Post by dkennedy on May 1, 2007 6:08:25 GMT -5
Is Cable Ignoring DIRECTV's HD Plans?
The cable industry could once again hand the satellite industry a big advantage.
April 30, 2007
By Phillip Swann, tvpredictions.com
DIRECTV says it will offer 100 national High-Definition channels by year's end.
But cable TV operators seem oddly unconcerned, although most of them now provide only 10 or 15 national high-def networks.
"Right now we have all the high-def channels that anybody cares about," Comcast President Steve Burke said last week in a conference call with Wall Street analysts.
Burke added that the quality of the high-def channels is more important than the quantity.
His comments echo the remarks of other cable executives. Although they say they will soon expand their high-def capacities via new technologies such as Switched Digital Video, they add that it's not necessary to match DIRECTV channel for channel.
However, the cable industry may be underestimating DIRECTV's high-def plans at its own peril. As philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Let me explain.
In 1994, DIRECTV launched the first mini-satellite dish, soon offering roughly 200 channels, three times more than cable. At the time, skeptics, including many in the cable industry, said the satellite TV service had little chance of success.
A familiar refrain: No one cared about all those niche channels; no one cared about sports packages; no cared about Pay Per View; and no one will care about DIRECTV. Quality mattered more than quantity, they said.
However, DIRECTV (and EchoStar) soon generated millions of subscribers (particularly after the launch of a local channel service.)
The number one reason: It had more channels.
Before you try to dispute that, I know this for a fact. In the mid-1990s, I was working for a satellite TV publishing company and I commissioned four major Nielsen studies of the satellite TV audience.
In each study, done over a four-year period, the number one reason people said they purchased a satellite dish was that it had more channels than cable.
It wasn't the NFL Sunday Ticket, as some believed. It was all about having more choice.
Although few dish owners watched all 200 channels, they wanted more choice in their programming lineups, something cable was not providing.
So now here we are again. DIRECTV is threatening to offer far more high-def channels than cable -- and cable executives seem to think it won't matter. (At least they suggest publicly that it won't matter.)
If this continues, we could soon be watching a repeat from the 1990s.
The cable industry could once again hand the satellite industry a big advantage.
April 30, 2007
By Phillip Swann, tvpredictions.com
DIRECTV says it will offer 100 national High-Definition channels by year's end.
But cable TV operators seem oddly unconcerned, although most of them now provide only 10 or 15 national high-def networks.
"Right now we have all the high-def channels that anybody cares about," Comcast President Steve Burke said last week in a conference call with Wall Street analysts.
Burke added that the quality of the high-def channels is more important than the quantity.
His comments echo the remarks of other cable executives. Although they say they will soon expand their high-def capacities via new technologies such as Switched Digital Video, they add that it's not necessary to match DIRECTV channel for channel.
However, the cable industry may be underestimating DIRECTV's high-def plans at its own peril. As philosopher George Santayana said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Let me explain.
In 1994, DIRECTV launched the first mini-satellite dish, soon offering roughly 200 channels, three times more than cable. At the time, skeptics, including many in the cable industry, said the satellite TV service had little chance of success.
A familiar refrain: No one cared about all those niche channels; no one cared about sports packages; no cared about Pay Per View; and no one will care about DIRECTV. Quality mattered more than quantity, they said.
However, DIRECTV (and EchoStar) soon generated millions of subscribers (particularly after the launch of a local channel service.)
The number one reason: It had more channels.
Before you try to dispute that, I know this for a fact. In the mid-1990s, I was working for a satellite TV publishing company and I commissioned four major Nielsen studies of the satellite TV audience.
In each study, done over a four-year period, the number one reason people said they purchased a satellite dish was that it had more channels than cable.
It wasn't the NFL Sunday Ticket, as some believed. It was all about having more choice.
Although few dish owners watched all 200 channels, they wanted more choice in their programming lineups, something cable was not providing.
So now here we are again. DIRECTV is threatening to offer far more high-def channels than cable -- and cable executives seem to think it won't matter. (At least they suggest publicly that it won't matter.)
If this continues, we could soon be watching a repeat from the 1990s.