Satellite TV provider to challenge Oceanic
By John Duchemin
Advertiser Staff Writer
Satellite television provider DISH Network today will start beaming local channels to Hawai'i customers in an attempt to challenge Oceanic Cable's dominance of the state's TV market.
DISH Network said it will offer local ABC, CBS, NBC and Hawaii Public Television programming, plus K5, KIKU and two other independent stations. It will not yet offer Fox, which is still negotiating with DISH over retransmission rights.
DISH officials said they can now offer local programming because parent company Echostar launched a satellite that brings more bandwidth to Hawai'i.
In moving to begin offering local programming, DISH Network is taking aim at subscribers to Oceanic's cable network — which DISH says is in about 90 percent of Hawai'i homes with televisions. The DISH Network, which has been in Hawai'i about three years, is in about 2 percent of Hawai'i TV homes.
Oceanic officials yesterday said they see little new threat from the competitor, but a DISH official said the company has added customers in each of the 38 markets where it has introduced local programming.
"This gives Hawai'i customers a competitive alternative to cable," said Jeffrey Pratt, DISH Network's local sales manager.
DISH Network offers several channel packages, but will concentrate on pushing a plan that Pratt says is close to Oceanic's standard cable service. The "America's Top 100" package, which includes 70 TV and 30 audio channels, will cost $36.98 per month with local programming included, Pratt said.
The Oceanic standard package costs $37.22 per month and includes 65 TV channels. Oceanic plans no special promotions in response, said Nate Smith, president of the Time Warner Cable's Oceanic division, which runs Oceanic Cable and the Roadrunner cable-modem Internet service.
"I'm not certain what their unique selling point is, to be honest," Smith said. "We already have a competitor (Craig TV) that offers all the local channels — not just some of them — and a stripped-down promotional offering. One's always wary of the competition, but the point is, what's changed? Not a lot."
Still, Oceanic, DISH, and wireless television provider Craig TV — which has several thousand customers in the Islands — plan to beef up their offerings with new services.
Oceanic, which offers over-the-TV interactive services such as pizza ordering to digital subscribers on about half of O'ahu, plans to expand the services islandwide, Smith said. The company plans to add more channels and is testing other interactive services, Smith said.
Craig TV has announced plans to offer high-speed Internet access over its wireless network. And DISH, whose parent Echostar Communications Corp. is planning a merger with DirectTV, plans to roll out high-speed satellite Internet access in Hawai'i if the merger wins federal approval.
Lack of local programming has been one of the two main obstacles to satellite TV in Hawai'i, Pratt said. The other, he said, is the perceived higher cost of satellite equipment, which can cost several hundred dollars to buy.
