Post by dkennedy on Mar 2, 2006 7:50:22 GMT -5
EchoStar Cranks Up High-Def Engines
DBS Provider Adds Voom & Local HD Channels, New MPEG-4 Set-Tops
March 01, 2006
By Alan Breznick, Cable Digital News
Seeking to match or surpass DBS rival DirecTV and the more bandwidth-endowed cable industry, EchoStar intends to beef up its national high-definition TV (HDTV) offerings significantly and beam local HD broadcast signals to as many as 50 large U.S. TV markets by the end of this year.
Wasting little time, the nation's number two satellite TV provider has already brought on five more national HD channels from Voom, the failed DBS service started by Cablevision Systems that has been turned into a pure HDTV programming supplier. EchoStar, which previously offered 10 Voom original HD networks, expanded its lineup to 15 last month by adding Family Room HD, Gameplay HD, Treasure HD, World Cinema HD and WorldSport HD.
Plus, EchoStar picked up ESPN2 HD, Universal HD and several other national high-def channels early last month, lifting its total count of national HD networks to 25, or about the number that such large MSOs as Comcast now offer. In addition, EchoStar officials expect to add another five to 10 national HD channels later in the year, which would give them more high-def offerings than most cable operators currently carry.
EchoStar, which cracked the 12 million subscriber mark in early January, is betting on its local HD channel rollout to spur continued growth. Following in DirecTV's footprint, EchoStar said it would introduce local HD broadcast signals in up to 50 markets in 2006, starting with New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston in February. Since then, the company has followed through with local HD launches in the first three markets, as well as Nashville, Tenn.
With the local high-def deployments, EchoStar aims to blanket more than 50% of U.S. TV homes with the satellite-delivered HD service by the end of 2006. The DBS provider said it would offer local HD channels to the rest of the country through off-air antennas.
To deliver the new national and local HD channels, EchoStar is relying on more bandwidth-efficient MPEG-4 transmissions, rather than today's standard MPEG-2 digital compression techniques. Back at CES in January, EchoStar unveiled a new line of advanced digital satellite TV receivers, known as the ViP series, that combine both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 signal capability.
The ViP line includes what EchoStar claims to be "the world's first MPEG-4 multi-room" HD-DVR satellite receiver. With a massive hard drive that sports the recoding capacity for up to 25 hours of HDTV programming or up to 180 hours of standard digital content, the new ViP622 DVR also boasts the capability to show two different programs -- one in HD and one in standard digital -- on two different TV sets at once.
Speaking at a CES press conference, EchoStar Chairman & CEO Charles Ergen said the DBS provider will upgrade many of its subscribers from MPEG-2 receivers to MPEG-4 set-tops for the "cost of a service call." Dish Network programming packages with HD channels cost $49.99 a month and up.
Finally, EchoStar intends to launch a new, HD-dedicated satellite to boost its HDTV programming portfolio further, just like DirecTV has already done. Plans call for making the new Dish Network bird, which launched into orbit last month, operational by the summer.
The HDTV expansion drive by EchoStar comes as DirecTV continues to throttle up its HD service to compete better with cable's advanced digital offerings. DirecTV, which started rolling out local HD service in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and eight other major metro areas during the last three months of 2005, hasn't added any new markets since the beginning of the new year.
But the satellite TV leader announced plans last month to expand local HD transmissions to another 24 markets in April, raising its total count to 36 markets and its coverage to more than 50% of the nation's TV households. The next dozen set of markets will include Cleveland, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix and San Diego.
During the company's fourth quarter earnings call in February, DirecTV executives said they're shooting to beam HD local channels to more than 50 markets by the end of the year. That would give the company about 76% HD coverage of U.S. homes via satellite, far more than EchoStar. "We will aggressively move forward with HD local launches," said DirecTV President Chase Carey.
Like their EchoStar counterparts, DirecTV officials also aim to shift most, if not all, of their existing HD subscribers over to the more bandwidth-rich MPEG-4 satellite set-tops, switching out roughly 800,000 HD customers in all. The company, which now boasts a total of about 1 million HD subscribers, intends to spend about $400 million on the conversion process over the next two years.
Despite the somewhat higher cost of signing up a high-def subscriber and installing the necessary gear in the home, "clearly an HD customer is a significantly more valuable customer," Carey said. He noted that HDTV subscribers both generate more revenue and churn out less often than other customers. In fact, he estimated that DirecTV's monthly churn rate for HD subscribers is just 0.6%, barely more than one-third of its average customer disconnect rate.
Plans call for DirecTV to offer more than 1,500 local and 150 national HD channels to its customers by the end of 2007, assuming that so many actually exist. The company, which has already launched two high-powered Spaceway satellites for HD service, intends to put another two birds in orbit early next year to carry the increased load.
