DirecTV to have 150 High Def Channels within 1 year

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous other
media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show hosted by
Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact that he
intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a year from
now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available, and that
DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty

Smarty wrote:
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous other
media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show hosted by
Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact that he
intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a year from
now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available, and that
DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty


Actually, they will probably all be local channels, not additional HD
channels for everyone to see.

On Sat, 22 Jul 2006 20:44:49 -0400, "Smarty"
wrote:

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous other
media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show hosted by
Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact that he
intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a year from
now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available, and that
DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty

How can he? There isn't 150 channels worth of HD content unless he
has a hell of a lot of the channels showing the same 20 programs.
Thumper

On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:55:25 GMT, Marlin Singer
wrote:

Smarty wrote:
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous other
media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show hosted by
Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact that he
intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a year from
now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available, and that
DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty


Actually, they will probably all be local channels, not additional HD
channels for everyone to see.

You mean 3 in each market for instance?
Thumper

I bet that Marlin offers the correct explanation, and that 3 or 4 HD
channels in each of maybe 50 major U.S. cities would account for the new 150
channel HD content Murdoch refers to. It answers my original concern about
where all this new HD content would come from. I am still surprised that
they have (or will have) the transponder capacity to add another 150 HD
channels. I guess that this is exactly what satellite has to do in order to
offer a true alternative to cable customers in their local markets.


Smarty




"Thumper" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:55:25 GMT, Marlin Singer
wrote:

Smarty wrote:
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous
other
media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show
hosted by
Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact that he
intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a year
from
now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available, and
that
DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty


Actually, they will probably all be local channels, not additional HD
channels for everyone to see.

You mean 3 in each market for instance?
Thumper

"Smarty" wrote in message
...
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous
other media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show
hosted by Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact
that he intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a
year from now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available,
and that DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty
They will continue to slowly roll out HD locals on the new KA band
satellites, so 150 by years end sounds right. The change over needs to be
spread out over a long period because of the cost associated with the
replacement of receivers and Dishes. The KA satellites make adding new
channels awkward until more of the new equipment is in place.

Anybody remember last summers commercials and wasn't it 1500 HD channels
they were adding? They have been good about saying things in a way to create
interest.

I agree. I think he is using the number of HD locals to pump up the
numbers, not disclosing that almost all of these channels are from the
same big four networks.

OTOH, the rumor is that DirecTV is looking to buy Dish. Maybe that is
how they will add more HD channels. A merger is a VERY bad idea in my
opinion as it will kill competition for all those rural subscribers who
don't have access to cable.

From what I have read, we are getting a slow but steady stream of new
HD channels this year and next. MTV-HD, Food channel, National
Geographic HD, with A&E-HD this fall (?) and History channel in HD in
the works for example. The killer is to get the cable systems to add
them, given their bandwidth problems largely due to all the legacy
analog channels they have to support.

Alan F


Smarty wrote:

I bet that Marlin offers the correct explanation, and that 3 or 4 HD
channels in each of maybe 50 major U.S. cities would account for the new 150
channel HD content Murdoch refers to. It answers my original concern about
where all this new HD content would come from. I am still surprised that
they have (or will have) the transponder capacity to add another 150 HD
channels. I guess that this is exactly what satellite has to do in order to
offer a true alternative to cable customers in their local markets.

Smarty

"Thumper" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:55:25 GMT, Marlin Singer
wrote:


Smarty wrote:

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous
other
media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show
hosted by
Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact that he
intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a year
from
now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available, and
that
DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty



Actually, they will probably all be local channels, not additional HD
channels for everyone to see.

You mean 3 in each market for instance?
Thumper

Thumper wrote:
On Sun, 23 Jul 2006 00:55:25 GMT, Marlin Singer
wrote:

Smarty wrote:
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who owns DirectTV as well as numerous other
media sources, was interviewed this week on the PBS interview show hosted by
Charlie Rose. Among his most interesting comments was the fact that he
intends to boost the HD content on DirecTV to 150 HD channels by a year from
now. I had no idea such a wide variety of content was available, and that
DirecTV has the transponder capacity to handle it.

It will be interesting to see if his promise is kept.....

Smarty


Actually, they will probably all be local channels, not additional HD
channels for everyone to see.

You mean 3 in each market for instance?
Thumper
Some areas will have more than 3. I had the DC local HD stations for
about a week until they switched my are to Baltimore locals. If I
remember correctly there were 4 HD stations in the group. All 4 main
networks. Also with the HD package, you get the New York Fox HD channel.
Right after they switched me to the Baltimore channels, I canceled
both the locals and the HD package. Baltimore stations suck. And I had
kept the HD package in the hopes they would be expanding it. But being
they only seem to be expanding the local HD channels, it wasn't worth
the price for the 6 or 7 channels you get. They are going to have to do
a lot better to make it worth the $10 a month.
Fortunately I get the local OTA. I had them on the satellite for
convenience.

Alan Figgatt wrote:

I agree. I think he is using the number of HD locals to pump up the
numbers, not disclosing that almost all of these channels are from the
same big four networks.

OTOH, the rumor is that DirecTV is looking to buy Dish.

Not very likely. The FCC killed a previous attempt before either Justice
of FTC could kill it:

http://www.techlawjournal.com/topstories/2002/20021010.asp

From the above:

"... the FCC declined to approve the transaction, and all but rejected
the idea the the transaction could be revised or restructured".

It's dead, Jim.

Matthew

--
You can bet that a week after Daguerre took the first photograph,
vendors were selling feelthy pictures on the streets of Paris.

Thomas A. Horsley on alt.tv.tech.hdtv

Matthew L. Martin wrote:
Alan Figgatt wrote:

I agree. I think he is using the number of HD locals to pump up the
numbers, not disclosing that almost all of these channels are from the
same big four networks.

OTOH, the rumor is that DirecTV is looking to buy Dish.


Not very likely. The FCC killed a previous attempt before either Justice
of FTC could kill it:

http://www.techlawjournal.com/topstories/2002/20021010.asp

From the above:

"... the FCC declined to approve the transaction, and all but rejected
the idea the the transaction could be revised or restructured".

It's dead, Jim.

Matthew

However, this is a serious rumor. See the following links:

http://www.multichannel.com/index.as...leid=CA6354056
http://www.tvpredictions.com/satmerger071706.htm

Murdock may have enough pull to get this deal done with the current
administration. But he would have to do this quickly as any long delay
would likely kill the deal. With any luck, some Senators and Congressmen
would try to pour cold water on this from the outset.

Alan F