| moderator | Welcome to this month's chat, featuring NPS CEO, Mike Mountford. We would like to welcome your questions. |
| jim | Any word on iptv yet? |
| Mike_Mountford | Yes. We've had a couple of meetings and we have another call with them tomorrow. |
| Mike_Mountford | Right now we have a box identified and the next step is to work on the middleware and the incription |
| jim | [b]Any new channels coming or old channels coming back? |
| Mike_Mountford | GAC (Great American Country) is on as of today or this weekend. |
| Mike_Mountford | Sleuth should be available very soon |
| Mike_Mountford | I know there are a couple others but right now they don't come to mind |
| Mike_Mountford | Not Sleuth...I meant Chiller. |
| Ed lambert | Hey Mike we already get Sleuth you mean Chiller? |
| Mike_Mountford | I'm working on WGN too |
| onionscd | I'm sure many people are waiting for some positive news about IPTV, especially any specifics on when it may begin, whether we'll get better picture quality than the pizza dishes, and how much flexibility of choices we might have, as far as programming. |
| Mike_Mountford | programming choice will be the same as we have now. That is dictated by the programmers, not but the transport mechanism. |
| Mike_Mountford | picture quality...I'm told by the IPTV transport provider that should be better than the "pizza dishes" |
| Mike_Mountford | There also will be several channels of High-Def |
| moderator | What other questions to we have from the room? |
| jim | Will we get the espns and the fox sport channels back with iptv?thank you again for taking th time out to do this and merry christamas and happy new year to everyone |
| Mike_Mountford | Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you Jim! |
| Mike_Mountford | I can't know for sure because we'll need to renegotiate with ESPN and Fox but I do think that they are on the transport platform and therefore we will most likely be able to get them again because this platform allows for blackouts |
| Ed lambert | Are there any other x4 channels in the works for the future,especially since here in the northeast c4 and g1 are tough to get bc of low look angles.I miss discovery and animal planet |
| Mike_Mountford | X4 is where we are uplinking and right now it is not our intention to add any new channels to the uplink. The only space we have left is being reserved for the Turner channels that are still on analog. |
| Mike_Mountford | Now...I am not sure where the IPTV channels are, but I know they're on 3 satellites and I think x4 is one of them. |
| Mike_Mountford | But I'm not positive... |
| jim | Is boomerang going to be available on iptv? |
| Mike_Mountford | Again, I don't know exactly what channels are on the platform, but I do think that it is. And if so, we should be able to get the rights to it because we have a good relationship with Turner and we've talked about it in the past and the only roadblock has been uplinking it and we just don't have the space |
| Ed lambert | So you think IPTV may not be on one of the low birds? I'm fairly new to the concept of this iptv thing.Is it the next 4dtv or eventual replacement for 4dtv? |
| Mike_Mountford | It could be a replacement for 4DTV. It really is no different than what we've always had in C-band. IT's a C-band signal that is intended for use at headends throughout the country. However, the headends are primarily telco headends and not cable headends. |
| jim | Are these feeds on IPTV going to be master feeds or 2nd and 3rd feeds? |
| Mike_Mountford | They will be 2nd feeds |
| Mike_Mountford | But they're using larger bit streams on these feeds in an effort to not degrade the picture quality |
| Ed lambert | So the idea is that the quality of the signal will be high 480i and will it permit HDTV signals too? |
| Mike_Mountford | YES! |
| jim | have u seen the picture of the feeds on iptv yet and how do they look? |
| Ed lambert | Thank you |
| Mike_Mountford | I have not seen them personally but our engineer has and he tells me they look very good |
| Mike_Mountford | And, by the way, he's much more discriminiating than I am. |
| hometrends | Don't know if you've covered this already but would like to know how your coming with the ESPN's? |
| Mike_Mountford | We have basically covered it and as I said in previous chats...our only hope is going to be to obtain them through an IPTV platform. |
| jim | Any word on nfl network hd? |
| Mike_Mountford | The NFL has chosen not to purchase the tier bit, and economically I understand why. It just doesn't make sense. |
| jim | is there a chance we be getting usa hd or scifi hd now or on iptv? |
| Mike_Mountford | There is a chance on IPTV. I don't know what their channel lineup is currently. I'm meeting with them on the 24th and hopefully I'll get more details. We've been more concerned about getting the technical hurdles overcome because without that it wouldn't matter. |
| jim | any word on mgm hd on galaxy 23 |
| Mike_Mountford | No. I just received word to look into that last week and I unfortunately have not had the time to get there. I don't expect to know much more until after CES in January. |
| moderator | Are there any final questions from the room? |
| hometrends | Is that the 24th of December or January that you will be having the meeting? |
| Mike_Mountford | December (Christmas Eve) There's no rest for the wicked. |
| Mike_Mountford | You guys drive me pretty hard you know |
| jim | how do you see prices on iptv compared to what we have now with 4dtv? |
| Mike_Mountford | But I appreciate it |
| Mike_Mountford | Hopefully pricing will be the same |
| Mike_Mountford | There will be an IPTV transport fee so we may not be able to do away with the uplink fee, which I had hoped we could do. However, we will do the best we can to stay better than competitive with anybody out there in the multi-channel video business. |
| onionscd | any estimate on when IPTV might begin? |
| Mike_Mountford | I would've estimated 6 months ago but these things always take way longer than I think. I can just tell you that we are on the fast track right now and hopefully it'll stay that way. |
| onionscd | Also, I want to thank you and NPS for doing their best to keep C-Band alive. |
| Mike_Mountford | I want to thank you all for your participation. I think we've had a really good year in Cband if you look at all the different problems that we have encountered during the course of the year. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and profitable New Year! |