What's Hot in Satellite

[Maestro701]

The Princeton club in NYC was a hotbed of satellite activity late yesterday with the SkyREPORT Multiplatform Matrix preceding the SSPI's best ever (and sold out!) Future Leaders dinner. Among the points of note from the SkyREPORT event:

• Don't count out a DIRECTV/telco merger on the grounds that the current D.C. crowd would rule against huge media mergers. . Says Collin Stewart's Tom Eagan, the administration cares more about bringing broadband to all Americans and if AT&T (for example) agreed to provide high speed internet services to rural America then the Obama crew would let the deal go through.

• Also on the "don't cut out" front: Sirius XM. The jury is still out said Gordon Angelo's Pete Gingold, but satellite radio has a strong, proven audience. On the downside, however, is Sirius' high subscriber acquisition costs – particularly in subsidizing the the radio. As existing customers buy new cars, points out Gingold, "Sirius will have to keep re-acquiring the customers" ... and that cost could eat severely into its balance sheet.

• As with our first point, watch for more hybrid satellite/telco systems. It's happening worldwide, notes Eurconsult's Pacome Revillion, as telco providers from South America to Europe adding DTH to their offerings.

• And the coolest new toy around? If he had $5,000 to spend on satellite says SES World Skies' Bryan McGuirk, he'd get EchoStar's SlingLoaded set top box which allows for streaming content to a full array of devices, including TV, computer and mobile devices. By the time he finished setting up his system, McGuirk notes, "It would cost around $5,000."

• Showtime's Matt Blank touted the premium subscription model and talked about making service more transparent to consumers. The trend toward a more personalized and so-called "TV Everywhere" is at the beginning of its search for a business model, Blank said as he mentioned activity everywhere but nothing solid yet.