|
|
|
DirecTV vs Dish Network: Which is Better?
The numbers of those who just connect their TV to a simple roof top antenna can probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. I assume you are not one of those minimalists who need 30 minutes of news programming to get by in a day. Most likely,...
Entertainment Technology: What to Consider Before Buying HDTV
HDTV – or, High Definition Television – is the new generation of TV, and is capable of displaying analog signals as well as those that are digital in nature. While this offers a viewing experience that’s unmatched, it also requires external...
How to Choose a Satellite Provider - Part I
Choosing a Satellite TV Provider By Gary Davis Dish-Network-Satellite-TV.ws Webmasters: You may reprint this article in its entirety, providing you leave the Byline and About the Author sections intact, including the links...
How to Choose an Internet Service Provider
An ISP - Internet Service Provider - is a company that provides a gateway to the Internet for individuals and companies. In its simplest form, connecting to the Internet requires a telephone line to dial up an ISP using a computer and modem. The...
Important steps in installing a satellite dish
Important Steps in Installing a Satellite Dish
With the recent breakthroughs in the communication world, DSL connection has already become a household term. It has already been launched in various areas across the world; however, obtaining a...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Premium Movie Channel Paradigm Could Soon Face Extinction
The article sent shockwaves throughout Wall Street, as the stock prices for both TiVo and Netflix shot up. Last September, a Newsweek article reported that TiVo and Netflix might be getting together to produce a true form of video-on-demand (VOD). Last week, a Netflix official fueled this speculation by dropping hints about a potential joint venture. TiVo, the original and premier provider of digital video recorders (DVRs) in the U.S., would eventually provide instantaneous online access to the entire DVD library (currently more than 35,000 films) of Netflix, the nation’s number one mail order video rental service. This would be accomplished via a broadband internet connection to specially equipped TiVo DVRs. This development could also spell the beginning of the end for premium movie services like HBO, Showtime, and Starz.
First, let’s put all of this into perspective with a little history of the premium services. Home Box Office (HBO) was the first premium service, debuting in 1975. It was one of the first channels beamed from a satellite and carried by cable operators across the country. As its popularity grew in the late 1970’s, several other premium services like Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, as well as some lesser known premium services came into existence. The industry started consolidating in the early 1980’s as HBO bought Cinemax, Showtime bought The Movie Channel, and those lesser known services went belly-up. In the early 1990’s, the Starz-Encore networks debuted to compete with the HBO and Showtime networks.
During the mid-1990’s, as satellite services such as Directv and Dish Network debuted, the premium services began offering “multiplexed” channels, i.e., multiple channels of HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, and Starz-Encore for the price of one. Unfortunately, the number of movie choices didn’t increase. Those services just began to air their same libraries of movies at different times on their various multiplexed channels. There are hundreds of movies at local video stores that have never played (and will never play) on the premium channels while there are a comparatively small number of others that have played on these channels thousands of times. That has always been the major weakness of the premium services. Multiplexing did not fix this problem.
Several market tests of VOD were conducted during the 1980’s and the early 1990’s but, because the technology was rather primitive, it did not catch on with consumers. By the late 1990’s, it finally seemed ready and lots of promises were made about the brave new world of VOD. The cable companies were talking about veritable online video stores, which were going to put Blockbuster, et al, out of business. Unfortunately, the reality of VOD has never lived up to its hype. The stuff the cable companies are currently passing off as VOD is nothing more than a glorified version of pay-per-view or a DVR. For the most part, their VOD offerings aren’t any different from the stuff currently playing on the premium channels and/or on pay-per-view. This is what I call “faux VOD.” How lame!
Fortunately, led by the apparent impending TiVo-Netflix undertaking, the landscape is about to change and a new era of genuine VOD is about to be ushered in. PC-based broadband VOD services like Cinemanow (www.cinemanow.com) and Movielink (www.movielink.com) have been up and running for several years and are about to broaden their offerings. In addition, SBC Communications and EchoStar
Communications have already announced that they are teaming up to provide an online-to-TV VOD service this year, while several similar phone company-satellite operator projects are still in the negotiations stage.
Also, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) platforms, offering hundreds of television channels via a broadband internet connection to a TV set-top box, will be coming online this year. One of the major features of these services will be advanced VOD technology. Microsoft has developed its own version of IPTV technology. See Microsoft’s website (www.microsolft.com/tv) for details. The nation’s two largest phone companies, Verizon and SBC, plan to utilize Microsoft’s technology in the rollout of their respective IPTV platforms later this year.
Not to be outdone, several smaller companies also plan to compete in the broadband-to-TV market. Akimbo Systems (www.akimbo.com) debuted its service last fall and is currently in the process of expanding. Similar ventures such as DAVETV (www.dave.tv), TimeShift TV, (www.timeshiftv.com), and VCinema (www.vcinema.com) plan to enter the market later this year. All of these companies plan to offer almost unlimited amounts of movies, TV shows, sports, specialty programming, and international programs via a set-top box interface between a broadband connection and a TV set. This programming will be culled from the vast internet universe and made available for TV viewing. For a more detailed description of these services, see my related article entitled, “The Coming Television Revolution.”
If nothing else, all of these developments should compel cable companies to offer a much more competitive form of VOD. Comcast, one of the leading cable providers and a partner with Sony in its recent purchase of the MGM movie library, is now in the process of rolling out its advanced VOD platform. The other cable companies are sure to be following suit real soon.
