Death of Directv

[billr]

On 4/16/2020 at 3:39 PM, SWharton said:

Can someone with Dish PM me please. I have a few questions.

Pm sent 

[hemsteadc]

If DTV is going away, why would anyone think Dish isn't?  I don't consider $100/mo outrageous.  And I love that DVR.  I will be with DTV until I find something more suitable for travelling.  And I don't mean cost.

[SWharton]

Directv has become the poor cousin in the ATT realm. Why they bought Direct is beyond me. I expect Dish will buy Direct in the next year or 2. There will only be one survivor. The only thing Direct has going for it right now is sports. Cost is $40-$50 per month higher than Dish, Dish keeps improving their product while Direct is stagnant. We have been comparing the 2 and are seriously thinking about switching over. We are tired of Direct and their price increases, still need to do a bit more research but are leaning that way. Dish appears to be much more customer friendly.

 

[Dutch_12078]

Dish is also much more RV friendly. With a no-contract "Outdoor" account for instance, changing locals as we move around is as simple as tapping on a phone app, and for part-timers, putting the service on pause can be as simple as just not paying the next bill.

[SWharton]

I had searched for the Outdoor account on Dish and there is no mention on their site. Could it be an old offering that is grandfathered?

[Dutch_12078]

DISHForMyRV is the primary agent for the Dish Outdoors program.

[SWharton]

Thanks. Are they a subsidiary of Dish?

[Dutch_12078]

No, it's part of Pace International, a major DISH distributor. DISH has more information about the Outdoors plan here: https://my.dish.com/upgrades/products/tv-outdoors

[Twotoes]

If Dish buys out DirecTV will I have to convert my roof top Travler from DirecTV to Dish. I was thinking of  changing to Dish but may wait now. If I do not have to buy a conversion kit I can save $300 in parts and $200 in labor.

[billr]

15 minutes ago, Twotoes said:

If Dish buys out DirecTV will I have to convert my roof top Travler from DirecTV to Dish. I was thinking of  changing to Dish but may wait now. If I do not have to buy a conversion kit I can save $300 in parts and $200 in labor.

Easy to do. Took me 45 min. To convert a friends. 

[SWharton]

I seriously doubt they would replace your Traveler unit. We have a Traveler and a tripod but we want the new dish mounted on the roof of the RV spot and we will sell the tripod unit(we are using that now). We figure we have to pay for the Traveler conversion ourselves. They would need to switch out the LNB and update the Winegard box software. Way out of their league.

If Dish bought Direct it would probably be years before any conversion would begin.

[docj]

31 minutes ago, SWharton said:

If Dish bought Direct it would probably be years before any conversion would begin.

There's absolutely no reason to equate a buyout with a migration to Dish's satellites.  The value of the acquired company is in its subscribers and its satellite infrastructure.  No businessman with any sense would want to abandon the assets and tell customers that they had to change their ground station setup. JMO

[SWharton]

It is very expensive for a company to maintain 2 different systems with different support personal, hardware and needs plus needing to negotiate 2 contracts for TV services vs. the economy of scale for 1 service. The migration won't happen on day one but 3-5 years later.

All this is hypothetical. We don't do well at forecasting the future.

[docj]

28 minutes ago, SWharton said:

The migration won't happen on day one but 3-5 years later.

I don't disagree with this, but only a few posts back, people were discussing converting their Trav'lers, etc.  All I was trying to point out was that there would be no reason to consider hardware conversion for several years and, furthermore, there's no way of knowing which hardware solution would be the final one, regardless of who would buy whom.

It should also be pointed out that there has been no formal mention of any such merger and it would have to probably have both FCC and Justice Dept approvals.  None of this is going to happen quickly.  

Edited April 19, 2020 by docj

[SWharton]

I did see one article a while ago that the Dish CEO said a merger was inevitable.

We are looking to switching to save money long term.

[Twotoes]

My son who is in the business says there can never be  merger because that would create a monopoly. I sure hope Musk gets his system up and running at a reasonable price in the near future so I can just get satellite internet and stream. I go to many areas with no cell signal so I can't  give up my satellite tv system yet.

[Lou Schneider]

2 hours ago, Twotoes said:

My son who is in the business says there can never be  merger because that would create a monopoly. 

