Dish Seen In DirecTV’s Orbit

[navychop]

I think you hit the nail on the head regarding Sirius/XM. But it IS interesting to see how they've learned to milk that cow for more.

I've set sweat pumps to slow on this one. Such a merger proposal is probably years away, if ever, and it would take our gummint years to decide, and if approved (assuming a severe cold wave in the theological place of eternal punishment), it would be still more years before anything was actually done.

 

[DodgerKing]

It wasn't that long ago that Dish was the one making money, and DirecTV losing money, year after year. Success can be defined many ways, and change over the years.

They weren't losing money. Their profits were lower than Dish, but both were still making money

 

[KAB]

All this conjecture would be great material for George Carlin...RIP.

 

[Jhon69]

Even if it is technically possible to have a receiver work on both systems I doubt they would do it with existing equipment. I would speculate that they will come out with a new box that goes in new installations or upgrades. Why work to get the old boxes updated when you would have to have a new dish/switch/lnb setup to even begin to use the "other" system. So, while they are out working on the roof, they will probably do the inside at the same time.

I also do not think that prices would go down. I think that satellite TV profits will go up though. I do not see how this would be in the public interest. It is not like sirrius/XM where both companies were probably going to go out of business since the market was not large enough.

It seems to be a pattern to boost Dish stock price... A merger or a takeover right around the corner... ATT rumor must be getting cold again...

Excellent post!.

 

[PTVC]

I don't believe for a second prices would ever go down. They would still do the every year increase. That is after the FCC mandated price freeze. I bet it will be just like Sirus/XM they would freeze the prices and jack up the fees.

Its not unrealistic to consider price freezes and/or reductions for rural subscribers. With 30-34M subscribers, they'd have a lot of weight behind them when it came to carriage agreements, so price increases wouldn't be far and few.

Sirius agreed to a 3-year price freeze mandate in order to get merger approval at a time when there was less competition then there is now. As far as I know, no price increases occurred during the 3-years, unless of course you are referring to the alleged 2008 music royalty fee increases (which were authorized by the FCC and slated to begin on July 29, 2009).

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I say the SiriusXM Music Royalty Fees were a price increase by SiriusXM. After all those fees were included with the service before, yet later were broken out and added to the top of the cost. That to me is a price increase.

But I got to agree with everyone else (and I have said this before) if the companies merged, I don't believe we would see our bills go down at all.

 

[elmafu69]

The bill would most definitely go up. The savings would be passed along to the new company's bottom line and not the consumer. However much we make like dish or dtv they are not doing us any favors and in the end all they care about is their wallets not ours.

 

[Hall]

Can anyone name a service in which their rates EVER go down?

 

[Yespage]

Has a merger ever led to lower prices?

 

[Gobucks]

Its not unrealistic to consider price freezes and/or reductions for rural subscribers. With 30-34M subscribers, they'd have a lot of weight behind them when it came to carriage agreements, so price increases wouldn't be far and few.

Sirius agreed to a 3-year price freeze mandate in order to get merger approval at a time when there was less competition then there is now. As far as I know, no price increases occurred during the 3-years, unless of course you are referring to the alleged 2008 music royalty fee increases (which were authorized by the FCC and slated to begin on July 29, 2009).

Please name one merger where prices have went down for the consumer. They would have some clout with the combined subscribers but they would never pass on the savings.

I remember Verizon talking about LTE and how it was cheaper and it would save money for subscribers. I have never ever seen a decrease in my Verizon bill. In fact they took away unlimited and raised prices. Companies are in it for themselves only. They could care less about us.

With SiriusXM... How is taking away free Internet listening that was included not a price increase? The music royalty fees kicked in and they raised the 2nd 3rd and 4th radio subscription fees. You know the discounted family radio fees after your first radio. So yes they did go up. I've been a satellite radio subscriber since 2005.

By the way I hope I'm not coming across angry. It's just hard to say things on a message board. So it's all good. =)

 

[mdram]

i agree, after the sirius/xm merger i cancelled. xm ruined sirius
more fees, higher second radios ect
my price for 2 radios and streaming was almost double what it was when i subbed in 2003

if charlie has anything to say there will be a "merger fee", "transition fee", and any other number of fees he can get away with if this ever happens

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

i agree, after the sirius/xm merger i cancelled. xm ruined sirius

Actually its the other way around... Sirius Ruined XM since it was Sirius who took over XM.

 

[Gobucks]

Actually its the other way around... Sirius Ruined XM since it was Sirius who took over XM.

