100 HD Channels

[AIA_SMALZ_11]

Like most people i have a very hard time buying into D*TV's promotion of 100 National HD Channels by end of this year. But reading all the channels they have announced i have to wonder if they are exlusive to D*TV or will other providers (FiOS) pick these up at the same time? Even if they don't have 100 by end of the year, having FX, SciFi USA and others on that has me very excited, but have no desire to go back to D*TV. Any news of this coming the FiOS way?

DJ

 

[LonghornXP]

I have been told they won't be exclusive to DirecTV not even for a week. Also beyond what I was told it would be against the law for both the network and DirecTV to sign an exclusive deal as well. Only very few things can remain exclusive and the list is below.

1. Any channel from the source to the customer that stays on a closed system can be exclusive. Nearly all channels are hosted on a satellite so they can be picked up (by satellite dishes of course) by the different MSO's (ie cable and DirecTV, Dish Network and FIOS to name most). Once the feeds are picked up by the MSO they are sent to customers via their closed network. Channels hosted on a satellite are HBO, Starz, ESPN to name a few and again nearly all channels are hosted on a satellite. Any channel hosted on a satellite by law must be allowed on any MSO that wants it at a cost similar to other contracts with other MSO's.

Examples of channels sent over a closed system would be Comcast Sports Net Philly to name the big channel using the loophole in the law. So the reason CSN Philly can stay exclusive is because of a loophole in the law. This loophole states that a channel doesn't have to be offered to any company that needs a satellite to offer said channel to customers "as long" as the channel is never sent on a satellite. So in this channels case Comcast has a fiber feed at their studio and stadiums that directly connect the feed into the Comcast cable system which allows Comcast customers to view that channel. This feed never touches a satellite and stays within a closed wired system from the source to the customer.

Because DirecTV and Dish Network both need to use a satellite to send the channel to their customers if Comcast doesn't want to provide the feed DirecTV and Dish Network cannot do anything about it.

Now if Verizon FIOS wanted to offer CSN Philly only to Philly customers Comcast cannot withhold that channel from Verizon as long as Verizon uses the fiber feed and sends the channel over their own fiber connection.

I know this is complex but it will ease your worries about future HDTV channels.

2. The last way a channel or package can be kept exclusive is if that network was granted an anti-trust exemption from the government. The only two companies that have TV broadcasts that have this exemption are the NFL and MLB. As such this is why the MLB was able to attempt and work an exclusive deal with DirecTV for MLB Extra Innings package. Lucky for us MLB was willing to allow other companies to offer this package such as Comcast but the fact still remains that at the end of the contract it can become exclusive again. Also the NFL does have an exclusive deal with DirecTV for their NFL Sunday Ticket package and after 2010 it would remain exclusive to DirecTV unless the NFL is willing to allow other companies to offer this package.

The only way for the above example 2 to be fixed is by one of two things.

1. The government would need to pass a law saying that no TV channel or package can be offered on an exclusive basis. This wouldn't stop MLB and the NFL from having exclusive deals outside of TV such as the NFL has the EA Sports for NFL video games.

2. The government could decide "not" to allow the NFL and MLB to have their anti-trust exemption and at that point because the MLB Extra Innings and NFL Sunday Ticket packages are broadcast using satellites they could no longer stay exclusive. So the only company that can offer an exclusive contract would be a company like Comcast who can keep all the games on their closed cable system. The problem with this is that it would be an anti-trust issue if Comcast worked a deal like that because its a national package offering that doesn't get offered on a national footprint. The CSN Philly is a different case because its local programming offered only within the local market. So if Comcast got an exclusive deal for say NFL Sunday Ticket it would be anti-trust because BHN customers had no option to get the package because Comcast doesn't serve their area. So the only way that Comcast for example could have an exclusive deal is if the deal required that Comcast offered the package to all companies who serve customers outside of a Comcast area.

My belief is that no programming should be exclusive on any level but these things above are the ways its done today or could be done in the future.

 

[garlandtxuser]

Like most people i have a very hard time buying into D*TV's promotion of 100 National HD Channels by end of this year. But reading all the channels they have announced i have to wonder if they are exlusive to D*TV or will other providers (FiOS) pick these up at the same time? Even if they don't have 100 by end of the year, having FX, SciFi USA and others on that has me very excited, but have no desire to go back to D*TV. Any news of this coming the FiOS way?

DJ

Although I hate to come to Verizons aid right now, everyone should read DirecTv's claims very carefully.

The future of television has arrived. DIRECTV brings you our new HD DVR, soon with the capacity to offer 150 HD channels*,

*Number of channels subject to available HD programming.

