That is all about to change,
Primestar and its partners (MCI/NewsCOrp) are getting ready to use MCI's high power spots to start a 18" dish operation. TO pay for this the cable owners of Primestar are about create Primestar, Inc. , a publicly traded company. This probably means a much more competitive product (complete with interactive menus, etc.)
One question will be how they deal with the installed subscriber base, will they migrate equipment (2m would cost a ton!), or will they transmit both signals.
Any way you look at it, this will represent a significant competitive threat to DISH and DSS, with PRIMESTAR beginning to shift focus from its predomonantly rural base to urban and suburban subscribers. Those MIC transponder spots couldn't go unused for long! I belive that the cable mindset will hamper PRIMESTAR's ability to compete, but with the financial backing of Murdoch and the cable companies we could be in for a long battle.
On the good side, a favorable ruling for DISH's plan for local channels could give a nice stock spike, b/c DISH is the only company planing to offer the locals (East coast from E III, West coast from E IV)
John Thrall |
