Satellite

Verizon, Dish lead HD channel charge

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:37:30 -0400

TV providers continue to try to out-do one another in the area of high-definition channel line-ups, and Multichannel News reports that Dish Network and Verizon Communications are leading the way. Both service providers are targeting 150 HD channels by the end of this year. Dish last month launched a new satellite giving its capacity to reach 150 channels, and it recently launched its TurboHD service. DirecTV also is moving to 130 HD channels later this month.

For more:
- ready this story at Multichannel News

Related articles:
HDTV programming can strain network bandwidth. HDTV report
HDTV rollouts by small telco were affected by a software issue. HDTV report

AT&T notifies Dish partnership to end

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:17:06 -0400

Satellite TV player Dish Network reported in an SEC filing Tuesday that AT&T had informed Dish that it is ending the companies resale partnership effective Dec. 31. AT&T has not said much at all about why it is terminating the partnership, only that it is fulfilling contract requirements by providing Dish with six months notice. Still, the move is not too much of a surprise, considering that AT&T recently asked Dish to buy back $500 million of Dish debt the telco owned. Also, while AT&T ended a resale relationship with DirecTV earlier this year--leaving Dish as AT&T's exclusive satellite partner--it was well known that AT&T still was evaluating its overall need for satellite as it continues to have solid success with IPTV.

AT&T's silence on the matter could mean it is still sizing up whether or not it will need a satellite partner in the future. At one point some months ago, there were rumors circulating that AT&T could even acquire Dish Network.

For more:
see this story at Multichannel News

Related articles:
AT&T's debt request last week raised questions about the Dish relationship AT&T report
Dish Network last month said it would get more aggressive Dish Network report

DirecTV makes on-demand service available nationwide

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:29:45 -0400

Satellite TV player DirecTV announced that its on-demand TV service is now available to customers nationwide who have the company's DirecTV Plus HD DVR or R22 DVR receiver. The service carries more than 4,000 titles, including many in high-definition, and includes customized programming functions, Internet-based DVR scheduling and other free and pay-per-view programming options.

The new offering should help DirecTV become more competitive as more service providers, such as telcos (including former partner AT&T), are stalking the company's base of 17 million TV customers.

For more:
- check out this report at HD-Report

Related articles:
DirecTV posted stronger first quarter growth than Dish Network DirecTV report
AT&T announced late last year it would stop re-selling DirecTV AT&T report

North America IPTV not yet eating from satellite's dish

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 09:21:00 -0400

While IPTV growth was very strong in North America last year, telcos offering IPTV are not yet taking a significant number of customers away from satellite TV companies, according to market research firm iSuppli. A few telcos, notably AT&T, have had resale relationships with satellite companies that might have driven them to be more careful not to compete with satellite in the past, though the more likely reasons for this lack of IPTV-satellite competition could be that IPTV has not yet extended into markets where satellite adoption has been particularly strong. Case in point: I live in a neighborhood in Chicago where satellite dishes seemingly out-number houses. You can always tell when there is some local interference because half the neighborhood emerges from their homes armed with tools to bang on and re-position their gear. AT&T's U-verse TV service, in any case, is not yet widely available in this particular area, but I have to believe the satellite firms will not rule this area for much longer.

iSuppli shows that while IPTV subscribership actually almost quadrupled last year in North America to reach 1.2 million, many of those subscribers were net addition to the pay TV market as a whole, rather than stolen from satellite (though a couple of cable TV firms and telcos have indicated cable companies didn't get off so easily). Satellite TV adoption continues to grow in North America, iSuppli says, but for how much longer?

For more:
- check out this post at IPTV News

Related articles:
IPTV revenues in the U.S. alone reportedly could hits $14 billion by 2012 IPTV revenue report
The European IPTV market is in the process of doubling by next year European IPTV report

Spotlight: AT&T's DISH debt request raises questions

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 22:39:55 -0400

When AT&T earlier this year ended a satellite TV resale arrangement with DirecTV, it left DISH Networks in the enviable position of being AT&T's only partner on the service. There also was much speculation that AT&T could even acquire DISH, but now the telco giant has asked DISH to buy back $500 million of DISH debt owned by AT&T. This has raised question about the ongoing relationship between the two companies.

