CASPER
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SkyFILES: Three Items
by Michael Hopkins
A Battering 2Q - Could DISH Network report a loss of subscribers for the second quarter? That's what some folks on Wall Street are suggesting, pointing to the satellite TV company's recent struggles and the typical seasonality that plagues pay-TV services of all shapes and sizes during the three-month period. Also, the fact that AT&T's DISH sales and marketing efforts in the quarter netted only 3,000 customers doesn't help matters for the DBS company. If a subscriber loss is reported by DISH, it would be unprecedented for the company and the satellite TV business.
It Could Be Worse - During this week's "Future of Cable" event sponsored by the Colorado Cable Association and Silicon Flatirons, there was talk about the digital TV transition. Are cable operators thinking about the switch? You bet. But as one panelist said, "If some people wake up Feb. 17, 2009, and find that they don't have television, it's not a disaster. Losing TV is not a disaster. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster." While some (including myself) would argue that the DTV switch shouldn't be taken that lightly, the comment does put into perspective what may be more important than the tube.
Don't Diss the Competition … Yet - What's with all of the talk that customer enrollments for telco video services are slowing? This week, AT&T said its U-verse TV offering netted 170,000 customers in the second quarter, which topped the 148,000 users the product added in the first quarter. The 2Q effort put U-verse TV past the half-million subscriber mark. Verizon reports quarterly results Monday. It remains to be seen whether FiOS TV can keep up the telco video momentum.
by Michael Hopkins
A Battering 2Q - Could DISH Network report a loss of subscribers for the second quarter? That's what some folks on Wall Street are suggesting, pointing to the satellite TV company's recent struggles and the typical seasonality that plagues pay-TV services of all shapes and sizes during the three-month period. Also, the fact that AT&T's DISH sales and marketing efforts in the quarter netted only 3,000 customers doesn't help matters for the DBS company. If a subscriber loss is reported by DISH, it would be unprecedented for the company and the satellite TV business.
It Could Be Worse - During this week's "Future of Cable" event sponsored by the Colorado Cable Association and Silicon Flatirons, there was talk about the digital TV transition. Are cable operators thinking about the switch? You bet. But as one panelist said, "If some people wake up Feb. 17, 2009, and find that they don't have television, it's not a disaster. Losing TV is not a disaster. Hurricane Katrina was a disaster." While some (including myself) would argue that the DTV switch shouldn't be taken that lightly, the comment does put into perspective what may be more important than the tube.
Don't Diss the Competition … Yet - What's with all of the talk that customer enrollments for telco video services are slowing? This week, AT&T said its U-verse TV offering netted 170,000 customers in the second quarter, which topped the 148,000 users the product added in the first quarter. The 2Q effort put U-verse TV past the half-million subscriber mark. Verizon reports quarterly results Monday. It remains to be seen whether FiOS TV can keep up the telco video momentum.
