Times Up, Told You So, DirecTV is Dead

way2roll wrote:
Everything in this post is a worst case scenario. I get truly unlimited data pretty cheap - you just have to hunt for deals. We have several streaming services and all summed up don't equate to half of what I would pay if I had Satellite. And that's first year. Sat companies have a way of doubling your "introductory" price after the first year. So I pay about 1/4 of what a long term Sat subscriber would pay. Add to that, I get way more content and content I want instead paying for a lot I don't.

That's great. In Wilmington, NC. How about Calhan, CO? Only about 30 minutes from Colorado Springs, but has NOTHING except satellite.

Bobbo wrote:

way2roll wrote:
Everything in this post is a worst case scenario. I get truly unlimited data pretty cheap - you just have to hunt for deals. We have several streaming services and all summed up don't equate to half of what I would pay if I had Satellite. And that's first year. Sat companies have a way of doubling your "introductory" price after the first year. So I pay about 1/4 of what a long term Sat subscriber would pay. Add to that, I get way more content and content I want instead paying for a lot I don't.

That's great. In Wilmington, NC. How about Calhan, CO? Only about 30 minutes from Colorado Springs, but has NOTHING except satellite.

Nothing personal but the percentage of the population that can't get cellular or hard wired internet is increasingly less and less. I am sure that some form of satellite will exist for the very small percent that it applies. Maybe Elon musk will save you, otherwise it's gonna be expensive and less than optimum.

I guess my economics degree is getting a bit stale. How can a business that someone is negotiating to buy for Billions of dollars be dead? Yes, AT&T overpaid, but that doesn't mean the business isn't viable and profitable at a more reasonable price. As Mark Twain famously cabled: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

AT&T "corporate" is so screwed up I sold a large percentage of their stock because I don't know how they can continue paying their dividend.

Until sometime in the 1990s, the "fat cats" at AT&T headquarters did not need to do much knowing their billions of miles of copper was worth billion of dollars ! Even when they started to get nervous their plan was "fiber to the neighborhood", abandoning much of that asset in place. FTTN was paired with U-verse. These two cost the company billion to roll out. I have yet to meet one person who would say they had a good experience with U-verse.

In the past 20 years or so, they have had the "reverse Midas touch". Everything they touch turns to coal. As you drive through suburbia, you still see billions of mile of copper telephone wire hanging on poles. Some is dead and the rest is under utilized.

wapiticountry wrote:
As Mark Twain famously cabled: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"

I can not find the reference, but, IIRC, AT&T had stated that if a satellite dies, they do NOT plan on replacing it.

theoldwizard1 wrote:
AT&T "corporate" is so screwed up I sold a large percentage of their stock because I don't know how they can continue paying their dividend.

Until sometime in the 1990s, the "fat cats" at AT&T headquarters did not need to do much knowing their billions of miles of copper was worth billion of dollars ! Even when they started to get nervous their plan was "fiber to the neighborhood", abandoning much of that asset in place. FTTN was paired with U-verse. These two cost the company billion to roll out. I have yet to meet one person who would say they had a good experience with U-verse.

In the past 20 years or so, they have had the "reverse Midas touch". Everything they touch turns to coal. As you drive through suburbia, you still see billions of mile of copper telephone wire hanging on poles. Some is dead and the rest is under utilized.

I don’t worry how they pay their dividend but enjoy it 4 times a year.

timmac wrote:
AT&T is reportedly trying to sell DirecTV to private-equity investors just five years after buying the satellite provider. The negotiations with potential buyers come after millions of customers ditched DirecTV over the past two years, and could value DirecTV at much less than the $49 billion AT&T paid for it.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/att-reportedly-trying-to-sell-directv-after-massive-customer-losses/

Millions cutting the cord, would not buy that expensive satellite dish..

:B

You are worse than a politician about spreading fake news about Sat tv. You really STRETCH the truth.Viewership down, sure but far from dead.

K Charles wrote:
When will the internet come to the country?

Elon Musk is working on that is it will be up and running very soon, also the government has invested millions into rural internet and check your phone line service, many offer good internet thru the phone line..

way2roll wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:

wildtoad wrote:

K Charles wrote:
When will the internet come to the country?

You can get internet via satellite. Yet one more dish atop a RV or house.

Sure, pay $80 per month and get high latency, laggy Internet and have very low data caps.. Your a funny guy.. Not.

There is NOTHING free, Timac is well known for stirring the pot bragging that Sat Dishes are dead.. They are very far from dead, still well alive and kicking, sorry Timac, your "predictions" are dead.

BOTH Dish and Direct are STILL there AND there is a new no frills sat service called "Orby" making that now THREE sat services.. You are also forgetting about cable services, many people shuffle around whatever service gives the best deal.. Not unusual to see folks exit one service only to show up using another service.

Streaming is not viable "everywhere", costs a lot of money to support a streaming habit and streaming HD video requires considerable speed and data allowances, something that is often missing in rural areas that are under served or not served by Cell phone, fiber or cable.

Streaming also requires on to PAY for streaming accounts, not ALL channels on sat or cable is available on every streaming service do your end result is paying $5 here, $10 there for each service a month and after paying for three or more services and adding in the additional internet costs you are now in it for MORE than what it would cost for just getting your fix from Dish, Direct, Orby or your local cable co..

Everything in this post is a worst case scenario. I get truly unlimited data pretty cheap - you just have to hunt for deals. We have several streaming services and all summed up don't equate to half of what I would pay if I had Satellite. And that's first year. Sat companies have a way of doubling your "introductory" price after the first year. So I pay about 1/4 of what a long term Sat subscriber would pay. Add to that, I get way more content and content I want instead paying for a lot I don't.

X2

I cut the cord years ago and still pay less than the basic package DirecTV was giving me and I get 5 times the programs, internet cost is not that much if you shop around and besides I need internet for my business so that cost is not a factor for me, internet gets you a hundred times more programs than dish/dircTV combined, you pay for only what you want and many of it is Free..

With internet you can even watch your local news anywhere in North/South America, cant do that with dish/direcTV..

Bird Freak wrote:

timmac wrote:
AT&T is reportedly trying to sell DirecTV to private-equity investors just five years after buying the satellite provider. The negotiations with potential buyers come after millions of customers ditched DirecTV over the past two years, and could value DirecTV at much less than the $49 billion AT&T paid for it.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/att-reportedly-trying-to-sell-directv-after-massive-customer-losses/

Millions cutting the cord, would not buy that expensive satellite dish..

:B

You are worse than a politician about spreading fake news about Sat tv. You really STRETCH the truth.Viewership down, sure but far from dead.

And viewership will continue to drop, no one goes full internet and ever goes back to satellite TV or cable TV, that's old school with tons of commercials and high monthly cost with few good programs, internet supplies the full spectrum of all programs world wide and much of it is Free..

AT&T see's the satellite TV service dying daily and they are getting out before its buried.

We will see how cheap this sale will be, I suspect they are going to take a bath on this sale cause anyone with half a brain can see this is a dead business with no long term future.

:C