Dish’s Charlie Ergen: “I think people are cutting the cord”
Pay TV providers tend to argue that cord cutting doesn’t exist. Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen doesn’t agree. Read more at GigaOM »
CBS takes aim at a rival, shoots CNET in the foot
photo: Flickr / Hans Gerwitz
The Hopper from Dish Network was a finalist in CNET’s “Best of CES” awards — until parent company CBS told the tech news-and-reviews site that it couldn’t include the company because CBS is suing it. How can readers trust CNET’s journalism after such a decision? Read more »
Pay TV stops growing: Top 4 services all lost video users in Q2
photo: Shutterstock / artenot
With satellite carrier DirecTV reporting its first-ever net quarterly loss of subscribers, the Big Four pay TV services collectively lost 407,000 U.S. video customers in Q2. This was not offset by gains of 322,000 net video users reported by telco services AT&T U-Verse and Verizon FiOS. Read more »
Day 27 of the Dish vs. AMC standoff: Where’s the subscriber revolt?
Are unhappy Dish subscribers turning to iTunes, where Breaking Bad is the No. 1 TV download? Indeed, Dish has dropped a major channel with an Emmy-winning hit, and it’s gotten away with it. Why the pay TV business may never be the same. Read more »
Dish’s latest Hopper tweak reeks of legal positioning
As Variety first reported, Dish has quietly been rolling out a software upgrade to its new DVRs that puts the user more in control of the “AutoHop” commercial-skipping feature. Dish says the upgrade “enhances the user experience,” but it seems more legally motivated. Read more »
Why Breaking Bad didn’t scare Dish, but Walking Dead will
Sure, the 2.9 million viewers Breaking Bad averaged Sunday was a series record. But it’s might take the more than 7 million viewers who will tune into the Oct. 14 season premiere of The Walking Dead to put AMC back on Dish. Read more »
AMC to stream Breaking Bad for blacked-out Dish users
Viacom has its way of dealing with a carriage dispute, and AMC Networks apparently has a very different way. AMC says it’ll stream Sunday night’s anticipated fifth-season premiere of Breaking Bad for the nearly 14 million blacked-out Dish Network subscribers. Read more »
Dish facing doom in Voom litigation, analysts say
While the Viacom/DirecTV carriage dispute is commanding the bulk of attention Wednesday, several high-profile media analysts publicly advised Dish Network to end its own carriage war with AMC Networks, and to also bite the bullet and settle its expensive legal dispute with AMC over Voom HD. Read more »
AMC: “Dish never even talked rates with us”
With its channels now officially pulled off the programming guides of Dish’s 14 million U.S. subscribers, AMC gets straight to the point: This dispute has nothing to do with ratings or fees and everything to do with unrelated litigation, the programmer said Saturday night. Read more »
Dish to replace AMC with Mark Cuban’s HDNet Movies
photo: Flickr / Staci D. Kramer
How serious does Dish look about actually blacking out AMC channels? It just gave away AMC’s primo real estate to Mark Cuban’s HDNet and HDNet Movies. Yes, the No. 3 pay TV service is really ready to live without the most critically acclaimed shows on TV. Read more »
Dish’s Ergen: Auto Hop protecting TV from online video barbarism
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen defended his company’s controversial new commercial-skipping feature as a necessary innovation amid a sea change in video delivery. Oh, and he also conceded that it won’t hurt Dish when it comes to broadcast retransmission talks. Read more »
Dish/AMC fight breaks bad, channels banished to the 9,000s
As carriage disputes go, Dish Networks’ battle with AMC Networks is shaping up to be particularly nasty. Just how disruptive would it be to have a programmer of Emmy-winning hits cast off the No. 3 pay TV service provider? Read more »
Dish to TV nets: We pay you, so our customers can skip your ads
On Friday, activity around Dish’s highly controversial “AutoHop” feature was, well, hopping. Not only did NBC and CBS join Fox in the court battle against the satellite TV service, but Dish issued a testy response. Oh, and a backlash is forming against the networks. Read more »
Dish defends ad-skipping DVR, pay TV peers throw it under bus
As executives for Time Warner Cable and other multi-channel TV service providers also take it to task for its new commercial-skipping DVR, Dish Network defends its new offering, calling it a “win-win” that makes subscribers watch even more broadcast television. Read more »
How broadcasters could have stopped Dish’s Hopper
Broadcasters are hopping made at Dish Network and Charlie Ergen about their new commercial-deleting DVR feature. Some might look back on litigation with ReplayTV with some regret. Broadcasters failed to get the anti-commercial-skipping ruling they were seeking at the time. Read more »
Analyst: Forget Mad Men, does Dish hate all advertising?
