AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion • Hacker News Board

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#171

Post by gizmo686 » Tue, May 20, 2014, 2:06 PM UTC

qq66 wrote: post #138

georgemcbay wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This race is rigged. Even if the streaming providers win the telecoms will just jack up the prices on their bandwidth when net neutrality is killed completely, which I don't think is an avoidable situation at this point.

If net neutrality is gone for good, the telecoms don't even have to bother entering the streaming business. They just have to look at Netflix's profits each year and charge (profits-$1) the next year, letting Netflix stay barely in business and capturing the surplus.

Suppose Netflix has profit P, and AT&T charges them X. Netflix has the option of not paying AT&T, which could cost them (P-X) and cost AT&T X. This gives Netflix leverage to get AT&T to lower the price.

Actually going through with this threat costs both companies money, so they will likely work out a mutually acceptable division of profit without doing so. However, if one company thinks the other is bluffing, they may try calling the bluff.

Also, this likely means more expansive for end users.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#172

Post by onedev » Wed, May 21, 2014, 8:16 AM UTC

acheron wrote: post #137

onedev wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. I have not paid for TV since I move out of my parents house 4 years ago. I have 0 plans to purchase TV ever in my life. Even for sports, there are numerous online streams (though illegal) that I will make use of to keep up with critical games like the NBA playoffs. Other than that the content on TV is garbage, and all the good content I can pirate easily or watch on Hulu/Netflix. Cable companies are fucked.

I don't know why people pay for food when you can just shoplift it, am I right?

I would love to pay for online streams and content online. I just don't want to pay for cable.

Content producers need to take note and provide their content in ways that are easily accessible and in ways that I can easily pay for.

I WANT to pay for content.

Re: AT&T to Buy DirecTV for $48.5 Billion

#173

Post by patrickyeon » Thu, May 22, 2014, 10:16 PM UTC

patrickyeon wrote: post #114

mrschwabe wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For NHL, I've heard Gamecenter has poor quality feeds. Ironically, there's a one man show who runs a better service - albeit unlicensed - at hockeystreams.com $20 per month, all games streamed in HD plus your choice of broadcast options (ie- home / away feed on NBC or TSN, etc).

FWIW, Gamecenter has had decent feeds for me; it annoys me that the browser viewer won't play the best quality (it only does 3Kbit, 30fps I think), but the ipad app will play 60fps HD streams. Missing blackout and playoff games is the worst though.

Aaand for the sake of posterity, that's actually 3Mbit. 3Kbit video doesn't really make sense.