Dish Network: “OTT could be bigger than DTH

[bluegras]

Dish Network founder Charlie Ergen has said that OTT "has the potential to be as big or bigger than the DBS (ie DTH) business."

Speaking toa nalysts following Dish Network's quarterly results, he said: "It's the next way to watch live TV, right? Cable, then satellite and now, OTT because it has some built-in advantages, right? It's immediate. It's just an app so you don't have to wait for an installer. You don't have two-year contracts. You can watch on any device. The advertising can be more meaningful to you. It can be more directed to you. So there's a lot of different things you can do with it."

http://advanced-television.com/2016/11/10/dish-network-ott-could-be-bigger-than-dth/

 

[comfortably_numb]

While I agree that OTT could become bigger than satellite, it still becomes a challenge for rural customers who don't have access to broadband. If we could get ATSC 3.0 going at a faster pace, then I wonder if more people might use over-the-air (OTA) reception as an option, since 3.0 is supposed to bring the ability for a lot more channels. Either way, I don't think satellite will ever completely go away until everybody has access to fast broadband


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[AZ.]

While I agree that OTT could become bigger than satellite, it still becomes a challenge for rural customers who don't have access to broadband. If we could get ATSC 3.0 going at a faster pace, then I wonder if more people might use over-the-air (OTA) reception as an option, since 3.0 is supposed to bring the ability for a lot more channels. Either way, I don't think satellite will ever completely go away until everybody has access to fast broadband


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Yes I totally agree..
I do not see our country trying to build a strong fast backbone like Asia has done......So yes rural America is far away....Im 100 miles north of Phoenix, we get good speeds, but lots of bottle necks!

 

[comfortably_numb]

A lot more rural areas have access to good cellular coverage now thanks to the "Broadband in Rural America" initiative that Verizon participated in. But since cell phone companies see data as a cash cow (especially Verizon), it can't be utilized as a primary source of broadband in the home. I wish it could, as I literally have a Verizon tower in my back yard and I can get 68-90 mbps on my phone.


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[renegade734]

Still not interested. I spent some serious coin for my 58-inch display. I cannot imagine watching TV on a four-inch screen. I will stick with direct-to-home.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Still not interested. I spent some serious coin for my 58-inch display. I cannot imagine watching TV on a four-inch screen. I will stick with direct-to-home.

Have you seen the quality of some of the streaming services? I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference. Seriously, it's good


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[Foxbat]

I will say with my 20 Mbps U-verse that some of my feeds are indistinguishable from my Dish Network channel, from a distance. Get too close, and you notice the differences. Lower frame rates (like ESPN), contouring in sky scenes, macro-blocking of action scenes (ESPN again, but lots of others). Balanced with the wealth of OTT services for non-cable channels like NASA-HD, TWiT, Crackle, Vimeo, you could say the scales tilt toward OTT. BUT, until our skies are filled with solar-powered Google Loons and Facebook drone relays, rural users are short-changed in the size of bitstream available.

Better be ready to open your wallets, folks, because the Internet Infrastructure build-out will not be without a cost that the ISPs will want to recoup. That's where the DBS model was relatively inexpensive, in comparison, but it wasn't really designed for two-way traffic.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Or until "unlimited" data becomes available for broadband hotspot at a reasonable cost from cellular providers, which might never happen again


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[Bobby]

Still not interested. I spent some serious coin for my 58-inch display. I cannot imagine watching TV on a four-inch screen. I will stick with direct-to-home.

I watch many different streaming channels, HBO-Go, ESPN-Go, Netflix, Amazon, ABC, Fox, and NBC on my 70" HDTV and they all look great, often better than their satellite counterparts.

 

[DishSubLA]

Ergen, once again, saw the future before others in his business by offering the first true MVPD service as an OTT. Others followed. For all the subscriber loss of the SAT side of Dish, it is offset, somewhat, by Sling TV OTT side of Dish. Charlie was first to work both sides of the street. He has positioned Dish well for the future with Sling TV. We can only expect improvements like DVR capability, etc. and competitors entering the MVPD OTT game are welcome. That's how will see innovation and improvements. In not too much time, the OTT MVPD can give us virtually the same experience we have today with a Hopper3 or Genie, but look for additional pricing for how much data is saved to the virtual DVR, and tiered pricing, at that, and still have to pay for add on packages to get our channels.

However, it really is the same monster being created on the OTT side. In time packages and services will be priced just as high as cable/sat is today, and we will all be complaining about the costs. And look for Netflix, and the like to see steep increases over time as the media companies squeeze even more money from them, as well. We should enjoy the value for now, but it will be lost over short time.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Ergen, once again, saw the future before others in his business by offering the first true MVPD service as an OTT. Others followed. For all the subscriber loss of the SAT side of Dish, it is offset, somewhat, by Sling TV OTT side of Dish. Charlie was first to work both sides of the street. He has positioned Dish well for the future with Sling TV. We can only expect improvements like DVR capability, etc. and competitors entering the MVPD OTT game are welcome. That's how will see innovation and improvements.

However, it really is the same monster being created on the OTT side. In time packages and services will be priced just as high as cable/sat is today, and we will all be complaining about the costs. And look for Netflix, and the like to see steep increases over time as the media companies squeeze even more money from them, as well. We should enjoy the value for now, but it will be lost over short time.

I'm not as sure about OTT price increases because, again, the ability to even receive OTT is dependent on the subscriber paying for internet. You don't have to have internet to have Dish. OTT is cheap because it's somewhat of a supplemental service, in my opinion.


