DIRECTV CEO Vows To Resist Cable Concentration & High Charges For Weather Channel And Dodgers

[dfergie]

While he hasn’t decided whether to oppose the deal in Washington, DirecTV CEO Mike White says Comcast’s $42.5B pact to buy Time Warner Cable would result in “unprecedented media concentration in one company.” The No. 1 satellite service provider is “still assessing some of the competitive implications” but White wants to “ensure it’s appropriately scrutinized” — especially the “effective broadband monopoly they might have in two-thirds of the country.”

deadline.com

 

[Teehar]

Good read.

 

[Broe67]

Churn will never go away, and I wonder if White realizes that customers will come and go. Even at the little increase of local taxes, or the loss of say a promo discount on NFL Sunday Ticket, then having to pay for it, or having to pay for equipment, due to the customer did not have insurance for replacement.

When this does happen (the merger), I expect it to be no different then any other merger that has happened in the past five years. The people that will be hurt, are the rural Road Runner customers for TWC.

You will also see a couple of the sports networks that overlap what Comcast offers, go away or get turned into Regional networks. There was also an article on 2/18/14, that DirecTV is suggesting a a-la Carte for the TWC Sportsnet. http://www.fiercecable.com/story/directv-suggests-la-carte-distribution-twcs-sportsnet-la/2014-02-18

 

[dishcomm]

While he hasn’t decided whether to oppose the deal in Washington, DirecTV CEO Mike White says Comcast’s $42.5B pact to buy Time Warner Cable would result in “unprecedented media concentration in one company.” The No. 1 satellite service provider is “still assessing some of the competitive implications” but White wants to “ensure it’s appropriately scrutinized” — especially the “effective broadband monopoly they might have in two-thirds of the country.”

deadline.com

That deal, if it receives DOJ approval, will most likely drive up cable and internet rates to unprecedented levels.
I think the whole model has to be brought under federal scrutiny. The reason is most folks that save where there may be a telco providing video and internet services, cable has a virtual monopoly .

 

[mikew]

How about this comment:

White says he’ll continue to resist high programming costs. ”None of our customers have an income like those of us on the call here.”

 

[whitewolf8214]

Very good read!!

 

[Broe67]

That deal, if it receives DOJ approval, will most likely drive up cable and internet rates to unprecedented levels.
I think the whole model has to be brought under federal scrutiny. The reason is most folks that save where there may be a telco providing video and internet services, cable has a virtual monopoly .

Doubtful.

 

[Broe67]

How about this comment:

White says he’ll continue to resist high programming costs. ”None of our customers have an income like those of us on the call here.”

White would be surprised at how much income a lot of sub's have, that has his service. His compensation for 2012 from DirecTV, was only $18.04 million. Options was $1.01 million. Whirlpool Corp. Compensation $257,764. Pepsico only had Stock ownership.

I personally know some people that make twice to three times as much as White made in 2012.

 

[CK SatGuy]

Betcha $5 that if the Comcast-TWC merger gets approved, Directv will try to merge with Dish.

 

[Broe67]

Betcha $5 that if the Comcast-TWC merger gets approved, Directv will try to merge with Dish.

Never going to happen. Why would Dish & Direct want to merge in the first place. If you are thinking as in how Satellite Radio merged, it is Apples & Oranges. Sirius could not survive without becoming a part of XM-Radio, and XM-Radio, could not survive without Sirius.

As for Dish vs. Direct, they both are capable of surviving, and would be considered a Monopoly, since there would be only one company broadcasting TV over Satellite.

 

[directv newb]

If the Time Warner/Comcast deal goes through all the "cord cutters" that think they are beating the system will be done for. The price of just internet alone is going to skyrocket, and the ONLY bone Comcast will throw customer is if they do a full bundle package. Comcast knows that the one that owns the broadband owns the kingdom, and they are going to make us all pay to stream. The term cord cutter will become a joke within the next 5 years, because you can't cut anything unless you use their broadband, and they are going to make you pay. In my opinion, the merger should not be allowed to go through.

 

[goaliebob99]

That deal, if it receives DOJ approval, will most likely drive up cable and internet rates to unprecedented levels.
I think the whole model has to be brought under federal scrutiny. The reason is most folks that save where there may be a telco providing video and internet services, cable has a virtual monopoly .

