Could it be....

[ReconPJ]

that these moves this past couple of weeks are in anticipation of the NHL and the NBA HD feeds getting ready to be shut off since their respective seasons are winding down? Would make sense to me (and I am in no way the tech guy on this) that once the season is over, the bandwidth can be recouped, and given to national HD channels. By October of this year they will be able to have another sattelite up and running in order to put these channels back up online. Also, this would explain the reason not to go with MLB Extra Innings again this year. Too much bandwidth vs. not enough subscribers. Most fans in their local area get their own local teams. (yes there are some exceptions). Any thoughts to my maddness on this one?

 

[hockeyinsd]

Definitely not the case. The NHL/NBA HD games are mapped to the RSN-HD channel. For the most part, now that the MLB season has started, the RSN-HD channels are showing MLB games in HD (local market). Basically, the NHL & NBA HD channels are "virtual," they don't take up any extra bandwidth. There may be the occasional HDALT feed that is put up for NHL or NBA HD games, but they wouldn't make use of that is I believe their is an entire transponder or two that is dedicated to RSN-HD games. I don't see that changing as people would get pretty pissed off.

 

[JohnL]

that these moves this past couple of weeks are in anticipation of the NHL and the NBA HD feeds getting ready to be shut off since their respective seasons are winding down? Would make sense to me (and I am in no way the tech guy on this) that once the season is over, the bandwidth can be recouped, and given to national HD channels. By October of this year they will be able to have another sattelite up and running in order to put these channels back up online. Also, this would explain the reason not to go with MLB Extra Innings again this year. Too much bandwidth vs. not enough subscribers. Most fans in their local area get their own local teams. (yes there are some exceptions). Any thoughts to my maddness on this one?

Recon,

While both the NBA and NHL seasons will be ending for the summer by June at the latest, Dish will still need to save Bandwidth once both leagues start up again in the fall.

With all that said Dish doesn't even use one transponder worth of space for these feeds. When OOM Feeds are not carrying any live games they use NO BANDWIDTH at all. This means that for about 20 hours a day Dish is using no bandwidth to carry these channels.

The reason Dish does NOT have MLB Extra Innings has nothing at all to do with bandwidth restrictions. Dish didn't want to pay the same fees DirecTV did to carry MLB Extra Innings. DirecTV ponyed up huge dollars as well as extra fees paid to create and support the NEW MLB channel. Dish had a choice to match what DirecTV paid to carry MLB Extra Innings. This decision had to be made so many days after DirecTV signed their contract. Dish decided to decline carrying Extra Innings. My thought is Dish wouldn't likely make any money carrying Extra Innings based on the costs and projected Subscriber uptake rates for Extra Innings, so Dish passed on it. Even though I sub to NHL Center Ice, I don't sub to other OOM Packages. If my Dish Core Package went up in price to support carrying OOM Packages I'D BE REALLY PISSED. IMHO, If the OOM Fees alone can't support carrying those packages by themselves they should not be carried

Both MLB and NFL leagues Season passes have asked for a lot of money on top of the royalties paid per subscriber taking the packages. The NBA and NHL do not have these extra associated fees for their associated packages. This is the reason both are still available on Dish Network.

If you need to sub to Extra Innings then DirecTV is the way to go.

John

 

[ReconPJ]

John,

I knew price was a factor, but if you say that those channels don't take up the bandwisdth, then good to go. There just seem to be a lot of them (ALT's too). Again, I am not the tech savy guy when it comes to this. I also just figured that they could lose them now, devote the channel space to some national HD channels, and then hope that the other sattelite is up and ruuning by the time the season kicks off next year...

 

[8bitbytes]

Hey! Another Recon!

It will be interesting to see the Dish Plan unfold and see where all these channels go. It has become a high tension waiting game for more than a few around here!