Ad-Free Streaming Is Big COVID-19 Winner, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen Says, While Linear TV Watching Is “Painful”

[osu1991]

Ad-Free Streaming Is Big COVID-19 Winner, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen Says, While Linear TV Watching Is “Painful”

Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen amped up his critique of the traditional TV business during a conference call with analysts Thursday.

deadline.com

Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen, a vocal critic of the programmers he routinely jousts with in contract talks, amped up his critique of the traditional TV business during a conference call with analysts Thursday.

“The product itself, from a consumer point of view, isn’t good enough,” Ergen declared. While viewing during the past two months has surged across the board due to COVID-19 shutdowns, he expects that most of the increase has gone toward ad-free streaming services. “It’s human nature. They’re going to Disney+ or Netflix or Amazon because there’s not commercials and because you can binge-watch something or you can watch whenever you want to.”

Even on ad-supported streaming services, Ergen went on, “it’s a lighter load” compared with linear. On traditional telecasts, including on Dish, “You might have 16, 17 minutes of commercial time during a show. It might be a really good show, but it’s painful once you’ve seen something without commercials.”


from that article, looks like contract with Viacom/CBS is coming up this summer and no movement with Sinclair on RSN's

 

[MikeD-C05]

That's why dvrs were created. To skip over commercials so you don't ever have to see one. But I like the automatic skip feature on Tablo. It clears out all commercials on recordings and you get one show with little interruptions.

 

[babnmn]

My 2 cents. After the first month, the subscription costs $4.99 per month, or you can pay $150 for a lifetime subscription. << Included in this is the fee for the Guide and i'm sure some of it goes to the broadcasters to make them happy and not sue about the commercial skipping. Also I have Philo streaming service . Some shows on there DVR you can skip commercials and others you can't.

 

[osu1991]

My 2 cents. After the first month, the subscription costs $4.99 per month, or you can pay $150 for a lifetime subscription.

You can skip ads on all recorded shows. It’s the VOD that shows up with the dvr shows you can’t skip the ads on.

I really like Philo and the price. I don’t need locals and although I do like some sports, the costs have risen to levels I don’t think it’s worth it and the news channels don’t really have news anymore, just opinions.

Picture quality is good and the app works really well on the latest 4K Fire Sticks.