It doesn't help when you have company's like ATT and Centrylink doing nothing to upgrade thier infrastructure and not lay down any fiber because in their world you don't need it!

 

[LER]

minor correction, ATT IS laying fiber in new places, and in some older places. I have FTTH GigaPower at my house right now.

 

[goaliebob99]

Never going to happen. Why would Dish & Direct want to merge in the first place. If you are thinking as in how Satellite Radio merged, it is Apples & Oranges. Sirius could not survive without becoming a part of XM-Radio, and XM-Radio, could not survive without Sirius.

As for Dish vs. Direct, they both are capable of surviving, and would be considered a Monopoly, since there would be only one company broadcasting TV over Satellite.

No it wouldn't, from the warzone thread... In order to make the deal work, Echostar would have to give some slots up in order to allow a 3rd party enter the system. Someone would jump on that if it happened.

Here are 5 reasons on why it would....

1. Increased capacity for 4k and HD channels as you can now share the main slots. 99,101,103,110,119, 129. All already receivable on a slimline with some modifications. (Technically the 129 slot could be dropped.) In order to make the FCC happy, E* would have to drop the Eastern Arch to allow a new competition enter the market. Equipment is now shared and programming is no longer duplicated, eliminating dual infrastructure costs. Savings there BILLIONS!

2. HULU, NETFLIX, AREO, ECT, APPLE, ATT UVERSE / CENTURY LINK PRISM TV, Google, ECT are now all competitors who never existed when the previous 3 attempts to merge got blocked. Dish and Directv can argue now that those options allow the majority of consumers to be able to have more than 3 providers when it comes to a choice. Satellite, Telephone/Fiber and Satellite. (Cord cutter & Fiber optic / Uverse effect)

3. They can also argue that Telco is supposed to expand those services in to rural areas as apart of the Obama Internet initiative (Broadband Plan) that was signed to law a while back.

4. By aligning forces they now can negotiate a lower rate for consumers by effectively utilizing mass market numbers verus 20 million here, 14 million there. They can say that they can pass the lowered rates to consumers for a 5 year period.

5. Consolidation also saves money wich would get rid of duplicate infrastructure up to a point. Who know what uplinks would survive or if you would keep the duplication for redundancy. Those savings could be passed on to the consumer to further drive the bill down. If they could get the current rates under 75 dollars and show that they could do that, then it will pass overwhelmingly.

 

[goaliebob99]

minor correction, ATT IS laying fiber in new places, and in some older places. I have FTTH GigaPower at my house right now.

Only in Austin, TX due to Google Fiber's impact. Outside of that No fiber is being laid and no plans have been publicly executed.

 

[MLBK]

IF DIRECTV SIGNS THE TICKET, DOES THAT MEAN THEY WILL BE "ALL-IN" FOR SPORTS AND SIGN PAC-12 NETWORKS???!!!???

 

[Broe67]

If the Time Warner/Comcast deal goes through all the "cord cutters" that think they are beating the system will be done for. The price of just internet alone is going to skyrocket, and the ONLY bone Comcast will throw customer is if they do a full bundle package. Comcast knows that the one that owns the broadband owns the kingdom, and they are going to make us all pay to stream. The term cord cutter will become a joke within the next 5 years, because you can't cut anything unless you use their broadband, and they are going to make you pay. In my opinion, the merger should not be allowed to go through.

Again, doubtful that Internet prices are going to sky rocket. The merger will have nothing to do with what other ISP's are charging their customers.

When CC ate up the little markets, especially those that were direct competition in the same city, it did not cause Internet pricing to sky rocket.

 

[john262]

That deal, if it receives DOJ approval, will most likely drive up cable and internet rates to unprecedented levels.
I think the whole model has to be brought under federal scrutiny. The reason is most folks that save where there may be a telco providing video and internet services, cable has a virtual monopoly.

I'm not so sure about that. A merger would produce a larger company with more clout with content providers and it might slow down the incessant growth of the cost of programming. No content provider could afford to lose the millions of subscribers that this new merged company will have. So when this new company refuses to pay more for a channel like the Weather Channel what is the Weather Channel going to do? Are they going to risk losing almost one-third of their viewers? No, they are going to cave and relent on raising their carriage fees. And since increased programming costs are the main driver behind increasing cable and satellite bills if that could be slowed down it would be a benefit to the consumer.