Already locked into a carriage dispute that threatens to keep AMC’s ad-focused hit drama Mad Men away from its 14 million subscribers, Dish Network was taken to task by Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett for new commercial-skipping features in its “Hopper” set-top boxes. Read more »
Dish’s Ergen: Streaming on Netflix “devalues” Mad Men
Speaking to investors during Dish Network’s Q1 conference call Monday, Dish chairman Charlie Ergen said the reason his company hasn’t reached a carriage renewal agreement with AMC stems from the fact that the cable programmer has “devalued” its content through its streaming deals. Read more »
Despite Q1 profit, Blockbuster keeps on shrinking
The once dying Blockbuster brand generated a profit of nearly $14 million in the first quarter for its new corporate parent, Dish Network, flourishing as a combination streaming/physical movie rental service. Still, Dish plans to close 100 more brick-and-mortar Blockbuster stores in Q2. Read more »
The Good And Bad News From The Latest Pay TV Subscriber Figures
photo: Shutterstock / artenot
The good news for the traditional subscription TV industry: subscriber counts across the cable/satellite/telco television services industry… Read more »
What The CW's About-Face On Streaming Says About Piracy, Authentication
photo: CW's Gossip Girl
While its relevance in the realm of traditional linear television is more questionable than ever, the CW’s youthful, digitally literate core… Read more »
Epix, ABC Family Launch on iOS; So What About Their Hulu, Netflix Deals?
photo: Shutterstock / Angela Waye
Say this about TV Everywhere — it’s not making the complicated world of TV video streaming any easier to figure out. On Tuesday, cable netw… Read more »
Hulu Joins Trademark Battle Against Dish's 'TV Everywhere' Claim
Hulu has joined Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) Inc. and the nation’s five biggest cable service providers in a fight to stop Dish Network (NSDQ: DI… Read more »
Cord Cutting Can Wait: Subscription TV Added 343,000 Subs in Q4
photo: Shutterstock / artenot
Correction: A previous version of this story reported an increase of 343 million subs. We apologize for the error.
With the rise of Netflix… Read more »
Say Goodbye To Blockbuster Stores
photo: Shutterstock / Chris Green
The Blockbuster brand emerged from the ashes of bankruptcy to have an impact on the bottom line of its new owner, Dish Network (NSDQ: DISH).… Read more »
Cuban Teams With Seacrest, AEG To Relaunch HDNet as 'ESPN For Pop Culture'
photo: Flickr / Staci D. Kramer
Struggling for leverage with cable distributors as the operator of an independent network, Mark Cuban may have found a way forward for one o… Read more »
Never Mind Cord Cutters And Dish — DirecTV Raises Rates
photo: Shutterstock / artenot
Cord-cutting technology was out in force at CES this week, and main rival Dish Network (NSDQ: DISH) just announced a “company relaunch” that… Read more »
Dish Super-Sizes The DVR As Part Of Turnaround Effort
photo: Corbis / Simon Marcus
Struggling satellite TV carrier Dish Network (NSDQ: DISH) christened what it called a company “relaunch” with a new digital video recorder t… Read more »
If Netflix Is In Play, Here's Some Companies That Would Be In The Hunt
photo: Flickr / Global X
Verizon is getting its full turn in the rumor mill. Last week, word had it that Verizon is looking to launch an OTT subscription service. Ne… Read more »
The Morning Lowdown 11-23-11
photo: Corbis / Patricia Curi
» Nokia (NYSE: NOK) Siemens to Cut 17,000 Jobs (WSJ; Press release)
» James Murdoch quits the boards of Sun and Times… Read more »
Google TV 2.0 Rolls Out But No New Hardware Til 2012
photo: Google
A year after the much-hyped launch of *Google* TV with partners Sony (NYSE: SNE), Logitech, Intel (NSDQ: INTC) and Dish Network (NSDQ: DISH)… Read more »
Chart: How Netflix, Blockbuster, Hulu And Amazon Stack Up
photo: Getty Images / David McNew
This category changes as fast we update charts. The latest shift: Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) has abandoned plans to spin off its DVD-by-mail busin… Read more »
That Was Qwik: Netflix Dumps Qwikster, Won’t Split DVD-Streaming Accounts
photo: Facebook
It took Coca-Cola 77 days of New Coke to bring back Coke Classic. It took *Netflix* co-founder and CEO Reed Hastings less than three weeks t… Read more »
Hulu Adds Univision; Hulu Plus On Track To Supply Majority Of Revenue
The latest news from Hulu underscores how important it is for the video startup to keep moving while it waits for its fate to be decided, sh… Read more »
Amazon Adds Fox To Subscription Streaming Lineup But Still No Mobile
photo: Fox Broadcasting Company's '24'
Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) continues to build out its Amazon Prime Instant Video service, this time with more than 2,000 movies and TV episodes fro… Read more »
Dish Aims To Keep, Gain Subs With ‘Blockbuster Movie Pass’; Thanks, Netflix
The timing of the Dish Network’s and Blockbuster’s introduction of new a streaming video venture couldn’t be more perfect. With Netflix (NSD… Read more »
HBO Looks To Extend App Success To Cinemax With MAX Go
photo: Max Go
When Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) released its quarterly earnings last week, the company boasted that its HBO app, HBO Go, was pulling in the cro… Read more »
Fox Switches To Authentication For New Shows Online; Dish, Hulu Plus Get First Crack
photo: Fox's Glee
Counting on keeping up with Glee next season through next-day visits to Hulu.com or Fox.com? Count again — unless you subscribe through a v… Read more »
Dish Network Bids $1.38 Billion In Cast For Terrestar
Dish Network (NSDQ: DISH) has made a cash bid of $1.375 billion for bankrupt telecom Terrestar Networks, Reuters reports, as it looks to fen… Read more »
Judge To Disney: Your Broken ‘Windows’ Aren’t My Problem
photo: AP Images
Like many entertainment companies, Disney (NYSE: DIS) has pretty specific ideas about when and how it wants to release its content, and uses… Read more »
TiVo Earnings Soar After Patent Settlement
photo: Corbis / Kim Kulish
TiVo (NSDQ: TIVO) had a great quarter-no surprise, since the numbers include a big chunk of the $500 million patent settlement it won from D… Read more »
