12/08/08 Charlie Chat Will be Deal Breaker !

[Islandguy43]

But here's the rub. These very same people are watching cable....

The only time we are watching cable, is when E* don't provide the channel we need. I.E. the MSG family of HD channels. Dish has the bandwidth to provide these channels, they have been uplinked in the past, and there is no reason they shouldn't provide certain channels.

It is amazing the all the Colorado Sports Channels are available in HD formats, but not MSG when the population of Colorado is 1/4 that of NY. Charlie and his Staff must enjoy his teams in HD while large markets are forced to be glad we have a SD version or subscribe to other services inorder to get our teams in HD.

 

[FitzAusTex]

I don't buy Charlie's load of BS about holding out for a 'fair' price before agreeing to carry a channel. E*'s costs must be way out of line relative to D*. There's barely any daylight between what E* charges and D* charges once any promotional offerings are factored out. Charlie is saying that E* would apparently be way more expensive than they are now if not for his playing hardball. Again, E* must be in bad shape if they cannot offer pricing similar to D* without these hardball tactics. How does D* negotiate their pricing? Perhaps E* should steal D*'s chief programming negotiator. (and yes, I realize this person probably has a non-compete).

Given the last two quarter's earning reports, Charlie should be adding every HD channel that he can gets his hands on, so that he removes this as a roadblock/issue for new subscriber growth. (and hopefully he will, once Ciel 2 is confirmed successful)

Again, I don't see how Charlie is saving us any money by holding out for better pricing. He's just preventing new subs from signing up with E*, and instead sending them off to D* (or Verizon/AT&T/Cable).

 

[ccash]

The only time we are watching cable, is when E* don't provide the channel we need. I.E. the MSG family of HD channels. Dish has the bandwidth to provide these channels, they have been uplinked in the past, and there is no reason they shouldn't provide certain channels.

It is amazing the all the Colorado Sports Channels are available in HD formats, but not MSG when the population of Colorado is 1/4 that of NY. Charlie and his Staff must enjoy his teams in HD while large markets are forced to be glad we have a SD version or subscribe to other services inorder to get our teams in HD.

Right on!

 

[kstuart]

I don't buy Charlie's load of BS about holding out for a 'fair' price before agreeing to carry a channel. E*'s costs must be way out of line relative to D*. There's barely any daylight between what E* charges and D* charges once any promotional offerings are factored out.

There are several factors here.

One is that D* benefits from E* holding out for lower prices, since Charlie's tactics end up lowering all channel prices.

Charlie holds out, eventually the channel agrees to a lower price, and then a few months later, when D* is negotiating, they say " Well, my corporate spy says that you agreed to only 12 cents per subscriber for Dish Network, so you can at least give us the same rate. "

Another aspect is that many channels feel the same way as many SatelliteGuys members (e.g. Greg B.). They are annoyed that a cracker from Tennessee who makes no attempt to act "sophisticated" is a successful billionaire. In their world view, someone's air of intelligence and sophistication is crucial to their success in the world, and it bugs them on a subconscious level when someone demonstrates that such things don't matter. ( I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to identify which other famous public figure has been the victim of the same phenomenon. )

So, many channels hate Charlie the person.

Also, many cable channels are owned by cable companies, and Dish Network has been an active competitor to cable. Although the business units are supposed to be separate, they end up being run by some of the same people who were in the cable TV business.

Of course, all this applies double to the local network affiliates who were cut out of the picture by Charlie's promotion of National Distant Network channels (as parallel to your right to subscribe to the NY Times).

 

[BobMurdoch]

Hey Charlie, I may stay a subscriber for "up to" 10 years.

Then again, I might leave in 6 months when my commitment is up.

Two can play at this game....

 

[db2]

Hey Charlie, I may stay a subscriber for "up to" 10 years.

Then again, I might leave in 6 months when my commitment is up.

Two can play at this game....

:haha

Your post reminds me of the time Charlie kept pleading with subscribers to call their congressional representative and urge them to fight the distant network shutoff.

My reply: I'll call my local congressional representative…soon!!

