Dish, Disney deal envisions Internet-delivered TV

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By RYAN NAKASHIMA

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Dish Network and Disney have reached a landmark deal that envisions the day when Dish will offer a Netflix-like TV service to people who'd rather stream TV over the Internet than put a satellite receiver on their roof.

The deal announced late Monday paves the way for Dish to offer live local broadcasts from ABC TV stations and programming from ABC Family, Disney Channel, ESPN and ESPN2 over mobile devices, set-top boxes and other means, similar to how Netflix's video streams are delivered today.

No start date for such a service was announced. It is likely that Dish will have to cut similar deals with other programmers to make such a service attractive. A Dish spokesman refused to speculate on what the offering would cost.

As part of the new rights deal, Dish Network Corp. agreed to disable - for three days after the initial broadcast - a function on its Hopper digital video recorders that allows people to automatically record and strip out commercials from prime-time weeknight programming. But that's only for programs on ABC, which is owned by The Walt Disney Co. (DIS)

FULL story at link.


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140304/DACARIH80.html

[bigworld]

1. TV will change more in the next 5 years than it's changed in the last 50

I just hope the FCC manages it well.

[Champion Jack]

2. Couple of things

One: not everyone has the bandwidth to do this in many parts it's just not available.

Two: someone should really do an ala cart service on what channels you get.

I have a package with Direct tv that has a ton of religious channels. I don't watch them, I don't want to pay for them.
Same with the Spanish channels, I don't speak Spanish so they do me no good.
What can't I sign up for something like a " pick 20" deal?

[eggplant]

5. Dish does ala carte.

And in general, they are a much better company to deal with than DTV.

[Champion Jack]

10. Can't get dish

Without cutting down at least six trees. I did try to switch however, and all I saw was plans, I didn't see any mention of an ala cart option.

[eggplant]

15. I totally get it.

We had to eventually drop a monster tree to be able to see the satellite. It was our only option, since we couldn't get anything over the air, and we don't have cable here.

As far as getting all sorts of channels you will never watch, you have to just look at the plans and compare price vs the channels you want. With Dish, at least, you can remove channels from the channel guide, so you don't have to ever see them. We do this for all of the shop-at-home, news/biz/financial, religious, porn, etc channels. Makes it much easier to follow.

I've gotten to the point, though, that I'll almost never watch live commercial tv. I'll either record them for later (to skip the commercials) or just not watch. If I could get fast enough, reliable enough internet, I'd buy a Roku and give up on satellite completely in favor of streaming. But that's not happening any time soon.

[Xithras]

13. Last I checked, Dish doesn't do true ala carte.

You have to buy their cheapest package at $30 a month, and can then add additional channels to that "ala carte". It's a better system than most TV providers offer, but it still requires you to buy a bundled channel package that you may not want.

I want my local stations, a couple of kids stations for the rugrats, NatGeo and a couple of other educational stations, Food Network, FSTV and that's it. Dish won't let me do that.

FWIW, I've been a Dish customer for many years and am generally happy with their service, but I'd like to see them (and all other providers) start offering REAL ala carte programming options.

[JDPriestly]

8. And I don't want to have to pay for Fox News or other conservative news channels.

[Kelvin Mace]

3. They better be willing to pay through the nose

Because Comcast-Time-Warner is going to charge them serious premiums to carry their programming.

[onehandle]

4. Uh... How does Dish (a satellite company) deliver that kind of streaming data?

Especially without their satellite receiver?

What am I missing?

[eggplant]

6. They stream over the internet, like netflix.

Dish already offers DishWorld, which is a package of all-foreign programming that is internet-only. So they are just moving in that direction.

Satellite + DVR makes a lot of sense, particularly when internet bandwidth is limited, but as bandwidth increases, streaming becomes the more logical choice. Dish is simply moving in that direction.

BTW, HBO already offers net streaming for their subscribers as an alternative to cable or satellite viewing.

[onehandle]

7. But the article says 'stream TV over the Internet than put a satellite receiver on their roof'

First paragraph. Dish is a satellite service. How is the Internet connected to the customer?

[eggplant]

9. Dish isn't a "satellite service". It's a service that happens to use satellite.

And other data transport methods. I have a dish on my roof, and my receiver also connects to my DSL, and I can stream on-demand content through my receiver just like watching via the dish.

Netflix went through the same transformation. Netflix was DVD-by-mail, then it was by-mail or online, now it is mostly online. Blockbuster (bought by Dish) made the same transition.

Don't confuse the content with the delivery method.

[DavidDvorkin]

11. Any TV-over-the-Internet deal will have to include

broadband service without data limits.

Maybe I'm missing something, but that's the part I don't get about TV over the Internet. I have broadband through Comcast, and I can imagine what they would do if I started streaming such quantities of data.

[tomm2thumbs]

12. Walt Dishney?

sorry... couldn't restrain myself

[Earth_First]

14. To which Comcast places an open hand out stating: "How much?" n/t

[Lasher]

16. This is good.

This promotes the natural migration of technology, where we have a broadband pipe to the internet, and a number of content providers who compete with one another to get your business. Broadband service providers will continue their efforts to derail such a competitive marketplace.