September 14th, 2015
Jimmy Fallon’s late night show got the “Donald Trump bump up” as the Republican presidential hopeful’s appearance took “The Tonight Show†to its biggest ratings for a Friday broadcast in over eighteen months. Read more
Categories: DISH & TV news
September 8th, 2015
With its big-brother “Walking Dead” already owning most (if not all) of the cable TV ratings records, the new spin-off “Fear The Walking Dead” has broken most cable records for a debut show. Read more
Categories: DISH & TV news
August 13th, 2015
DirecTV’s new owners (or is it partners?) are offering as much as $500 to DirecTV customers & U-verse customers who switch their wireless service to AT&T from their current providers. Read more
Categories: DISH & TV news
July 31st, 2015
Sling TV, the Internet-delivered, skinnied-down pay-TV service from Dish Network, is launching its first national TV ad campaign — telling consumers they should ditch their oppressive old cable and satellite providers.
Of course, Dish itself is an “old TV†provider, so the new campaign puts the No. 2 satcaster in the uncomfortable position of urging its customers to trade down to a cheaper, more consumer-friendly service.
Why is Dish shelling out ad bucks to undercut itself? The unavoidable issue here is that there’s no way for Sling TV’s anti-incumbent marketing message to stand out without the company also risking losing some of its 13.8 million satellite subs.
The campaign, “Don’t let your Old TV company push you around. Switch to Sling and take back TV,†promotes the over-the-top service that provides 20-plus channels starting at $20 per month as an alternative to traditional pay TV. Dish’s strategy with Sling TV is to win over younger, cable-hating consumers who wouldn’t have been in the market for satellite packages anyway.
SEE MORE:Why Dish’s Sling TV Skinny Internet Bundle Isn’t a Game-Changer
In the “Take Back TV†spots, cable and satellite TV employees are portrayed as obnoxious children who verbally and physically abuse customers, giving them no choice but to accept long-term contracts, pricey programming bundles and lousy customer service. Naturally, Sling TV is aiming to slam cable operators and longtime nemesis DirecTV — indeed, the “Old TV†polo shirts the tykes wear include a red swoop apparently meant to evoke DirecTV’s logo.
But Dish is pretty much the same old-style TV service, encumbered with the same restrictive pricing and terms. Asked whether the campaign could cut into Dish subscription levels, Sling TV chief marketing officer Glenn Eisen acknowledged the potential for cannibalization but said it has been minimal to date. And, echoing previous comments by Dish execs, he said Sling TV is reaching not only cord-cutters and cord-nevers but also pay-TV customers buying the service as a supplement.
“We’re really reaching a consumer that’s going to grow the pay-TV industry,†Eisen said.
Dish dropped a net 134,000 satellite-TV customers in the first quarter of 2015, blaming the decline on competition and programming disputes with Turner Broadcasting, 21st Century Fox and certain local TV stations. The company has not disclosed how many Sling TV customers have signed up to date, but on a call with analysts CEO Charlie Ergen claimed the vast majority did not previously have any pay-TV service.
In addition to airing on TV, the Sling ads are posted on YouTube and the company will promote them via social and other digital channels. Eisen compared the spots to short “films,†designed in the hopes the campaign with go viral.
Eisen added that he anticipates some TV networks will refuse to the air the ads; note that Sling TV doesn’t offer any broadcast TV programming, either nationally or locally. But so far, no networks have rejected the spots. The campaign is produced by San Francisco-based ad agency Camp + King.
Watch the 90-second spot in Sling’s “Take Back TV†campaign:
Categories: DISH & TV news
July 26th, 2015
After the huge deal between DirecTV and AT&T has died down from the airwaves, folks coast to coast are asking why Charter is making an aggressive offer for Time Warner Cable even when Comcast spectacularly failed just months ago with a humiliating defeat at the hands of the FCC’s chairman Tom Wheeler.
After months of rumors, this morning it became official: Charter plans to step in where Comcast failed, with a $55 billion plan to acquire Time Warner Cable. Regulators looked unfavorably on Comcast’s bid, finding it would have too many negative effects on consumers and on competition. But Charter clearly would not be trying its own takeover, with such a huge price tag, if they didn’t think they stood a good chance of success. So what makes the second offer so different from the first — and is it any more likely to succeed?
Charter CEO Tom Rutledge said in a call this morning, “We’re a very different company than Comcast, and this is a very different transaction,†which is true.
“Different,†of course, does not necessarily mean “better.†Advocacy group Free Press, for example, has already released a statement saying that the Charter/TWC deal raises “similar public interest concerns†to the failed Comcast purchase, and adding, “Charter will have a tough time making a credible argument that consolidating local monopoly power on a nationwide basis will benefit consumers.â€
But a few big differences, in this case, might just add up to “acceptable†in the eyes of the FCC and Department of Justice.
The Comcast Question
To understand where the cable industry is going, one first needs to understand where it is right now. In business, size matters. As of their latest earnings reports (except for Cox, which is privately held), here’s where the landscape lies today:
Comcast: 22.3 million customers
Time Warner Cable: 11.9 million customers
Cox: about 6 million customers
Charter: 5.9 million customers
Cablevision: 3.1 million customers
Bright House: 2.5 million customers
Had Comcast and Time Warner Cable merged and completed their three-way customer handoff, new-Comcast would have remained the industry leader with 30 million customers and Charter, through GreatLand, would have picked up an extra 2.5 million.
But of course, that didn’t happen. This merger, however, might. Charter’s arithmetic, which includes business customers, says that the transaction will give the new Charter a combined 23.9 million customers in 41 states.
Even using the residential customer numbers above, however, the combined company would easily have over 20 million customers. And either way you shake it, that puts them right in a competitive 1-2 situation with our existing dominant player, Comcast. If the TWC and Bright House acquisitions go through without spin-offs or concessions, that would make the new cable landscape look like fairly stronger in Comcast’s favor.
Charter’s reasons for wanting to spend a ludicrous amount of money on this deal, then, are pretty clear cut. The new company would vault from the middle of the pack to the head, suddenly becoming a force to contend with. The only company larger would be the still-pending merged AT&T/DirecTV — and they would exceed Charter in video customers, but not broadband ones.
Categories: DISH & TV news
June 26th, 2015
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler proposed Thursday to eliminate loopholes that allow Dish Network to score a multi-billion dollar discount in a recent airwaves auction, setting off what could be a reaction to how larger carriers have been purchasing spectrum. Read more
Categories: DISH & TV news
June 17th, 2015
It’s been announced that starting in 2016 Marriott guests will be able to sign directly into their Netflix accounts when in a MArriott hotel room or affiliate.
This is a cool perk for hotel power users, and no doubt a good marketing ploy for Marriott, but the trend could be bigger than many imagine. Read more
Categories: DISH & TV news • Equipment & Remotes
June 5th, 2015
If you play TV detective, Apple either will unveil next generation Apple TV hardware when it kicks off its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) Monday or it won’t. And the company will or won’t unveil a new streaming TV service. Read more
Categories: DISH & TV news
June 4th, 2015
Business Insider has reported that Yahoo will stream Week 7’s NFL game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars for free online, the NFL announced on Wednesday.
It’s the first time the league has sold broadcasting rights to a company for online-only distribution. Read more
Categories: DISH & TV news • Sports Previews, Analysis & Guides
