Anyone else surprised?

[David]

I was reading Friday's USA Today and every few sections had at least one (sometimes 2 or 3) full page ads for Direct TV's leading HD offerings. I am surprised that we haven't seen a quick counterstrike by Dish. There haven't been any new HD channel offerings from E* for awhile. At least you would think that you would hear about rumors of impending additions. It is amazing to me that Fox Business Channel isn't on yet. You would think that any channel would want to have as many viewers as possible upon it's launch. It is a business after all...

 

[blackwhole]

Did you notice how many of D* HD channels were not actually available? I know at least Speed HD doesn't launch until February 2008.

Marketing...

 

[kovach]

Dish had a nice big color ad countering D*'s claims today in the same newspaper!

P9 of the Sports section (some excerpts from the ad):

"Dish Network has the best sports and movies in HD with an HD DVR that's better than TiVo and DirecTV's. If you want HD, you need Dish Network."

"Most national HD channels"
"75 channels, leading the industry in HD"

"Best HD DVR on the planet"
"Better than TiVo (CNET 3/10/07)
"DirecTV HD DVR is "mediocre" (Average user rating on CNET.com as of 10/18/07)

 

[TulsaCoker]

Didn't E* recently add TBS-HD?

 

[blueman]

and NHL Network HD

 

[TulsaCoker]

I guess so much for not adding any HD channels in a while.

 

[blueman]

i'll say

 

[David]

I guess so much for not adding any HD channels in a while.

I meant since the big Direct TV rollout and ad campaign...

 

[BigTimMN]

Alot of the channels in the big rollout were already on Dish... we are missing some, but considering the build up we had in July, Aug and Sept prior to D*, we have had more HD for a longer period of time... but if nothing happens before the end of the year or in the least a concrete plan (i.e. Sat launched) and dates of additions... they will be in some serious trouble, esp with the difference in the on-demand services on top of the HD.

 

[WilliamC]

Alot of the channels in the big rollout were already on Dish... we are missing some, but considering the build up we had in July, Aug and Sept prior to D*, we have had more HD for a longer period of time... but if nothing happens before the end of the year or in the least a concrete plan (i.e. Sat launched) and dates of additions... they will be in some serious trouble, esp with the difference in the on-demand services on top of the HD.

Not to mention the fact that from some user reports it seems D* HD looks better than E*'s. For some that may play a larger role than anything. I know for me when I moved to E* it was because they had better PQ on HD channels. This has been changing for the worse in the last couple of months.

 

[DishSubLA]

I was reading Friday's USA Today and every few sections had at least one (sometimes 2 or 3) full page ads for Direct TV's leading HD offerings. I am surprised that we haven't seen a quick counterstrike by Dish. There haven't been any new HD channel offerings from E* for awhile. At least you would think that you would hear about rumors of impending additions. It is amazing to me that Fox Business Channel isn't on yet. You would think that any channel would want to have as many viewers as possible upon it's launch. It is a business after all...

Echostar is a relatively small company--Direct TV is a much a larger company. Dish just doesn't have the deep pockets for the kind of hugely expensive ads that Direct or some of the largest cable companies roll out. This is the very reason why it is rumored that Dish may be for sale. Ergan has always acknowledged Dish's disadvantage of not being a conglomerate complete media company with ownership of several channels and the mega-$$$$ that come with it for flashy ads and what not. A few years ago Ergan statetd that he could continue to operate Dish as an independant for "a few more years." Those "few more years" have now arrived. We will see something happen at Dish very soon. Or, as Ergan himself put it: "Either I write a big check [buy a big media company] or someone writes me a check [he sells Dish], and I'm down the road."

We shall lament Charlie's absence and his deals for upgrades and access to the "Executive Offices" for smart CSR's who have saved the day. Let's hope Chuck manages to stay on board.

 

[TNGTony]

Ever since its inception people have been saying Dish is "ripe for a buy-out". The first in line was Rupert Murdoch back in 1997. Thanks to his fumbling the deal Dish ended up with his satellite location at 110 along with two satellites and 29 transponder licenses!

In early 1997 when I first started looking at satellite services and Dish's top tier was $25 a month with a whopping 50 channels there were people constantly posting "tic-toc" on a.d.e. (usenet- before any of the discussion boards) as a timer when Dish was going to go under or be sold out for exactly the same reasons listed above. Over a decade later, I am still waiting.

In the mean time DirecTV, the big conglomerate that has deep pockets has changed hands TWICE! (Okay 1 and a half)

Like a bad Dragnet episode, the names have changed but the story is the same. So instead of NewsCorp, it's now AT&T (for the third time in 5 years).

As to the HD channel count, it is being disputed in many other threads and there are pretty difinitive lists available there. NEITHER Dish nor DirecTV have a monopoly on all the HD channels. Yes DirecTV launched a ton of HD channels recently. Dish launced a ton of HD channel BEFORE DirecTV did. Now, they have about the same number. DirecTV has CNBC HD which has zero HD content, just 16x9sd with the 4x3 pix of the regular CNBC channel on one side and some ticker info on the "extra" space. Dish has Voom!

See ya
Tony

 

[Tyralak]

Dish had a nice big color ad countering D*'s claims today in the same newspaper!

P9 of the Sports section (some excerpts from the ad):

"Dish Network has the best sports and movies in HD with an HD DVR that's better than TiVo and DirecTV's. If you want HD, you need Dish Network."

"Most national HD channels"
"75 channels, leading the industry in HD"

"Best HD DVR on the planet"
"Better than TiVo (CNET 3/10/07)
"DirecTV HD DVR is "mediocre" (Average user rating on CNET.com as of 10/18/07)

How in the hell is E* figuring they have 75 HD channels?

 

[dfergie]

I started with BUD(80's pre vc II)... then DirecTv(96)... then Dish, (01)kept progamming with Directv for distants, migrated mostly to Dish. I have not seen the need to upgrade my DirecTv recievers yet as with Dish net and the HDD archiving I can't catch up... when BSG comes around next spring or so on ScifiHD and IF dish doesn't have It, I will upgrade to the Directv mpeg4 receivers... however right now no commitments to either so it could change in a heartrbeat