This because Charlie is a penny pinching fool that will not give the funds for these RSN to go live 24/7. bandwith should not be an issue, but here we go again we are dealing with Charlie!!!!!!!!!!!
This is the most backward thing I've read in a while. Bandwidth is the #1 problem, and money has virtually nothing to do with it...at least not directly. In fact, with ANY HD simulcast channel that is already carried in SD, the carriage negotiations are almost all about bandwidth cost/benefit analysis.
When digital cable and DBS hit, the channel providers rushed to fill that new bandwidth with niche channels. This is why we now have such bloated basic packages. These channels have very little demand individually...the providers count on selling them as a package.
Now, as people move to HD, the non HD channels are losing their tiny audiences even more. So, for example, Discovery is rushing to get an HD feed for Investigation Discovery out there. They will offer very good terms to keep it alive. At the minimum, this HD feed is probably free to DISH as long as they are paying for the SD feed. But it's possible that carrying it could actually save them money...Discovery could offer to lock in their subscriber rates for an extra 5 years rather than demand an increase. (This is hypothetical, but very possible.)
So at this point, DISH could (hypothetically!) save money by carrying ID-HD. So now, it's a bandwidth cost analysis. Carrying ID-HD now could mean that they won't have room to carry one of FOX's HD channels launching next year. And maybe FOX is offering even better terms...or maybe they are tougher than Discovery and could threaten to pull their channels if the HD feeds aren't carried.
In the case of Premiums, it's a case of diminishing returns. Adding all the available Starz HD feeds probably increased subscribers...but when the last two are available next year, will it make a difference? Or could those two slots be used to attract a different type of customer. This is true for all channels...Fox Soccer HD will probably attract/keep more loyal customers than Investigation Discovery HD.
Full time RSNs across the board is probably not a bandwidth priority. They are going to have to figure out the best way to balance it.
I personally think a good compromise is to split them...put the RSNs for Eastern Arc cities on EA only, and WA RSNs on WA only. When an east coast team plays a west coast team, the game SHOULD be carried on both sides, just on different channels. You can still use the existing PT/shared channels to carry games that are only airing on the opposite arc. (Which would effectively increase that space, as EA and WA would have different games on the part time transponders.)
