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The beginning of the end of satellite TV in the US


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https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/18/12/03/1723245/its-the-beginning-of-the-end-of-satellite-tv-in-the-us

 

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“We’ve launched our last satellite,” John Donovan, CEO of AT&T Communications, said in a meeting with analysts on Nov. 29.

The AT&T executive effectively declared the end of the satellite-TV era with that statement. AT&T owns DirecTV, the US’s largest satellite company—and second largest TV provider overall, behind Comcast.

 

 

 

 

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“He’s not going to launch more satellites,” AT&T’s top boss, chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson, said of Donovan, during the meeting. “We’re kind of done.”

 

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1 minute ago, jr1 said:

I see them moving into the Sling model

 

They already have with DirecTV Now

 

Right now AT&T / DirecTV is in both the business of Platform and Content delivery.  The Platform delivery / last mile of service is what costs them the most to maintain.  Satelites, cabling, technicians, call centers, etc cost a ton of money.  Helluva lot cheaper to ride somebody else's infrastructure (your ISP) for free

 

I suspect what AT&T and other cable providers are going to end up doing is to develop their own internet connected devices like a Roku, FireTV, AndroidTV, or AppleTV.  Then they will charge a monthly fee for the service and send you the box to access their content.

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TV over IP has the same issues as Satellite TV, program interruption. Except it's not weather related. It just stops and starts on its own. I got rid of DTV Now over the constant buffering. I pay for allegedly high speed service from Comcast. Does Comcast throttle down internet service to people watching DTV Now? Who knows. They certainly can if they want since the demise of Net Neutrality.

Edited by PromoTheRobot
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When planning on visiting Florida relatives in the mid to late 90s, I had local coworkers here begging me to buy the small dish satellite systems down there, and bringing back only the 'card' that fit into the box.  I never took anyone up on the offer. 

 

There was was a large cottage industry here in southern Ontario related to programming and reprogramming 'cards'.  One less than reputable coworker was a middleman in getting cards fixed after being zapped.  Sometimes his reprogrammer would charge for the service, sometimes he wouldn't.  This seemed to vary based upon who you were, and the middleman could have as easily been skimming the fees.

Edited by Ridgewaycynic2013
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1 minute ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

When planning on visiting Florida relatives in the mid to late 90s, I had local coworkers here begging me to buy the small dish satellite systems down there, and bringing back only the 'card' that fit into the box.  I never took anyone up on the offer. 

mid to late 90s .... people were cloning cards and pirating 

 

Not sure when that ended. 

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1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

TV over IP has the same issues as Satellite TV, program interruption. Except it's not weather related. It just stops and starts on its own. I got rid of DTV Now over the constant buffering. I pay for allegedly high speed service from Comcast. Does Comcast throttle down internet service to people watching DTV Now? Who knows. They certainly can if they want since the demise of Net Neutrality.

Which they should be allowed to do if someone is streaming gigabytes and gigabytes of information hogging bandwidth. 

 

It's a smart model to pay by consumption vs. some data point fiat which everyone is capped at using.  Why should I pay $100/month to use 30gig just to browse the internet which balances out the bandwidth hogging of those torrenting and streaming, etc.?

 

If you consume that much data you should be willing to compensate.

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2 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said:

TV over IP has the same issues as Satellite TV, program interruption. Except it's not weather related. It just stops and starts on its own. I got rid of DTV Now over the constant buffering. I pay for allegedly high speed service from Comcast. Does Comcast throttle down internet service to people watching DTV Now? Who knows. They certainly can if they want since the demise of Net Neutrality.

they did have an issue with buffering but it has become much better. also, if you don't have good wi-fi connection, that will also contribute to buffering issues. i can tell you that i am much happier paying half what i was paying for cable/satellite services.

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3 hours ago, Boyst62 said:

Which they should be allowed to do if someone is streaming gigabytes and gigabytes of information hogging bandwidth. 

 

It's a smart model to pay by consumption vs. some data point fiat which everyone is capped at using.  Why should I pay $100/month to use 30gig just to browse the internet which balances out the bandwidth hogging of those torrenting and streaming, etc.?

 

If you consume that much data you should be willing to compensate.

Because you are a good socialist?

 

 

You may NOT want to just browse the internet some day?  Then it's there for your needs.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Foxx said:

they did have an issue with buffering but it has become much better. also, if you don't have good wi-fi connection, that will also contribute to buffering issues. i can tell you that i am much happier paying half what i was paying for cable/satellite services.

 

So was I...when it worked.

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4 hours ago, Boyst62 said:

Which they should be allowed to do if someone is streaming gigabytes and gigabytes of information hogging bandwidth. 

 

It's a smart model to pay by consumption vs. some data point fiat which everyone is capped at using.  Why should I pay $100/month to use 30gig just to browse the internet which balances out the bandwidth hogging of those torrenting and streaming, etc.?

 

If you consume that much data you should be willing to compensate.

 

Lol, well I wasn't "hogging" bandwidth. I was trying to watch TV in Direct TV Now.

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5 hours ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

When planning on visiting Florida relatives in the mid to late 90s, I had local coworkers here begging me to buy the small dish satellite systems down there, and bringing back only the 'card' that fit into the box.  I never took anyone up on the offer. 

 

There was was a large cottage industry here in southern Ontario related to programming and reprogramming 'cards'.  One less than reputable coworker was a middleman in getting cards fixed after being zapped.  Sometimes his reprogrammer would charge for the service, sometimes he wouldn't.  This seemed to vary based upon who you were, and the middleman could have as easily been skimming the fees.

 My grandparents had a cottage in Crystal Beach and had one of these. Thank him for his service for me.

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I live in the apartment upstairs from my father in law. He has DirecTV and got a deal where we have a box for our TV. However, with his DTV login, I can access enough of what I need (ESPN, NFL Network, etc) through my Roku TV. Couple that with the Netflix and Hulu that my brother and I each pay for one, and the NHL.TV app where I can pay for just the Sabres, and I've never had to hook up the box. 

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3 minutes ago, The Real Buffalo Joe said:

I live in the apartment upstairs from my father in law. He has DirecTV and got a deal where we have a box for our TV. However, with his DTV login, I can access enough of what I need (ESPN, NFL Network, etc) through my Roku TV. Couple that with the Netflix and Hulu that my brother and I each pay for one, and the NHL.TV app where I can pay for just the Sabres, and I've never had to hook up the box. 

 

That's...awfully smart of you.

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1 hour ago, PromoTheRobot said:

 

Lol, well I wasn't "hogging" bandwidth. I was trying to watch TV in Direct TV Now.

The bandwidth you had been using was affecting my streaming of watching... Oh... Look at the time.... Hair appointment!

1 minute ago, DC Tom said:

 

That's...awfully smart of you.

It was his wife's idea

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this does not surprise me as you can tell they are giving the majority of their customers the big middle finger with this latest Genie update. A complete cluster, they know it, and just do not seem to care one iota. 

 

I have had DTV since 94...and finally realize outside of ST and Center Ice... I just do not watch much of anything else outside of Amazon and Netflix. 

 

May just bite the bullet next year and go full streamimg..hopefully they awful the ticket on Now

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