Meanwhile, the premium services have still been slogging along. The premium channel paradigm has long outlived its original usefulness and has only been able to hang around because of the lack of a good VOD system thus far. The only thing really going for the premiums right now is their award-winning original programming; including series’ like “The Sopranos”, “Dead Like Me”, and “Six Feet Under.” Perhaps the premium services could morph into original-programming-only services in order to survive. However, they’d have to seriously increase the number of series’ (and the number of episodes of each) they produce. Perhaps they could also carry longer and/or alternative versions of programs already aired on broadcast television and basic cable. In addition, they would have to find a way to lower their subscription rates. I’m not sure all of that would be feasible. One thing I do know for sure is that people would not continue to subscribe to the premium channels for their movie content once they could conveniently pull up virtually any movie or TV show they wanted, any time they wanted.
About the Author
Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, and trivia buff from Hopewell, VA. He also serves as a political columnist for American Daily and operates his own website - http://www.commenterry.com - on which he posts commentaries on various subjects such as politics, technology, religion, health and well-being, personal finance, and sports. His commentaries offer a unique point of view that is not often found in mainstream media.
|
|
|
|
|
| Good TV. Better TV. DIRECTV. |
| Subscription services delivering sports, news, movies, adult, family, network, and local programming via satellite. |
| www.directv.com |
|
| DISH Network -- Home |
| Includes news, channel list, and information on programming options and related magazine. |
| www.dishnetwork.com |
|
| Satellite TV - Compare and save on DIRECTV, Dish Network, and VOOM |
| The best online resource for satellite TV: Compare DIRECTV, Dish Network, and VOOM, and order satellite TV and Internet from the nation's top retailers. |
| www.satellitetv-hq.com |
|
| Howstuffworks "How Satellite TV Works" |
| Satellite TV once required a huge eyesore of a dish positioned on the lawn. These days, you can receive the digital satellite signal with a tiny bowl ... |
| electronics.howstuffworks.com |
|
| 1st for Sky Digital and satellite TV news - What Satellite ... |
| Impartial news and information on Europe's satellite networks. |
| www.wotsat.com |
|
| Satellite TV Frequently Asked Questions List |
| For this reason, satellite TV popularity in the USA has declined. ... WHO SHOULD OWN A SATELLITE SYSTEM: Most owners of Satellite TV systems these days fall ... |
| www.faqs.org |
|
| Satellite television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| In Israel, Satellite TV services were introduced by YES! company, ... In New Zealand, SKY Network Television offers multichannel digital satellite TV, ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| Indymedia Newsreal: Home |
| INDYMEDIA NEWSREAL, a monthly television series, brings progressive grassroots organizing, going on in your backyard, to a national television audience. ... |
| satellite.indymedia.org |
|
| Satellite TV Services - Dish Network And Direct TV |
| Read our guide to analyze satellite TV services and features with information about Dish Network and Direct TV. Order digital dish programming from top ... |
| www.supersatelliteselection.com |
|
| Welcome to Satfootball.com - The Premier European Satellite TV ... |
| Schedules and listings of all major football matches live on satellite tv available in Europe. |
| www.satfootball.com |
|
| Satellite TV snubbing Microsoft | CNET News.com |
| Satellite TV snubbing Microsoft | Software giant's high-definition video technology is being passed over by DirecTV and its biggest rivals. |
| news.com.com |
|
| Satellite TV information |
| Information on UK Digital Satellite TV in the UK, including Sky and Sky+. |
| www.radioandtelly.co.uk |
|
| Satmania: Satellite TV Channel Database |
| Satellite TV Спутниковое телевидение: Satellite Channel Database, TV Guide, List of channels received in your location, Equipment, News. |
| www.satmania.com |
|
| Big discounts on satellite tv receivers satellite dishes dss ... |
| satellite shop for digital motorized tv receivers satellite tv dishes Sky Digital satellite systems and cam cards programmers bbc viewing information buy ... |
| www.brymar.co.uk |
|
| Roberts Satellite TV |
| Personal site that offers information on how broadcasts work, and what kind of equipment is needed to receive satellite signals. |
| www.nmia.com |
|
| PVR Wire |
| The Sat+GO! has a 70s brown color scheme and has a fold away briefcase design making it a handy portable device for watching your DirecTV satellite TV ... |
| www.pvrwire.com |
|
| C-band Satellite TV, 4DTV and Free To Air Satellite Entertainment |
| C-Band and 4DTV Satellite TV Systems, Free to Air and DISH Network plus C-band replacement parts, c-band and 4DTV satellite guides and Free To Air charts ... |
| www.skyvision.com |
|
| Good TV Better TV get DIRECTV best offers with $100 Cash Back free ... |
| direct tv offers and best satellite tv deals on direct tv dvr and direct tv hd ... You can't get that with your cable company or other satellite tv ... |
| www.expertsatellite.com |
|
| ::: Orbit.net ::: |
| Pan-Arab satellite broadcasting network offering over 40 services of premier programming including movies, live sporting events and up to-the-minute news ... |
| www.orbit.net |
|
| Dish Network Satellite TV! |
| Get a satellite TV system from Dish Network and up to four receivers installed free when you sign up for service. You will also get one month of free ... |
| www.vmcsatellite.com |
|
|