Everyone Wants a Piece of the Home Entertainment Pie

Everyone is looking to dominate living room entertainment. From cable providers such DirecTV and Comcast to tech giants like Apple and Google, there's a race under way to supply the "digital hub" that connects our online and entertainment lives. DISH Network is no exception.

On the scene at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Fools Rex Moore and Tim Beyers discuss DISH Network's newest offering -- a beefed-up Hopper DVR that can now record up to eight programs simultaneously. Will consumers jump for it?

A full transcript follows the video.

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Disruptive programming models such as Internet streaming represent just one of the reasons you know cable's going away. But do you know how to profit? There's $2.2 trillion out there to be had. Currently, cable grabs a big piece of it. That won't last. And when cable falters, three companies are poised to benefit. Click here for their names. Hint: They're not Netflix, Google, and Apple.

Rex Moore: We are at the ending stages of the 2014 International CES, and it's my pleasure to be joined by Motley Fool analyst, Tim Beyers. Tim, one of your specialties is entertainment.

Tim Beyers: Yes.

Moore: Consumer technology and entertainment are married, here at CES, so let's start off with DISH Network. What do you have to say about that?

Beyers: Well, DISH Network and the Hopper! The Hopper DVR. The idea here is that DISH wants to be a digital hub.

They want to be at the center of everything you do with entertainment in your living room, and I think that's true of all these companies -- we're talking about DirecTV, Comcast -- they all have an interest in this, because look at what's happening around us. You have Apple and Apple TV, you have Google Fiber.

Everybody wants to own this space, but what DISH did at CES is announce, with the Hopper, that you can record not one, not two, not three, not even four, but eight programs at the same time! OK...

Moore: Well, if you're an enthusiast...

Now, to be fair, the Hopper was a big award-winner at last year's CES.

Beyers: Yes.

Moore: It's great technology, so you're saying maybe just an incremental improvement and not much else?

Beyers: Well, and I just wonder who it's for.

Moore: Not for me!

Beyers: Not for me. I guess if you have a really, really large family, and then cousins that you want to involve in your TV viewing process, sure, then the Hopper is for you. But this is the classic problem for DISH, in that they have to find a way, since they are in the middle. They're in the way between the provider, like an AMC Networks that gives you programming, and you, the viewer.

They have to provide some value there in the middle, and they have to figure out a way for that box to be very valuable to you. In their view, to be fair, this is a way for them to provide some value. I just don't know if it's something that consumers are really going to look at and say, "Yes, that's a must-have feature."

Tune into these three stocks for better investing gains
Disruptive programming models such as Internet streaming represent just one of the reasons you know cable's going away. But do you know how to profit? There's $2.2 trillion out there to be had. Currently, cable grabs a big piece of it. That won't last. And when cable falters, three companies are poised to benefit. Click here for their names. Hint: They're not Netflix, Google, and Apple.

The article Everyone Wants a Piece of the Home Entertainment Pie originally appeared on Fool.com.

Rex Moore owns shares of Google. Tim Beyers owns shares of Apple, Google, and Netflix. The Motley Fool recommends AMC Networks and DirecTV. It recommends and owns shares of Apple, Google, and Netflix. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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