Echostar/DISH announced their intention to enter the IPTV marketplace, targeting telcos and rural cable systems with an IPTV MPEG-4 transport solution, branded as ViP-TV. ViP-TV General Manger Daniel Daines tells Telecompetitor, “Our solution will allow our partners to offer a DISH Networks television experience to their subscribers, utilizing a DSL or FTTH broadband network.” The announcement is sure to shake up the increasingly competitive IPTV transport/head end in the sky solution landscape. ViP-TV will offer 300 channels, including local broadcast signals from 165 local designated market areas (DMAs). Local broadcast HD feeds from 30 DMAs will also be offered. The ViP-TV programming suite includes ViP-Premier™, which offers 100 channels of national cable networks, ViP-HD™, which offers 40 channels of high definition programming; ViP-Movies™, a menu of 40 popular movie services; ViP-Latino™, offering 30 Spanish-language programming services; and the ViP-International™ programming package, providing 30 programming channels in 10 different languages. “We intend to begin offering signals to strategic telco partners in December, and expect paying customers on the platform in January 2008,” said Daines. He declined to name these “strategic telco partners.” Could this be Embarq’s IPTV strategy?

When asked about the impact of ViP-TV possibly slowing down DBS subscriber growth, Daines replied “We’re ok in slowing the growth of [direct to home], provided we replace it with ViP-TV.” Daines added that Echostar CEO Charlie Ergen is 100% behind the new Echostar IPTV strategy, adding “Charlie Ergen is just as excited about the prospects of IPTV as he was when he first launched direct to home DBS.” The solution includes transport, system integration, and equipment, including set top box solutions. I asked Daines about his competitors, and he replied, “Our competitors know the satellite business, and they do it well. We know the TV business, and we do that well. We have 12 years of experience in TV and 13 million subscribers.” ViP-TV has secured transport rights, but will work with third party content aggregators for content affiliation rights.

This is quite an interesting development. The competitive implications are almost too numerous to list. Who would have thought a couple years ago that a leading DBS service provider would decide to enter the IPTV business, and in some ways, compete with itself. There is much to sort out here including the reaction of Echostar’s extensive DISH dealer network (and retail partners). Daines is giving ViP TV a fairly aggressive timetable – “paying customers by January” - seems very optimistic. Time will tell, but for the time being, ViP’s competitors should have somewhat of a head start. More to follow.

Everywhere you look these days, you see chatter about a potential acquisition of Echostar/DISH Networks by AT&T. If you subscribe to the old adage, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire,” this must be a done deal. Of course we’ve seen this before. AT&T has been rumored to want to buy Echostar for years, and nothing has ever materialized. But if this deal does happen, it could take telecom competition into territory not witnessed before.

My main contention with this “unchartered territory” thesis is that should AT&T buy Echostar, they would immediately be in direct competition with Verizon and Qwest (among other incumbent telephone companies) for video services. Those of us who know telecom well understand that there has always been an unwritten rule about “baby bells" not entering each others incumbent territories to compete. The same rule seems to apply to large MSOs. But an AT&T/Echostar deal begins to soften this long held stance. Some would argue that AT&T and their telco peers began competing in each other’s territories long ago through wireless. That would indeed be true. But an Echostar deal could dramatically expand this growing competition between incumbent telcos, assuming there are no regulatory mandated divestitures in an AT&T led Echostar acquisition. Video has proven to be the “anchor tenant” for bundles. An AT&T owned DISH Networks could bundle video and wireless right out of the gate. Furthermore, as broadband wireless technology continues to evolve and mature, there is no reason why AT&T couldn’t soon offer triple/quad play bundles outside of their incumbent territory with broadband wireless powering the broadband and voice (using VoIP) portions of the bundle. This line of thinking synchs well with their recent purchase of Aloha’s 700 Mhz spectrum. I certainly recognize there are a lot of “ifs” in this analysis, and some may characterize it as wild speculation. But I would contend that it’s not too far of a stretch to suggest that we could soon see AT&T, Verizon, Qwest, and other telcos competing with each other in their incumbent territories for high value multi-play subscribers. Wireless, both terrestrial and orbital, will power this competitive evolution. AT&T’s potential purchase of Echostar may lead the way.

Echostar/DISH Networks announced the acquisition of Sling Media yesterday, maker of the Slingbox. DISH is purchasing Sling Media for $380 million and they expect the deal to close in the fourth quarter. DISH clearly sees this acquisition as a means to create competitive advantage over DirecTV and its cable/IPTV competitors. “With today’s increasingly mobile lifestyle, EchoStar’s acquisition of Sling Media will allow us to offer innovative and convenient ways for our customers to enjoy their programming on more displays and locations, including TVs, computers and mobile phones, both inside and outside of the home. This combination paves the way for the development of a host of new innovative products and services for our subscribers, new digital media consumers and strategic partners,” said Echostar CEO Charlie Ergen.

Sling Media has developed some interesting products. Their value proposition is to allow consumers to view content anywhere and anytime. If DISH is able to integrate these products well, they could have some compelling features and applications to offer. Maybe more importantly, the acquisition of Sling talent into the Echostar fold should lead to more innovation and perhaps additional competitive advantage. Stay tuned.

For more insight, check out this post from Jeremy Toeman's LIVEdigitally blog.

Clearwire announced today that it has partnered with both DirecTV and Dish Networks to resell each others services. Clearwire’s broadband wireless Internet can now be bundled with both DirecTV and Echostar’s Dish Network satellite video services. The reverse is true as well, with Clearwire now able to offer a video bundle with their wireless Internet offering. All three companies have also agreed to allow each other to sell these services independently, meaning DirecTV can sell Clearwire products independent of a bundled video offering and vice versa.

This announcement highlights the desire for these companies to leverage bundled service packages, despite the fact that their respective core networks don’t allow them to do so. The issue is more acute for DirecTV and Echostar, who realize they need a triple play package in order to compete effectively with cable and telecom providers. They are actively exploring many options, including BPL. This new partnership deal appears to be more of an interim step, than a long term strategy.

CenturyTel and Echostar renewed their strategic partnership to offer DISH Network as a part of CenturyTel’s triple play bundle. Both parties seem to be quite pleased with the relationship, although no official subscriber numbers or projections were released with the announcement. This development begs the question, what exactly is CenturyTel’s long term triple play strategy? Have they decided that an IPTV or other wireline video solution is not in their long term plans? That would seem to go counter to the telecom industry’s thinking on this issue. For now, CenturyTel and Embarq seem to be the two carriers of note who appear to be “digging in” with a DBS partner. Maybe they know something everyone else doesn’t.

Read the CenturyTel press release for the details.