They said the same thing about the Sirius and XM satellite radio services.  The FCC awarded two nationwide licenses so there would be competition and said the two would never be allowed to merge and become a satellite radio monopoly.

When push came to shove and the two companies said they had to combine forces or go bankrupt, the FCC caved and allowed them to merge into SiriusXM.

I expect the same thing will happen if/when the declining number of satellite TV subscribers force Dish and/or DirecTV into a similar situation.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Lou Schneider

[chirakawa]

6 hours ago, Lou Schneider said:

I expect the same thing will happen if/when the declining number of satellite TV subscribers force Dish and/or DirecTV into a similar situation.

I sure hope so.  One monopoly of a service is better than no service at all.

IMO a monopoly is only painful when there is no alternative.  Satellite radio is on it's last leg.  Streaming radio over the cell phone is rapidly replacing it.

[docj]

4 hours ago, chirakawa said:

I sure hope so.  One monopoly of a service is better than no service at all.

IMO a monopoly is only painful when there is no alternative.  Satellite radio is on it's last leg.  Streaming radio over the cell phone is rapidly replacing it.

A merger of DTV and Dish will enable the merged entity to take advantage of the existing satellites (and associated ground stations) until they die.  There's probably 5-10 years of service available from those and there's probably little preventing the company from distributing receivers that could work on both systems.  However, I doubt any company would invest the millions it takes to build and launch a new satllite when these die.

[Dutch_12078]

I think the time when a DTV and Dish merger would have created a monopoly is long past now. With the proliferation of cable, streaming services, plus the fledgling Orby satellite service, the "no competition" argument would be a hard sell to both the FTC and the FCC. The number of people that would have no alternative service available would be very small.

[SWharton]

OK. I am totally confused. I called up Dish to get some information. I was transferred to Outdoors and the Flex I was told the only option I have is to do the month-to-month for $99.99 for the package I want. Reason being there is no contract. Told them I had not problems having a contract but they refused. Not a happy trooper. Month-to-month does not allow lock in of a price.

I don't understand programming with the Flex package. I now have DNS with Directv(get my ABC etc from NY), for recording TV programs this is simple, always on the same station. For Dish,  I understand moving from location to location and getting locals but what happens 1) when no locals are available(at least OTA) and 2) do I need to reprogram each day the programs I want to record that night if they are on a local to get the correct station. Example: in PHX pgm AAA is on 12, in HOU pgm AAA is on 3, do I need to go through the planned recordings and update to the new station.

This all really muddied the waters for us.

 

 

[hemsteadc]

27 minutes ago, SWharton said:

. I now have DNS with Directv(get my ABC etc from NY), for recording TV programs this is simple, always on the same station.

You could get rid of DNS just by telling them your service address is NYC.  My 'contract' (long expired) is a C-note a month.  I don't think your price is too bad.  Someone actually wanting a contract...  that's a first!

Edited April 25, 2020 by hemsteadc

[hemsteadc]

On 4/20/2020 at 6:35 AM, chirakawa said:

 Satellite radio is on its last leg.  

Years ago I thought it would be the next big thing.  Its stock is still trading at $6.  

[SWharton]

7 minutes ago, hemsteadc said:

You could get rid of DNS just by telling them your service address is NYC.  My 'contract' (long expired) is a C-note a month.  I don't think your price is too bad.  Someone actually wanting a contract...  that's a first!

I don't know where you are coming. I have no problems with DNS. I am trying to decipher what Dish is telling me.

[chirakawa]

43 minutes ago, SWharton said:

OK. I am totally confused. I called up Dish to get some information. I was transferred to Outdoors and the Flex I was told the only option I have is to do the month-to-month for $99.99 for the package I want. Reason being there is no contract. Told them I had not problems having a contract but they refused. Not a happy trooper. Month-to-month does not allow lock in of a price.

I don't understand programming with the Flex package. I now have DNS with Directv(get my ABC etc from NY), for recording TV programs this is simple, always on the same station. For Dish,  I understand moving from location to location and getting locals but what happens 1) when no locals are available(at least OTA) and 2) do I need to reprogram each day the programs I want to record that night if they are on a local to get the correct station. Example: in PHX pgm AAA is on 12, in HOU pgm AAA is on 3, do I need to go through the planned recordings and update to the new station.

This all really muddied the waters for us.

 

 

What package do you want?