Dish Mobile Video Plans Come Into Focus By Harry A. Jessell TVNewsCheck
Feb 18 2010, 12:49 PM ET http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/02/18/daily.10/ Dish Network, the second leading satellite TV provider, is still not saying what it intends to do with the 700 MHz spectrum that it bought at an FCC auction for $712 million two years ago. But broadcasters involved with bringing mobile DTV to market this year have a strong hunch. They believe the satellite TV provider intends to use their mobile DTV standard to offer multiple channels of paid programming, most likely cable networks. Its national service could comprise as many as 20 channels and would compliment the planned local services of TV stations. The broadcasters base their belief on Dish's active role at the Advanced Television Systems Committee over the past several months. Last summer, Dish helped initiate work on extending the basic ATSC standard so that an entire DTV channel could be devoted to mobile DTV service. As it is now written, the standard sets aside a portion of channels for conventional broadcasting, a bow to the FCC requirement that every TV station continue to broadcast a fixed SD service. Then just two months ago, Dish joined Nagravision in supporting an effort to come up with a conditional access feature to the mobile DTV standard — the key to using the medium for pay TV. Dish recently completed the migration of more than 14 million satellite TV subscribers to the latest generation of Nagravision's pay TV system and, last month, the two companies announced that they had signed a 10-year deal to continue working together. Dish was also involved in the demonstration of the mobile DTV technology and services organized by the Open Mobile Video Coalition at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Harris, one of the leading proponents of mobile DTV, used Dish's ch. 56 in Las Vegas to transmit eight channels of local and national channels of mobile DTV during the show. "Dish is trying to build on the momentum of adoption with the mobile DTV standard," said Mark Aitken, a Sinclair Broadcast Group executive who chairs the ATSC's mobile DTV standards group. "They are striving to ensure there is compatibility so that they can share in the viewer and user space that broadcasters create." That's a good thing for Dish and for broadcasters, just as the satellite TV business has been, he added. "It's the power of combining local with national programming on a common viewing platform." Open Mobile Video Coalition Executive Director Anne Schelle declined to comment for this story. A Dish spokesperson also declined to comment on the company's involvement with ATSC or OMVC, pointing this reporter to nebulous statements that Dish executives have made about their plans for the 700 MHz spectrum in conference calls with securities analysts. In the second quarter call last May, Tom Cullen, EVP, sales, marketing and promotion, came closest to acknowledging Dish's interest in broadcasters' mobile DTV. "We have a team dedicated to working on this project and, as you may or may not have heard, we have been very active with the broadcasting community and were at NAB," he said. "I don't think it's going to have a material impact on CapEx for the next several quarters," Cullen added. "As you know, the standard on ATSC-MH ... is still evolving a bit." In the third quarter 2009 call, CEO Charlie Ergen said how the company puts the spectrum to work will depend in part on regulation. "We're going to come up with two or three good uses for the spectrum and then see where Washington indicates they're going to go with long-term spectrum policy," Ergen said. "From an investment perspective, you shouldn't expect a large capital commitment in the near term until we have a better idea of where Washington will be with it." What Dish plans to do with the spectrum invariably comes up in the conference calls with analysts because right now the spectrum is an expensive untapped asset sitting on the Dish books. Dish bought the spectrum at an FCC auction in early 2008 for $712 million apparently without a plan for capitalizing on it. Dish's 165 E block licenses give it a national footprint. The Dish channels were part of a large band of 700 MHz spectrum that the government would recover after TV broadcasters completed their transition to digital. That transition ended last June when the last stations shut down their analog transmitters. The government raised nearly $20 billion in the auction with the biggest hunks going to the biggest wireless operators, Verizon Wireless and AT&T. -- ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 Mail: antunes at uh dot edu *********************************** * POST TO MEDIANEWS@ETSKYWARN.NET * *********************************** Medianews mailing list Medianews@etskywarn.net http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