DBS Provider Adds Voom & Local HD Channels, New MPEG-4 Set-Tops
March 01, 2006
By Alan Breznick, Cable Digital News
Seeking to match or surpass DBS rival DirecTV and the more bandwidth-endowed cable industry, EchoStar intends to beef up its national high-definition TV (HDTV) offerings significantly and beam local HD broadcast signals to as many as 50 large U.S. TV markets by the end of this year.
Wasting little time, the nation's number two satellite TV provider has already brought on five more national HD channels from Voom, the failed DBS service started by Cablevision Systems that has been turned into a pure HDTV programming supplier. EchoStar, which previously offered 10 Voom original HD networks, expanded its lineup to 15 last month by adding Family Room HD, Gameplay HD, Treasure HD, World Cinema HD and WorldSport HD.
Plus, EchoStar picked up ESPN2 HD, Universal HD and several other national high-def channels early last month, lifting its total count of national HD networks to 25, or about the number that such large MSOs as Comcast now offer. In addition, EchoStar officials expect to add another five to 10 national HD channels later in the year, which would give them more high-def offerings than most cable operators currently carry.
EchoStar, which cracked the 12 million subscriber mark in early January, is betting on its local HD channel rollout to spur continued growth. Following in DirecTV's footprint, EchoStar said it would introduce local HD broadcast signals in up to 50 markets in 2006, starting with New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston in February. Since then, the company has followed through with local HD launches in the first three markets, as well as Nashville, Tenn.
With the local high-def deployments, EchoStar aims to blanket more than 50% of U.S. TV homes with the satellite-delivered HD service by the end of 2006. The DBS provider said it would offer local HD channels to the rest of the country through off-air antennas.
To deliver the new national and local HD channels, EchoStar is relying on more bandwidth-efficient MPEG-4 transmissions, rather than today's standard MPEG-2 digital compression techniques. Back at CES in January, EchoStar unveiled a new line of advanced digital satellite TV receivers, known as the ViP series, that combine both MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 signal capability.
The ViP line includes what EchoStar claims to be "the world's first MPEG-4 multi-room" HD-DVR satellite receiver. With a massive hard drive that sports the recoding capacity for up to 25 hours of HDTV programming or up to 180 hours of standard digital content, the new ViP622 DVR also boasts the capability to show two different programs -- one in HD and one in standard digital -- on two different TV sets at once.
Speaking at a CES press conference, EchoStar Chairman & CEO Charles Ergen said the DBS provider will upgrade many of its subscribers from MPEG-2 receivers to MPEG-4 set-tops for the "cost of a service call." Dish Network programming packages with HD channels cost $49.99 a month and up.
Finally, EchoStar intends to launch a new, HD-dedicated satellite to boost its HDTV programming portfolio further, just like DirecTV has already done. Plans call for making the new Dish Network bird, which launched into orbit last month, operational by the summer.
The HDTV expansion drive by EchoStar comes as DirecTV continues to throttle up its HD service to compete better with cable's advanced digital offerings. DirecTV, which started rolling out local HD service in New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago and eight other major metro areas during the last three months of 2005, hasn't added any new markets since the beginning of the new year.
But the satellite TV leader announced plans last month to expand local HD transmissions to another 24 markets in April, raising its total count to 36 markets and its coverage to more than 50% of the nation's TV households. The next dozen set of markets will include Cleveland, Denver, Miami, Minneapolis, Phoenix and San Diego.
During the company's fourth quarter earnings call in February, DirecTV executives said they're shooting to beam HD local channels to more than 50 markets by the end of the year. That would give the company about 76% HD coverage of U.S. homes via satellite, far more than EchoStar. "We will aggressively move forward with HD local launches," said DirecTV President Chase Carey.
Like their EchoStar counterparts, DirecTV officials also aim to shift most, if not all, of their existing HD subscribers over to the more bandwidth-rich MPEG-4 satellite set-tops, switching out roughly 800,000 HD customers in all. The company, which now boasts a total of about 1 million HD subscribers, intends to spend about $400 million on the conversion process over the next two years.
Despite the somewhat higher cost of signing up a high-def subscriber and installing the necessary gear in the home, "clearly an HD customer is a significantly more valuable customer," Carey said. He noted that HDTV subscribers both generate more revenue and churn out less often than other customers. In fact, he estimated that DirecTV's monthly churn rate for HD subscribers is just 0.6%, barely more than one-third of its average customer disconnect rate.
Plans call for DirecTV to offer more than 1,500 local and 150 national HD channels to its customers by the end of 2007, assuming that so many actually exist. The company, which has already launched two high-powered Spaceway satellites for HD service, intends to put another two birds in orbit early next year to carry the increased load.