New HD question and "Testing"

[r424chevy48II]

The way Charlie runs his company I think Direct tv is the clear choice and it is about time for a switch!!!!! lawsuits, contract disputes, and suing the FCC really shows me how much of an IDIOT Charlie really is. Whats going to be next all HD content? I would not put it past Charlie!

 

[navychop]

Because the carriage agreement with DISH Network is in negotiations and not so with other carriers?

As other carrier's contracts come up for renewal I would expect to hear beefs from those carriers as well if the carriage terms change radically.

BINGO!

 

[nlk10010]

Oftentimes this is the case because the carriage agreements with different carriers expire at different times. The next time the Disney channels come up for negotiation with another carrier, chances are pretty good that there will be grumbling there too.

+1.

The issue is not disputes, but how Dish handles them. I believe the first time this became an issue was last March around Oscar time when Disney yanked some channels off Cablevision. The two came to an agreement (apparently) and CV got the stations back and got ESPNU-HD to boot. I think Comcast is girding for the upcoming battle and who knows when the others (e.g. FIOS) will become party to this.

Charlie apparently like to use the "us against them" marketing approach and sees this as a perfect opportunity to demonize Disney and tell subscribers that, by patronizing Dish, he is banding together with them to fight evil and champion the cause of everything that's good in our society. In fact of course this is all a way to increase his profits (which is OK by me, BTW). Do you think Charlie's decided to swear off watching all the HD Disney channels?

Let's see how long it takes the other cable/satellite/fiber companies to come to an agreement with Disney.

 

[navychop]

Im serously thinking about calling claude up and see what he can do for me and my equipment situation. I wasn't going to jump ship at first but more and more I keep thinking about it, the more and more I want to as dish just isn't getting it when it comes to the programming department. Dish has a lot of stuff to get straight. Just like people get tired of my rants against Charlie for the stupid stuff that his company does, people get tired of disputes like this and it has done nothing but hurt him.

I'm seriously thinking that D* is the provider of choice to be with, if we can get them to launch some more channels we would be allright.

Good. Please do so. And then you can post in the DirecTV forum about what you don't like about D*.

We have a choice. Pick this satco, that satco, this cableco or Fios, or do without. We can't get exactly what we want, only a "best fit" for us. This ain't Burger King. Anyway, try walking in to BK and telling them you want a shrimp burger.

 

[Voyager6]

So Disney/ABC asked only Dish Network to remove the HD channels? Why not the other providers? Somehow I feel like we're not getting all the details in this dispute.

If you read the Dish HD vs Disney thread, you know that there are contract issues at play. E* is claiming that their Most Favored clause in the contract entitles E* to receive the HD feeds along with the SD feeds. E* makes the claim that Disney gave these terms to D* and Comcast, so E* wants the same deal. Disney claims that the HD feeds are separate programming and not covered in E*'s contract. So far, a NY State court judge has sided with Disney. We'll see what happens on appeal.

 

[bamaweather]

Up until this point if a MSO carried a channel in SD they were able to carry the stations HD feed for no extra charge.

If that is the case, then why is it always said that an MSO (Dish or otherwise) has "reached an agreement" to carry the HD version of a channel? I have a difficult time believing that these so-called agreements do not involve money.

 

[harshness]

Typically, but this time around Disney wants to treat their SD and HD as two separate channels so they can charge for both (like they charge for both ESPN and ESPN2).

This doesn't touch my assertion. SD streams and HD streams have different pairs of eyes. That would seem to be the reasoning that Disney is using to try to bifurcate the viewing audience into its SD and HD divisions.

The idea is that Disney is seeking more per capita revenue from viewers of their HD content than from the SD content and that would seem to be unprecedented where the content is simulcast.

 

[harshness]

The way Charlie runs his company I think Direct tv is the clear choice and it is about time for a switch!!!!!

I'm betting you've forgotten which carrier "denied" its subscribers Versus altogether not too long ago.

 

[Fiveft20in]

... I wasn't going to jump ship at first but more and more I keep thinking about it, the more and more I want to as dish just isn't getting it when it comes to the programming department. ...

I'm seriously thinking that D* is the provider of choice to be with, if we can get them to launch some more channels we would be allright.

Am I hearing you correctly? Are you saying that Dish doesn't have the channels you want and you'd switch to DirecTV, except they don't have all the channels you want?