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[DishSubLA]

I'm not as sure about OTT price increases because, again, the ability to even receive OTT is dependent on the subscriber paying for internet. You don't have to have internet to have Dish. OTT is cheap because it's somewhat of a supplemental service, in my opinion.


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The media companies are not getting full value for their content on any OTT service today. But, in time they will. Hollywood really screwed up with Netflix. But as more people move to OTT, than the media companies will demand more $$, and they will get it. It is the programming costs that are out of control and the MVPD's can not get a handle on it because "Content is King." What we seeing with MVPD's today, are high fees related to equipment and services that are really funding the cost of the programming because you can't have package prices that aren't competitive.

So, we will see tiered fees for DVR capacity always increasing; we will see additional fees to DVR certain channels, etc. I could go on and on, but there are whole list of fees I can think of on the OTT, and TIERED fees that at bottom are niggardly with limited time to watch before it is deleted, but pay lots more for truly usable DVR capacity (in some cases families needing more than a single person household) with longer periods at higher prices before the content is deleted. Oh, so many ways to empty our pockets with all sorts of raping fees, and those fees will fund the eventually same high cost of programming for OTT that is reality for cable/sat. Lots of fee ideas and ways to force "trade-ups" and no one can really be truly competitive on the price because the programming will cost so much, just the same problems as today.

 

[comfortably_numb]

The media companies are not getting full value for their content on any OTT service today. But, in time they will. Hollywood really screwed up with Netflix. But as more people move to OTT, than the media companies will demand more $$, and they will get it. It is the programming costs that are out of control and the MVPD's can not get a handle on it because "Content is King." What we seeing with MVPD's today, are high fees related to equipment and services that are really funding the cost of the programming because you can't have package prices that aren't competitive.

So, we will see tiered fees for DVR capacity always increasing; we will see additional fees to DVR certain channels, etc. I could go on and on, but there are whole list of fees I can think of on the OTT, and TIERED fees that at bottom are niggardly with limited time to watch before it is deleted, but pay lots more for truly usable DVR capacity (in some cases families needing more than a single person household) with longer periods at higher prices before the content is deleted. Oh, so many ways to empty our pockets with all sorts of raping fees, and those fees will fund the eventually same high cost of programming for OTT that is reality for cable/sat. Lots of fee ideas and ways to force "trade-ups" and no one can really be truly competitive on the price because the programming will cost so much, just the same problems as today.

I think you make very valid points. When OTT prices begin to come close to current Dish and Cable pricing, How will people justify paying the monthly costs for internet service and OTT? Won't that be more expensive than having Dish alone?


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[ohioankev]

Have you seen the quality of some of the streaming services? I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference. Seriously, it's good
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Watching WWE programming via the WWE Network is a better experience than watching WWE RAW and Smackdown on USA Network and SYFY via DISH because of DISH Compression. I've actually had the screen distort/blur if they drop confetti and/or use a lot of LED lighting effects on RAW/Smackdown vs. the clarity that I see streaming via the Network with the same effects. Now it's not always perfect but I have a greater chance of having a more superior picture when my internet is working properly but I have 200mbps/down and Suddenlink in my area actually does a terrific job maintaining the network. If you're mobile sure it's about watching on 5-10 inch screens but if you are at home they have boxes/gaming consoles/smart TVs that bring the OTT apps to your TV.

 

[Bob Haller]

dumb question of the day what is OTT

 

[comfortably_numb]

dumb question of the day what is OTT

Over The Top. Fancy way of saying "Over the internet"


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[Claude Greiner]

Yea Charlie is right, but unless he figures out a way to become a nationwide internet provider, Sling Tv may be doomed to fail.

You have AT&T offering Directv now, and even Comcast is doing trials in certain markets.

More and more internet providers are going towards data caps, and it's going to get to the point if you have AT&T for example and want to use SlingTv, your going to get hit with overages. However of course if you purchase Directvnow or whatever they plan on calling it, then no data caps.

What I see is all major internet service providers offering their own OTT service, with no data caps when using it.

Dish of course will never be a high speed nationwide internet service provider and will be pretty much screwed.

Dish was supposed to have built out their own LTE network 4 years ago. If they had done that, they might not be bleeding customers like they are today. The money you think your saving with Dish, goes to pay higher fees for internet through a different provider, if you can get internet at all.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Yea Charlie is right, but unless he figures out a way to become a nationwide internet provider, Sling Tv may be doomed to fail.

You have AT&T offering Directv now, and even Comcast is doing trials in certain markets.

More and more internet providers are going towards data caps, and it's going to get to the point if you have AT&T for example and want to use SlingTv, your going to get hit with overages. However of course if you purchase Directvnow or whatever they plan on calling it, then no data caps.

What I see is all major internet service providers offering their own OTT service, with no data caps when using it.

Dish of course will never be a high speed nationwide internet service provider and will be pretty much screwed.

Dish was supposed to have built out their own LTE network 4 years ago. If they had done that, they might not be bleeding customers like they are today. The money you think your saving with Dish, goes to pay higher fees for internet through a different provider, if you can get internet at all.

Exactly! Data is already a cash cow for cell phone companies, and ISP's are following their lead. The fact is you have to pay for internet access to make OTT work. So you end up paying either way.


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[Bob Haller]

Over The Top. Fancy way of saying "Over the internet"


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thanks that was my guess

 

[Mister B]

I have the low cost 2 mb/s internet only service from my cable company which serves my needs at the computer very well. To stream TV I would need to increase my internet bill by at least $45 per month plus of course the price for the streaming service itself. At that price, I may as well get one of the most basic packages from one of the satellite companies or cable. At this time I just use OTA and Nelflix DVDs (yes, they are still available).