info / Resume.
I've tested this on two different monitors, but they're both LGs, so maybe it's the TVs, and not the Hopper? Is this a known problem? Anyone else experience this?
Some research I've done blames it on the Hopper as not having the processing power to quickly shift between the FF or pause playback formats and it leaves the playback device in a mode thinking that it's no longer receiving a 4k stream. So it displays the 1/4 image.
I've found that I can quickly recover back to a full screen 4k display by using the remote sequence Pause / Info / Resume.
I've tested this on two different monitors, but they're both LGs, so maybe it's the TVs, and not the Hopper? Is this a known problem? Anyone else experience this?
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Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
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2682133 views
After having continuing trouble with my eight+ year old Dell Inspiron laptop I am looking to hopefully catch a good deal on new one. My options to buy is Costco and Sam's Club. It seems like a lot of new laptops are 2 in 1 which I do not need. I use the laptop to mainly surf the web and keep up with my finances, money and bills. I would like to have at least a 15" screen and having a touchscreen is a plus. The keyboard would need to lighted also. I don't game any. It would have to be Windows instead of and not Mac. The brands I see the most are Asus, Dell and HP. My two last laptops has been Dell's. Of these brands are there any standouts over the other brands. My budget (hopefully) is $600+-. Also while researching I noticed that do not have ethernet ports.
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Pub Member / Supporter
America’s Fastest-Growing EV State Isn’t California—Not by a Long Shot
New data shows electric vehicle adoption is increasingly driven by state policies, electricity prices and charging access—not federal incentives
www.autoweek.com
The number-one US state for EV growth, according to the June 22 Yardi report?
Oklahoma.
It has no ZEV mandates and "minimal" incentives, Yardi says, but also has cheap electricity, high multi-car household rates (so, for example, a non-Lightning Ford F-150 pulls their trailers), and a consumer base willing to switch.
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1196 views
tomwellborn3rd (@wellborn.net)
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bsky.app
Never realized that Tesla is losing to BYD at manufacturing too, which IMO is Tesla's biggest accomplishment and area of innovation. Nice writeup about the state of play and how we got here though. I have no faith that we're moving any productive direction though sadly, most changes and efforts feel reactionary rather than rooted in making use of the time being bought by tariffs, with few exceptions.
So: how are the cars so cheap, and what is being cut to get there? The best public accounting comes from the Rhodium Group, which compared BYD, Geely, and Leapmotor against Tesla's Chinese operation, a fair comparison because it removes labor costs and shipping from the equation entirely. Their estimate is that BYD builds a car for about $4,700 less than Tesla builds a Model 3 in Shanghai, roughly 15 percent of the Model 3's price. The breakdown is the interesting part. Direct government grants account for about $292 per vehicle, which is 5 percent of the gap. The biggest single factor is vertical integration: BYD makes about 80 percent of its top-tier components in-house, against 37 percent for Tesla, and that eliminates roughly $2,369 per vehicle in supplier markups. Lower overhead, meaning cheaper engineering talent and administrative cost spread across enormous volume, accounts for another $1,719. And BYD pays its suppliers on 155-day terms, against Tesla's 60, which is worth about $214 per car in float. When people say the Chinese advantage is subsidies, the per-vehicle number says otherwise. When people say it is slave wages, the Tesla Shanghai comparison says otherwise too. The advantage is mostly that BYD decided, twenty years ago, to make its own batteries, its own motors, its own power electronics, and its own semiconductors, and Western automakers decided the opposite.
GM Is Coming for Tesla, Rivian, and China, on Your Phone and in the Car
GM’s latest tech preview details autonomous highway driving plans, AI-powered OnStar features, and new LMR batteries for future EVs.
GM said its next-generation vehicle architecture will provide 40 times more computing power and 30 percent less wiring than before and will expand from the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ to its high-volume SUVs, trucks, crossovers, and fourth-generation EVs, which will be powered by lithium manganese-rich (LMR) prismatic batteries
Despite the politicization and perceived consumer pivot away from EVs in America, GM needs to remain globally competitive, so it's doubling down on its fourth generation EVs, with energy-dense, cheaper-to-manufacture LMR batteries, more efficient motors, and state-of-the-art centralized computing architecture. With a stated goal of cutting the traditional four- to five-year concept-to-production time in half, GM is clearly challenging the concept of "China speed," which in the Chinese automotive industry can be as quick as 18 months from design to start of production. In the AI space, GM is smartly collapsing all of its marque-specific apps under the familiar OnStar brand, while providing more features—both on the phone and in the car—than it ever has before.
T
That's how Ford did it- vertical integration. He even set up a rubber plantation in S. Americatomwellborn3rd (@wellborn.net)
This author has chosen to make their posts visible only to people who are signed in.
Never realized that Tesla is losing to BYD at manufacturing too, which IMO is Tesla's biggest accomplishment and area of innovation. Nice writeup about the state of play and how we got here though. I have no faith that we're moving any productive direction though sadly, most changes and efforts feel reactionary rather than rooted in making use of the time being bought by tariffs, with few exceptions.
So: how are the cars so cheap, and what is being cut to get there? The best public accounting comes from the Rhodium Group, which compared BYD, Geely, and Leapmotor against Tesla's Chinese operation, a fair comparison because it removes labor costs and shipping from the equation entirely. Their estimate is that BYD builds a car for about $4,700 less than Tesla builds a Model 3 in Shanghai, roughly 15 percent of the Model 3's price. The breakdown is the interesting part. Direct government grants account for about $292 per vehicle, which is 5 percent of the gap. The biggest single factor is vertical integration: BYD makes about 80 percent of its top-tier components in-house, against 37 percent for Tesla, and that eliminates roughly $2,369 per vehicle in supplier markups. Lower overhead, meaning cheaper engineering talent and administrative cost spread across enormous volume, accounts for another $1,719. And BYD pays its suppliers on 155-day terms, against Tesla's 60, which is worth about $214 per car in float. When people say the Chinese advantage is subsidies, the per-vehicle number says otherwise. When people say it is slave wages, the Tesla Shanghai comparison says otherwise too. The advantage is mostly that BYD decided, twenty years ago, to make its own batteries, its own motors, its own power electronics, and its own semiconductors, and Western automakers decided the opposite.
Booredatwork.com
Time for another AWESOME video from BoredAtWork!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZqaME0_3Ev8
Direct YouTube Link - Xbox 25TH anniversary Controller
Booredatwork.com Website
Booredatwork on Facebook
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZqaME0_3Ev8
Direct YouTube Link - Xbox 25TH anniversary Controller
Booredatwork.com Website
Booredatwork on Facebook
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