It’s hard to believe that soon 2007 will be just a memory.  It seems the older I get the faster the years go by.  With just a few days left of 2007 it is now time for me to do what all good bloggers do this time of the year; I am going to try predicting the future.

So here we go with my predictions for the Satellite / IPTV industry for 2007.

• In 2008 Dish Network will introduce a HD DVR with a built in Slingbox unit which will allow Dish customer to watch their home satellite service anywhere. However Dish Network will charge anywhere from $4.99 to $9.99 a month extra to enable the Slingbox hardware which is already built in to the box.
• In the spring of 2008 DirecTV will finally hit the 100 HD channels milestone that they have been telling us would be coming by the end of 2007.  By the end of 2008 I predict them to reach 150 national HD channels
• AT&T will halt the rollout of it’s UVERSE service in August. AT&T will take this action after it finally realizes that its Fiber To The Node service is costing to much to constantly upgrade in an attempt to try keeping up with other services.  AT&T will finally start doing new installs using Fiber to the Home technology, this move will then show the world the true power of AT&T Uverse service.
• Dish Network will roll out HD choices for their customers in 2008, offering a $9.99,  $19.99 and a $29.99 packages.  In addition I expect Dish Network to start offering sales of just the HD channels by the end of 2008.
• In the first quarter of 2008 I predict that DirecTV will release a USB ATSC Over The Air tuner for use on their new HR-21 High Definition DVR.
• I predict by September or 2008 rumors will once again be flying about the sale of Dish Network, and again the two companies that will be named as possible buyers will include Disney & AT&T.
• I predict that Dish Network will lose their lawsuit with Tivo, however this loss in court will not affect Dish Networks customers in any way.
• Finally I predict that Dish Network CEO will invite me on a fishing trip, however I will politely decline when I learn through the grapevine that he wants to use me as his bait. (Ok just kidding about this one… I hope!)

Do you have predictions for 2008 in the world of Satellite TV?  Leave a comment and let us know what you think will happen in 2008!

DirecTV Adds Two More HD Channels

 
This morning DirecTV launched an additional 2 channels to their ever expanding HD lineup.  The channels that were added are the Tennis Channel HD and CSTV HD (College Sports TV).

I think it’s safe for me to say that DirecTV closes the year of 2007 wearing the HD leader crown.

Update To Yesterdays Column

Yesterday I wrote about the trouble that the IPTV based service named ITVN is having with Starz.  After I submitted my column yesterday my mailbox filled up letting me know that the company that was looking to purchase ITVN has ceased operations.

The company that was looking to acquire ITVN was a company named BroadShift, which was a Canadian based company.  At their official website of http://www.broadshift.com a notice is being shown which reads as follows:

“Regretfully, BroadShift has ceased operations. We have been unable to obtain necessary funding to continue business."

The failure of BroadShift makes the future of ITVN look even more gloomier.  At the time of this writing the Starz services on ITVN are still not working.  Calls to ITVN were not returned.

We will see you on Monday here at SatelliteGuys.US!