Posted on 12/07/2006 1:04:10 AM PST by HAL9000
Excerpt -
Rupert Murdoch and John C. Malone, who have wrangled for two years over Mr. Malone’s challenge to Mr. Murdoch’s control of the News Corporation, have made peace.It was almost two years ago that Mr. Murdoch was stunned to learn that Mr. Malone, his friend and sometimes business partner, had bought a big voting stake in the News Corporation, a stake that could threaten Mr. Murdoch’s grip on the colossus he built over five decades.
The two men privately struck a deal this week that would have Mr. Malone take one of Mr. Murdoch’s once-prized assets — the DirecTV satellite service — plus other goodies in exchange for going away by selling his $11 billion stake in the News Corporation back to the company.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
This should help the DISH Network increase its subscriber base even more. Now, if the "NFL Package" can finally be made available for the DISH Network, that would help them even more.
They'll probably discontinue a few channels and add some new ones.
It's always been made available through a bidding process, and DISH gets outbid every time. It may be harder, as I suspect it will probably go to a large cable provider the next time around. Cable, since it now has a digital tier, has been wanting the Sunday Ticket as bad as DISH has. The Sunday Ticket is the only selling point of DirecTV. I think it's a loss leader, and probably why Murdoch decided to give it up, after owning it for such a short period of time.
Nonsense.
Though I am a Direct Ticket subscriber, in addition to the Hockey and Basketball packages, DirecTV has much going for it over the other services like Dish. Top ranked customer service, a better picture in both normal and HD channels, and should Murdock rebuild the relationship DirecTV once had with Tivo, the competition can wrap it up.
While it may increase DirecTV's subscriber base, it won't do much over the long term -- the reason KRM is dumping it. Movie and TV distribution will move increasingly onto the Web, meaning a sky full of largely one-way satellites becomes an unneccessary and expensive liability.
Rupert sees where the business is going and is dispassionately positioning himself, even to the extent of unloading a "jewel" that took him two years of courting GM and two attempts to land. It's another example of the man's genius.
Whoops! Meant DISH's subscriber base.
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