New ad - 120 channels HD

[Slamminc11]

So according to "the list" allargon posted, Direct only had one more national HD channel than Dish and Dish has 4 more premium channels than Direct, intersting! Kind of makes the whole "I'm going to Direct because they have so much more HD blah blah blah..." argument kind of lame don't you think?

 

[Fitzie]

This is a great list to see what networks are available but a bad list to try and compare one service to another.

The problem with FIOS is the limited availability. Where I live, FIOS has 0 HD. It does me no good if I can't get their service.

Very good point. Both Dish and DirecTv are available nationwide, while FIOS has a long way to go to be widespread. The local CableCo's are all over the board, but don't seem to be competitive in terms of numbers.

The real valid comparison is between Dish and DirecTv, with the latter having 67 HD channels and Dish listed with 66. If Dish adds the 14 from Scott's recent list of "potential" additions, that will bring Dish up to 80. DirecTv will be adding some also, of course.

 

[TheForce]

Except that it was "up to 150", not "will have 150". So according to my calculations, they were 100% correct.

So by your language, it is reasonable for them to claim they have "up to" 150,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 HD channels?

Sorry, but when DirecTV was making their ridiculous claims I didn't let it fly so why should I consider Dish lies OK? Just because I like Dish Network otherwise doesn't mean I will make excuses for their irresponsible advertising lies.

 

[ehren]

Dish fails to swear on the bible when it comes to facts about #'s of HD channels.

Dish= impeach.

 

[mike123abc]

It has always been marketing buzz. How many channels are really in AT100/200/250? Well we start counting channels like shopping, obscure public interest, etc. Some of the public interest ones require more dishes that a typical customer would not have.

The marketing departments put as large a number as they think they could possibly get by with on the brochure.

The key is if Dish or DIRECTV really have the capacity for 150 full time real channels to justify the "up to" claim. I would say it is false advertising because neither of them actually has the satellite capacity to put them up the way they have configured their current system. Dish possibly could on the EA if they drop all the SD channels they duplicate in HD.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Kind of makes the whole "I'm going to Direct because they have so more HD blah blah blah..." argument kind of lame don't you think?

Yes it does. :up

 

[patsfan72]

i am happy with whatever new content they do add,my kids are looking forward to Nickelodeon,and the exact # of channels is not even an issue,does anybody really need 120 channels of brain rot available to them(j/k). seriously i think i watch maybe 6 different channels and the rest are they if by chance i see something i like.

 

[Bruuce]

UP TO 1000 HD channels before you die!

I lol'ed.

 

[Fitzie]

posted by emathis: "up to 1000HD channels before you die!"

If you're young, probably so. If you're sitting on 88, maybe not. H.264 or whatever the current compression formula is will not remain the standard forever. I see probably 500HD channels in 5 years. FiOS will very likely get there first.

 

[geekboy2000]

When were the 8 or so additional National HD channels added, and what are they? I scrolled through my guide (all channels), and I can't find anything new. I don't recall receiving an e-mail indicating the addition of any new channels either. Though they may have kept to the letter of their promise of "up to 150" channels by the end of the year, I see nothing but smoke and mirrors.

 

[M Sparks]

unless Dish can get carriage rights to many more of the Sho, HBO, Max, and Starz offerings.

There already have the rights to all of them. Premium multiplexes are sold as a package. It's up to the provider to decide how many of them to carry. The only thing up for negotiation is the fee paid per subscriber...not per channel.

It's a question of return on bandwidth investment. They could add a ton of HD premium feeds (about 25 by my count). But that would use up a ton of bandwidth. If they don't see a large number of new subscribers, it's not worth it.

The premium channels WANT to have all their feeds carried. It makes their product more attractive. There is negotiation involved, but it's mostly coming from the channels themselves. For example...totally hypothetical...look at the Cinemax for a penny deal. HBO might have offered this to DISH as an incentive to get them to add so many HBO-HD feeds. They know HBO is their real moneymaker, and having (almost) all the feeds in HD makes it more attractive to buy (Especially at $16 a month!) Of course, it could go the other way...Charlie could say "I'll carry more of your feeds if you cut your per-subscriber price 25 cents."

There are a few exceptions...Encore channels are all priced separately unless things have changed recently. And the three Showtime SD channels not carried by DISH are supposedly exclusive to digital cable. There are also some other deals made...Starz REQUIRES that at least one of the main Encore feeds be sold along with Starz. (Starz at one time was known as "Encore 8"). And Showtime theoretically only offers The Movie Channel, Flix and Sundance as a package deal with Showtime. But at one time, all those channels were sold separately. And they worked out some kind of deal to put The Movie Channel in the AT250 package. But that kind of deal is the reverse of what we're talking about.

FIOS offers 43 HD/SD premiums and another 30 SD only premiums for $30 a month. More channels, less money. It's NOT an issue of negotiating good prices for the individual channels, no matter what Charlie says. When he told people that "HBO wants too much money for HBO Zone", what he meant was "HBO won't give me a better deal, so I'm not going to carry HBO Zone until they do." It's all about return on bandwidth investment. Well, mostly.

 

[M Sparks]

When were the 8 or so additional National HD channels added, and what are they?

They count PPV.

I'm actually fine with them counting PPV, but I have a problem with them counting RSNs, because they aren't on most of the time. If they want to say "We have 8 channels reserved for HD RSN feeds", then fine, you can count 8. But you can't count all of them.

Actually, I really don't care how they count, because I'm not stupid enough to blindly listen to marketing. I'm perfectly capable of looking at who carries what and drawing my own conclusions.