Oh Scott I have to disagree. I hated the XM music channels. My wife loves the 80's and with XM they went out of their way to play the most obscure 80's tunes all the time. Now with Sirius my wife loves the 80's channels. I like the Sirius music channels a lot better. I guess it's a matter of opinion.

My main problem with XM was when they raised prices from $9.99 to $12.99. remember when they wanted to charge an extra $2 a month for Opie and Anthony and the Virus channel? No one hardly bought it so they raised everyone's prices $2 to $3 and added free Internet listening. They said it was all part of your subscription now. After the merge the take away the free Internet Listening which was part of the subscription and prices didn't go down.

So I see mergers as taking things away and still charging the same or more. Dish/Direct will do the same things. Plus lots and lots of fees.

 

[harshness]

Every bar and restaurant is running sports, which DTV has. Right?

In my market, most of the bars also have Comcast because DIRECTV doesn't carry most of Portland Trailblazer games or the Pac-12 network. The situation in L.A. is even more dire.

 

[Magic Static]

On the subject of equipment compatibility, there is a way to reflash a DTV Hughes GAEBO into a Pansat, I think it was, and then folks would load Pansat bins and watch Dish. Didn't need any hardware changed. I thought it might be a good source for FTA receivers but they suck!

 

[dtro77]

They weren't losing money. Their profits were lower than Dish, but both were still making money

Exactly!
There is quite a bit of cost involved in a business when your adding Hundreds of thousands of customers, verses losing customers.

If Dish is losing customers and Still making proffit, that means they aren't spending any money on new customers.

Some people seem to forget that Directv had one of their highest new subscriber years just last year. That could take 3 years just to reflect a large proffit from just that year alone. But the cost to secure those customers would reflect every quarter. Dish Also seems to like to spend their proffit on HUGE lost Lawsuits.
Sorry But if their was a merger I don't think Dish would be in charge.

 

[Liquidforce88]

As others have said. Dish is the worst company in the world to work for. They burn through tech's at such a rate that in a few years there will be no one left to work for them. If these companies merge and Dish takes over, every tech that did Directv will be gone in short order. Dishes policy's will either drive them away, or they will fire them for some obscure reason. The biggest thing is that there will be less compition to force Dish to treat their tech's with any kind of respect, not that they have much for them now.

 

[Rey]

Actually its the other way around... Sirius Ruined XM since it was Sirius who took over XM.

i don't know. it was the other way around in my experience. i loved sirius before the merger. after well i canceled when the year started. got tired of the higher prices and poor service. only reason why i didn't sooner was thanks to credits almost making it free for 6 months.

 

[mike123abc]

As long as there is forced bundling of channels and channel providers continue to raise prices, pay TV will continue to go up in cost no matter how many mergers there are.

 

[PTVC]

Please name one merger where prices have went down for the consumer. They would have some clout with the combined subscribers but they would never pass on the savings.

I specifically mentioned Rural subscribers, not all of 'em. A lack of options in rural areas would be one of the sticking points the FCC would consider. Dish & Directv could agree to freeze prices for rural subscribers, and/or give them a rural discount, thus lowering package pricing, in order to get FCC approval.

I remember Verizon talking about LTE and how it was cheaper and it would save money for subscribers. I have never ever seen a decrease in my Verizon bill. In fact they took away unlimited and raised prices. Companies are in it for themselves only. They could care less about us.

That's irrelevant. Again, I live in a rural area and I have the option of using any of the big mobile providers, not just two. And, saying it would be less expensive does not = lower prices for all. It could also mean that there would be less of a chance that your bill would increase.

With SiriusXM... How is taking away free Internet listening that was included not a price increase? The music royalty fees kicked in and they raised the 2nd 3rd and 4th radio subscription fees. You know the discounted family radio fees after your first radio. So yes they did go up. I've been a satellite radio subscriber since 2005.

Again, not relevant. Where in the world of business and law has it been concluded that separating services or separating fees from the base subscription price is considered a price increase and not a business decision? Netflix used to included streaming as part of the membership, now its separate. And I can't assume that the reason behind the free Internet listening was because they wanted to increase fees, and not because the music royalty fees Sirius had to pay, a percent of revenue which started at 6.5%, where to be increased annually to 8%. You also have to consider that the Copyright Royalty Board decided what the royalty fees are. Note that the fees Internet radio providers pay is 25% vs the 8% Sirius pays.

By the way I hope I'm not coming across angry. It's just hard to say things on a message board. So it's all good. =)

Its a debate, and although it can be hard to determine one's tone, I don't take offense and get vindictive because I may not agree with what someone's opinion.