This is a really easy claim for them to make, but one must also remember that DirecTv utilizes HDLite to send their HD content to the subscribers. More can be read about HDLite by following the link. Suffice to say that DirecTv is not broadcasting, transmitting, or forwarding in HD no matter what they claim.

In addition, note that they are only claiming they have capacity to boradcast 150 HD channels, not that they have that many signed up. This is deceptive advertising at the finest levels.

Another part of the report claims assumptions that they have the 3 times the capacity of cable providers. Two things to keep in mind here are:

1) Satellite providers are compressing the HD signals and cable providers are sending pure HD with no filtering and compression.

2) Fios is not a traditional cable provider. Fios utilizes fiber optics to reach the home where traditional cable companies utilize copper coax. Coax, at best, is limited to 10Mps (megabytes per second) where fiber optic can reach speeds of 10Gps (gigabytes per second).

As a side note, satellite has a maximum capacity of 60Mps assuming a perfect signal and large apature dish, not a pizza sized dish that DirecTv sends it's customers.

Again, I am very disappointed with Verizons choice in hardware but the concept and delivery that they are doing is the future. Satellite will be the option for extreme rural areas in the future where fiber does not go. One must question the financial viability of this service. Air time on those expensive birds is not cheap and, unlike fiber, they get old and have to be replaced. This means that as fiber gets the infreastructure built costs can start to decline; where satellite will continue to have to fund new equipment launches, which the customers pay for.

My recommendations:

If you are happy with your current service stay with it until Verizon works out the hardware and software problems with its service. If you are at the end of a contract and someone else wants you to renew, DON'T. Go month to month or go ahead and make the switch.

Hopefully Verizon will have some customer loyalty incentives in the future. If this were the case it would make it very difficult for the satellite providers to profit as they rely on people changing service providers.

 

[stevenl]

Coax has a much larger capcity then that, upwards of 52 Mbps Just to clarify and the fiber coming to the home from fios although technicaly capable of speeds you speak they run single gige. So it want surpass 1gbps

 

[garlandtxuser]

Coax has a much larger capcity then that, upwards of 52 Mbps Just to clarify and the fiber coming to the home from fios although technicaly capable of speeds you speak they run single gige. So it want surpass 1gbps

Steven, what you say is somewhat correct. Coax 'can' run at faster speeds in a very isolated system. In an open system with long runs similiar to those with cable television 10meg is about all they can realisitcally expect.

Your statement is accurate about Fios using single gig. The transmission equipment they use currently has single gig cards inserted. Upgrading is just a matter of replacing some cards (leaving the home node out of the picture). As a matter of fact, I do not think t hat they even deliver a gigs worth to the home, only about 100meg. Not to say that they will ever deliver more than a gig to the home, I would assume that their backbone is much larger than a gig and that if it were financially feasible to deliver more bandwidth they would.

 

[stevenl]

Comcast and timewarner have areas where they offer internet speeds up to 20mbit, (I think TWCNY is working on 30mbit soon) Coax is perfectly capable of sustaining 52mbit+ in your basic HFC network, As networks shrink and the N+1 Archtiture is applied this should be possible even more so. In orlando we offer 15mbit already, with BHN. With the new docsis2.0 and the soon to be 3.0 Expect cable internet at 10mbit the norm by years end and premium at 20mbit.

Im not argueing that fiber doesnt have larger capcity that would be silly, just saying coax still has enough capity to mantain the compeition with the fibertohome networks for the time being. And do so much cheaper then Fios.

 

[JimK2]

Cable wastes 50%-75% of its bandwidth on 'must carry' analog channels. Full digital 860mhz 132 channel Cable system information rate 132 x 38 Mbps = 5Gbps. 38 Mbps (256 QAM) per 6mhz bandwidth

The current iteration of the FiOS hardware has an 860mhz bandwidth for the video service. This is the same as most cable systems upgraded within the past 5 years

 

[stevenl]

is it 38 per spectrum? I thought 52 but I could of been wrong.

 

[EEJay]

Im not argueing that fiber doesnt have larger capcity that would be silly, just saying coax still has enough capity to mantain the compeition with the fibertohome networks for the time being. And do so much cheaper then Fios.

Can't comment on BHN, but my 5Mb Internet FiOS in MD is $20 a month cheaper than my 4Mb Comcast. TV is cheaper as well. Combine that with the fact that Comcast is about the most hated company of any sort in my area and the choice is obvious.

 

[stevenl]

Cable TV has always been a regional business. ne comcast region is not the same as the other as far as level of service. I am sure fios is the same.

 

[JimK2]

is it 38 per spectrum? I thought 52 but I could of been wrong.

The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Standards
ENGINEERING COMMITTEE Digital Video Sub committee
http://www.scte.org/documents/standards/approved/ANSISCTE072006.pdf
Good read if you have an interest