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Technology Stocks : KVH Industries, Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sector Investor who wrote (1376)	9/10/2002 11:30:56 PM
From: Sector Investor	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 7249

I'm going to post my thoughts about why I don't see Satellite Radio lasting as an independent entity for long. I would appreciate it if others would post alternative or concurring views. Let's start with the assumption that you (the reader) already has either cable TV or satellite TV at home, at least one Internet capable computer, and now you ALSO have purchased satellite radio from one of the competitors for your car. At home you have a few hundred channels of TV and perhaps 30 music channels - but no satellite radio stations. In your car you just have satellite radio, and, if you have back set video, it is not live. OK. Now you go somewhere - let's say to work. Actually, let's say you are returning home from work. Like today, you have a favorite radio station, and an interesting topic is being discussed. You get home. Uh oh. No satellite radio in the house. You either have to stay in your car or miss the rest of the topic. Does that make any sense? Not to me. How long will the customer base put up with that? So, in order to sell Satellite Radio, and get you to pay several hundred dollars for a special receiver, plus $10.00 per month for the service, customers will likely demand access to Satellite Radio stations as additional channels at home. It will be sooooo easy for the TV service vendors to carry satellite radio channels also, and charge a premium package price. Now when you get home, you just turn the same radio channel on. Let me move on and come back to this point later in the post. The same thing with TV. Your kids are watching their favorite show and you need to run out to the grocery store and take them with you. If they protest loudly enough, you might wait for their show to be over before you go, or else you make them miss the show (we don't consider leaving them unattended, right?). That doesn't make much sense either. If you had the capability to get live back seat TV at a reasonable price with the same channels as at home, you might choose that option. Same with Phone service. The days of paying for both a fixed home phone and a cellular phone (and getting ripped off twice) are probably numbered. Same for Internet. If you could get it while mobile at a reasonable price, in your car, RV or boat, many would get it. The key words, of course, are "at a reasonable price". Right now, for example, My TV, my Internet, my home phone, and my cell phone are by FOUR DIFFERENT VENDORS. I pay four non-trivial bills each month, when I REALLY (really, really) would like to only pay one time. Am I likely to add a 5th vendor for satellite radio, a 6th for back seat video, and a 7th for Mobile broadband? Heck NO. What if, down the road (and IMO, not all that far), you could get TV/Music/Phone/Internet all bundled at home, and the same bundle when mobile? I don't think a little 3G phone can pull that off. What if, Service provider "A" offered all those services at home, and just did an incremental charge to let you receive THE SAME SERVICES when mobile. That concept is similar to just adding a 2nd receiver or cable box. You just pay an incremental price. That's where I think things have to evolve. Already you can get an IP phone service at home. Now, back to my earlier thought. Satellite Radio customers will want satellite radio at home, and likely they will get it, if for no other reason than the Satellite Radio vendors want incremental revenue. So, now let's throw KVH into the mix. Why would I want JUST Satellite RADIO in my car or boat? Why would I want to pay separately for Radio, TV and Internet? If the satellite TV vendors add radio channels down the road, and a customer base of vehicles with KVH low-profile or flat antennas builds up, the satellite TV vendors might offer mobile access to a customer, as just an add-on service instead of a totally separate service. And that leaves Satellite-Radio-only service gone as a separate entity. Comments please.