 

[whatchel1]

Just DO IT

Im serously thinking about calling claude up and see what he can do for me and my equipment situation. I wasn't going to jump ship at first but more and more I keep thinking about it, the more and more I want to as dish just isn't getting it when it comes to the programming department. Dish has a lot of stuff to get straight. Just like people get tired of my rants against Charlie for the stupid stuff that his company does, people get tired of disputes like this and it has done nothing but hurt him.

I'm seriously thinking that D* is the provider of choice to be with, if we can get them to launch some more channels we would be allright.

Bob just do it and stop whining. I'm tired of your constant whine whine whine. BTW do you want some cheese w/that whine. Don't pull out this Charlie was friend stuff either. You met him at a launch and maybe a time or two since. It's not like you share X-mas cards and are close friends. Just make that call to Claude NOW and get on with your life.

 

[Barry Erick]

Up until this point if a MSO carried a channel in SD they were able to carry the stations HD feed for no extra charge.

Disney/ABC have decided to buck that trend and now want to get paid extra for the HD feed for their channels. (So you pay twice for the same channel.)

If I were the networks I would be happy to be carried in HD and get my space in HD as there is not much HD space available.

Since DISNEY/ABC have pulled their HD feeds off of DISH I have not watched any of their channels. I wonder what their sponsors think of that.

Are you sure? It was not that way with ALL locals. The company I worked for up until retirement the end of February, had seperate fees for SD and HD and both DISH and DIRECTV paid them per subscriber,

 

[whatchel1]

different

Are you sure? It was not that way with ALL locals. The company I worked for up until retirement the end of February, had seperate fees for SD and HD and both DISH and DIRECTV paid them per subscriber,

What Scott is talking about is the fee structure from the program owner to the program provider. I work for commercial stations and the owners were trying this sh** on us. We had a GM one time at NAB tell them what they could do w/ there double dip fee for HD programming. It's BS when you want to carry the HD version of something and some greedy ass company like Disney wants you to pay twice for same program just because it is HD. The programming comes from the the same way in SD as HD. They don't have to pay twice for making it in HD they just downconvert the HD to SD and sell it. So really when produced there is only 1 version but they want to be paid more for the HD. They are trying to set it so that HD is value added as they know as time goes by there will be fewer and fewer that will purchase both.

 

[ronfelder]

Up until this point if a MSO carried a channel in SD they were able to carry the stations HD feed for no extra charge.

Disney/ABC have decided to buck that trend and now want to get paid extra for the HD feed for their channels. (So you pay twice for the same channel.)

If I were the networks I would be happy to be carried in HD and get my space in HD as there is not much HD space available.

Since DISNEY/ABC have pulled their HD feeds off of DISH I have not watched any of their channels. I wonder what their sponsors think of that.

It's kind of like when the movie went into production they were going to have Frank Sinatra in it, but he wanted to be paid twice. His reasoning was that they we filming it in both Todd-AO and Cinemascope at the same time for two different film formats. so he wanted more money even though he was only performing once.


Ron

 

[Jim5506]

If I had been the owner of Dish, I would have pulled the SD feeds when they cut off the HD feeds - I know there would have been a lot of squawking, but sometimes you have to play hardball when you're dealing with bullies.

I might have even dropped all the ESPN channels too, everything that ABC /Disney owns - GONE and the revenue stream with it. Of course my lawyers may have told me I could not do that (maybe Charlie's did that, too).

But it's fun to speculate, eh?

 

[Islandguy43]

Dish didn't remove them though.. Disney/ABC did.

Who knows what other companies are doing or planning with Disney/ABC.

TWC is setting battle lines too.

Home | Roll Over or Get Tough

Their contracts are up sept 1, just in time for football season.

 

[Bobby]

If I had been the owner of Dish, I would have pulled the SD feeds when they cut off the HD feeds - I know there would have been a lot of squawking, but sometimes you have to play hardball when you're dealing with bullies.

I might have even dropped all the ESPN channels too, everything that ABC /Disney owns - GONE and the revenue stream with it. Of course my lawyers may have told me I could not do that (maybe Charlie's did that, too).

But it's fun to speculate, eh?

Are you forgetting that their are contracts to be met?????

 

[harshness]

If that is the case, then why is it always said that an MSO (Dish or otherwise) has "reached an agreement" to carry the HD version of a channel? I have a difficult time believing that these so-called agreements do not involve money.