Many industry observers, including FierceTelecom, have wondered all along if telcos and satellite TV companies would remain partners in the long run with the telcos launching more of their own wire-based IPTV services. AT&T denied the debt request had anything to do with the status of the DISH partnership, but we may find out soon how interested AT&T will be in satellite in the future.

For more:
- read this report at The Wall Street Journal

Related articles:
DISH last month was looking to jump-start after a bad quarter DISH report
Dish Network couldn't match DirecTV's Q1 customer numbers Dish Network report

Networks ready for HD programming pile-up?

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:50 -0400

High-definition television always has been viewed as a nice benefit of new TV delivery technologies, but 2008 may prove to be the year HDTV becomes a significant battlefield in the competitive war between telco IPTV players and their cable TV foes. The race to supply consumers with the most HDTV channels and hours of on-demand HD programming may have been sparked by Verizon Communications, which announced late last year it would deliver 150 linear HDTV channels by the end of this year. However, Verizon may have been responding to more subtle HTDV upticks from cable TV and satellite TV firms.

While providers continue to pile on the HD channels and programming hours, it is worth wondering how an abundance of HDTV could affect network bandwidth and provider set-top box offerings. With its FiOS network, Verizon claims to be built for high volumes of HD programming, though it also primarily has MPEG-2 set-top boxes in circulation, much less efficient than MPEG-4 boxes at handling that programming. Cable TV companies are in the midst of rolling out network upgrades to better support growing HD traffic, and the analog-to-digital transition will help.

For more:
- read this report at Multichannel News

Related articles:
- Verizon Communications announced its 2008 HDTV plans late last year. Verizon report
- Fewer Channels better quality. HDTV quality report

Dish Network can't match DirecTV growth

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:20 -0400

It is still too early to tell how AT&T's new commitment to re-sell Dish Network satellite TV services across all of its markets will affect Dish's business, but as the sales effort gears up, it will come none too soon. Dish Network reported as part of its first quarter financial results this week that it added only 35,000 new subscribers during the quarter, almost 89 percent less than the 310,000 it added for the same quarter last year. The figure also is far less than DirecTV's Q1 subscriber additions of about 275,000, posted last week.

AT&T had been re-selling both Dish Network and DirecTV service, the latter in the former BellSouth region, but recently committed to go forward with Dish alone. Did it bet on the wrong horse, and by the way, how much is AT&T's own IPTV success affecting its satellite TV partner?

For more:
- read this Associated Press story at Yahoo! Finance

Related articles:
- Could AT&T acquire EchoStar? AT&T report
- EchoStar wins slice of spectrum in FCC auction. EchoStar report

SPOTLIGHT: IPTV success starting to impact pay TV

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:00 -0400

The number of households worldwide subscribing to pay TV services will continue to increase at a compound annual growth rate of about 3.2 percent through 2013, according to research firm Analysys Mason. However, IPTV services will have CAGR of 15 percent over the same period, and research suggests that IPTV's success is beginning to take a bite out of the pay TV market. The study adds to mounting forecasts and market evidence that the regular free broadcast market segment will not be the only segment to suffer from IPTV's success. Pay TV has been big business in the U.S. and elsewhere for almost 30 years as pay TV broadcasters have used shrewd marketing and cable and satellite partnerships to their benefit. Still, while IPTV is beginning to have a competitive effect in some countries, pay TV may continue to reign in countries such as Russia, where IPTV penetration remains small. See this story at Vnunet.com and check out this coverage at IPTV News

ALSO NOTED: Time Warner spinning off cable; DirecTV joins MoCA; and much more...

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:58:20 -0400

> Time Warner plans to spin off its Time Warner Cable unit. Article

> Satellite TV player DirecTV has joined the Multimedia over Coax Alliance. Press release

DISH may have handheld video on its plate

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:59:10 -0400

Satellite TV provider DISH Networks spent about $700 million to win 168 spectrum licenses in the Federal Communications Commission 700 Mhz spectrum auction, and thus far it has been unclear how DISH would use the spectrum. However, some advances coming to light in the area of digital video broadcast for satellite service to handheld equipment (DVB-SH) could provide a hint. Alcatel-Lucent will be testing new DVB-SH gear in DISH's lab in Atlanta this spring and summer.

DVB-SH is related to the DVB-H standard that has found support internationally for mobile TV.

For more:
- read this story at Telephony

Related articles:
ICO partners with Delphi for DVB-SH devices
Is the MSS industry on its way to a comeback?