We can start speculating on the time of USA/SciFi... My theory is that on the 1st DIRECTV's exclusive launch window expires... Will all the Dish technitions have the day off? Will it be just 48 hours or will it be 72 hours until the launch?
SatelliteGuys.US DishNetwork Uplink Activity Discussion - Week Ending 12/29/2007
- Thread starter digiblur
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Where was it announced/published that Sci-Fi has/had an exclusive launch window, since at NEW & IMPROVED! HDTV Channel Lineups on DBS, Cable, FiOS! - Page 2 - AVS Forum in post #67 it's been reported that a few Comcast systems have Sci-Fi HD up now?
OK, so, what does that have to do with the the statement about D* having an exclusive launch window, sorry don't understand your response?
Don't know about that since I never saw any type of press release or announcement saying that NBCUniversal gave D* an exclusive timeframe for the channels. As for Tennis Channel, where was that published that D* has a exclusive? I looked at the PR from tennis channel, no mention was made of it. Swanni's site said in "http://www.tvpredictions.com/tennishd121807.htm" "Eric Abner, a spokesman for The Tennis Channel, tells TVPredictions.com that DIRECTV will be the sole carrier of the channel on its debut.
However, Abner added that the network hopes to secure more carriage agreements in 2008.". To me that doesn't say D* has an exclusive, just that nobody else has signed an agreement to carry it and they're tyring to drum up business.
But that wouldn't make much sense since if E* KNEW when they could broadcast SciFiUSA-HD they wouldn't have uplinked them and taken up (what is said to be) very valuable space on 110 so much in advance.
Face it. The opinion of some is that Dish doesn't even know what they're going to be doing: how can we?
=NLK=
The way you put that it sounds like they drive to work and then get together and say " Gee, so what should we do today ? Should we get a new HD channel ? "
What I was trying to say is that what happens depends on factors that are out of their control (such as satellite launches and channel negotiations).
Well it appears they are not even uplinked. As it has been reported it appears to just be a slate running. The channels do not vary in bit rate. Since these moves are "hidden" and do not appear on normal Dish receivers, Dish has done nothing to indicate anything. But, behind the scenes it looks like they have moved stuff around and gotten all ready to uplink them as soon as they can do so.
It is only speculation as to why they have not uplinked them and for that matter made them available to customers. It could be contract negotiations, it could any number of reasons. It is just my speculation that DIRECTV got an exclusive with some channels (some were announced) because they worked so hard to get these channels to launch (i.e. provided marketing $$ and perhaps more).
Short term exclusivity happens from time to time, and is a normal operation of business.
I've gone around and around on this with other members of this board (e.g. digiblur), who contend that even though it may be a slate it is still taking up valuable space. That is , there is a positive cost to them doing this in which case it wouldn't make sense if they had a precise timeline in mind.
I'm not arguing, with you or anyone else; the fact is that no one posting here knows for a fact WHAT E*'s plans are or even IF they have plans for more national HD. It certainly seems they do but who knows, no announcements of anything along those lines has been made. We just have to deal with that fact.
I'm not arguing, with you or anyone else; the fact is that no one posting here knows for a fact WHAT E*'s plans are or even IF they have plans for more national HD. It certainly seems they do but who knows, no announcements of anything along those lines has been made. We just have to deal with that fact.
Yes, any space on a satellite is valuable, check around what transponder time costs. But the question is raised, is it valuable if you have nothing else to fill it with?
You're reading the uplinks in wrong way... read them as rumors. Just because it is uplinked doesn't mean they are getting the channel or it will be coming soon. Ask the Indianapolis DMA folks and INHD fans.
Well, I don't have my previous post at hand but this was precisely the point I raised.
If transponder time costs money OR if there was an alternative that had to be sacrificed (which are really the same thing in an efficient market but that's another story) then there would be no reason for Dish to place SciFiHD/USAHD in those slots unless they were planning on activating them quickly, or were gleaning some other valuable information from their placement.
The whole reason this series of threads got started when the two were "uplinked" was that there was a reminder that InHD and others had been uplinked and never shown but those points were dismissed because, to quote an unnamed poster, the 110 slots being occupied were "valuable". If there's nothing else they can put in there or if the transponder money costs are minimal then there is no information to be inferred from the uplink, other than "they're up there somewhere".
It's fun to toss this topic back and forth but we really don't know why Dish did this or what it portends. For all we know they're all having a good laugh at our contortions over this "development" and have no intentions of activating these two channels soon, if ever.
If E* is planning to activate more channels for CES, when does everyone think they'll flip them on? This Wednesday? Next Monday for the press conference? Next Wednesday?
I realize they most likely will not have any new channels for CES but just wanted to see what everyone thinks.
I realize they most likely will not have any new channels for CES but just wanted to see what everyone thinks.
The word "plans" is a rather meaningless one.
For example, all the teams in Major League Baseball, currently "plan" to make the playoffs, and they "plan" to win the World Series.
I can tell you that E* would like to add USA-HD and SciFi-HD to their available channel lineup.
The fact that there are slates - but no channels - indicates that it is not as simple as we - or they - would like.