The fact that witth all of their capacity, D* still hasn't added a couple of HD channels that their subscribers are whining about suggests that HD is indeed a horse of a different color over in D* land. I suspicion that paying extra for HD isn't exclusive to the spat between Disney and DISH Network.

 

[DishSubLA]

Why is Dish the only one removing these channels though? You would think that the other providers would do the same if Disney/ABC started charging for the HD channels.

Dish was never the only channel "removing" channels in the many years that have passed. Please, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has dropped his share of channels (NFL was perhaps the biggest fight he picked) and his uber hardball negotiating makes Charlie look like a pussycat. DirecTV recently "took down" VS in an action that lasted months before its return, and a lot more people were more upset at that takedown than Disney and Dish's current action of not having the silly kiddie channels in HD, and those kids could not care less if the trash content on those channels is in HD. As far as Dish, quite a number of the channels that Dish had to no longer offer due to some disagreement has come crawling back (Lifetime just as one example, and that resulted in DirecTV suing Lifetime)

The point is that just about every cable company and satellite company has in the past had and currently have litigation with some of its channel providers. They all play the same game, and while Dish is least likely to agree to a carriage agreement that it views as unsound to its business, Dish is hardly alone in the "takedown" game and the "see you in court" game.

The effect so far is that Dish--today-- has about 35 more HD channels than my local cable company, and while Verizon has more premiums in HD, Dish still has more of the standard package HD channels than Verizon, as just 2 examples, and still more than DirecTV over all, according to may last count. In other words, shills (wearing Disney mouse ears while posting from the corporate offices in Burbank) are crying about not being able to see Zeke & Luther in HD on the inconsequential Disney XD nor Miley Cyrus on silly Disney HD nor the numerals in glorious HD that are the scores over ESPN News. In other words, about a whole lot of nothing. Shills can be so shrill. Sorry it was such a hot day yesterday for you out in Burbank. The Valley is always way too hot in the summer.

 

[GeneWildershair]

Dish was never the only channel "removing" channels in the many years that have passed. Please, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts has dropped his share of channels (NFL was perhaps the biggest fight he picked) and his uber hardball negotiating makes Charlie look like a pussycat. DirecTV recently "took down" VS in an action that lasted months before its return, and a lot more people were more upset at that takedown than Disney and Dish's current action of not having the silly kiddie channels in HD, and those kids could not care less if the trash content on those channels is in HD. As far as Dish, quite a number of the channels that Dish had to no longer offer due to some disagreement has come crawling back (Lifetime just as one example, and that resulted in DirecTV suing Lifetime)

The point is that just about every cable company and satellite company has in the past had and currently have litigation with some of its channel providers. They all play the same game, and while Dish is least likely to agree to a carriage agreement that it views as unsound to its business, Dish is hardly alone in the "takedown" game and the "see you in court" game.

The effect so far is that Dish--today-- has about 35 more HD channels than my local cable company, and while Verizon has more premiums in HD, Dish still has more of the standard package HD channels than Verizon, as just 2 examples, and still more than DirecTV over all, according to may last count. In other words, shills (wearing Disney mouse ears while posting from the corporate offices in Burbank) are crying about not being able to see Zeke & Luther in HD on the inconsequential Disney XD nor Miley Cyrus on silly Disney HD nor the numerals in glorious HD that are the scores over ESPN News. In other words, about a whole lot of nothing. Shills can be so shrill. Sorry it was such a hot day yesterday for you out in Burbank. The Valley is always way too hot in the summer.

:up Well Said!

 

[goaliebob99]

If DISH Network is the provider you've chosen to go with, how can you claim that DIRECTV is the provider of choice?

That's much like the many who have indicated that they would go with FIOS if only it were available to them.

I can claim that because that's the provider that many are switching too. Look in the D* forums and there have been atleast 10 people who have switched from dish to D*.

Am I hearing you correctly? Are you saying that Dish doesn't have the channels you want and you'd switch to DirecTV, except they don't have all the channels you want?

No you are not. What I meant by that comment is that the rollout of new HD is much slower than the rate that dish was rolling out hd at one time, given the bandwith avaliable that D* has. They had just recently filled up D* 10, and have the bandwidth of D* 11 (whole bird) The setup they are running right now, has both birds balanced out. I suspect that they are doing this for redundency purposes. That in conjuction with the extra PPV slots in HD they have launched could go twards national hd.

Seriously both providers should go to an all vod download type of system, and offer ppv that way with one or two channels for events on a per needed basis.