 

[wolfjc]

The reason I am leaving Dish is that they had plenty of time to notify all customers of their inability to do the 150 HD by end of year,instead they kept advertising.I dont like a company that keeps its customers in the dark.Be honest with the Customers ,tell us whats going on ,on a regular basis.
Also trapping people in contracts and expecting Customers to fullfill their obligations ,yet not fullfilling theirs.Just bad business practices,also very tired of dealing with overseas CSRs who know nothing about product.Sure my Cable company (Comcast)my be not considered great by any standards but they at least have a local office and can help you if you cant resolve by phone.Also on demand is auctually pretty good.May cost a little more but in the long run it may not ,as when cable goes down you dont have to pay extra to have them come out and fix.The way are Cable system works in my area is if their is a problem you wont lose all your programming at once.you may lose some channels but not all .When your dish goes out most of time your left without any TV at all,until its fixed.Also just tired of worrying everytime the wind blows or a tree grows in front of dish that I will be without service .The little extra it costs for Cable is worth it to me and now that everything (all channels ) have to be digital by february their shouldnt be a picture quality problem.

I have been with Dish since 2000 and I have NEVER lost all Dish service I have had some rain/snow problems but they last at most 30 mins.
I really don't think that if you had good LOS that a tree will grow up that fast unless it is a bamboo tree and I don't think the they grow here in the USA.
We had the last gasp of IKE blow through here a while back and it took down a lot of electric and cable wires and some people were with out any service for over a week but my service cane back in 6 hours and with it my Dish signal.
Now some folks here got their electric service back and still did not have their cable service for some days.
So I can say that I am a happy dish customer.

 

[dishcomm]

dishcomm said "...morale is at an all time low."

Human nature is funny. When i came over to Dish from the local cable company (in 2004) my local cable had no HD, and I think Dish had 8 or 10 channels. Then Dish got Voom, and added other HD channels, and had a better signal and a better receiver than DirecTv, and it was cheaper, and I was very happy.

Now, Dish has 2 or 3 times as much HD, and a better receiver, and a signal thats as good if not better than it was 4 years ago. In the meantime, our local cable started carrying HD and they're all the way up to about 14 channels now. DirecTv had good luck with their satellite launches, and now have a few more HD channels (after 3 years of being way behind). From what I hear, their receiver still sucks compared to the 622/722 etc. series issued by Dish. After several years of being famous for carrying "HD-lite" DirecTv is now credited with a decent signal, and has more lil HD.

But Dish now has a new sat. My HD locals have just gone on the air on Dish. So I'm still very happy. And my morale is high. Life is weird.

Best regards,
Fitzie

It was in general terms I was stating. Not every individual is unhappy with Dish.
The general consensus is that the low customer morale I was refering to is due solely to issues with the overseas cal center only. And that was the narrow focus of my statement regarding morale.

 

[lern4483]

I just switched from cablevision to dish. If you have cablevision, then you really have something to complain about.

I really liked cablevision. I visited my sister on Long Iland for Thanksgiving.
Caught Cablevision. Aside from a mediocre Dvr is Cablevision was better than dish.

In my opinnion.....

 

[HDRoberts]

I really liked cablevision. I visited my sister on Long Iland for Thanksgiving.
Caught Cablevision. Aside from a mediocre Dvr is Cablevision was better than dish.

In my opinnion.....

Well, we all know you are a little biased toward some certain Cablevision offerings.

 

[dishcomm]

I really liked cablevision. I visited my sister on Long Iland for Thanksgiving.
Caught Cablevision. Aside from a mediocre Dvr is Cablevision was better than dish.

In my opinnion.....

Cablevision. Ahh yes not so fond memories.
But the iO service I hear is pretty darn good.

 

[kstuart]

Hey Charlie, I may stay a subscriber for "up to" 10 years.

Then again, I might leave in 6 months when my commitment is up.

Two can play at this game....

You guys just continue to act like Charlie is intentionally depriving you of channels in order to make you as unhappy as possible.

Adding new channels helps Dish Network's business - they want to add them.

If you can guarantee that every Dish Network satellite launch will go perfectly, and that channels will ask for reasonable prices for their HD channels, then Charlie can give you specific guaranteed dates. But, since no one can guarantee those two conditions, then he cannot guarantee specific channels on specific dates (at least not until the satellites are deployed successfully and the contracts for the channels are signed).

 

[Quantum]

You guys just continue to act like Charlie is intentionally depriving you of channels in order to make you as unhappy as possible.

Adding new channels helps Dish Network's business - they want to add them.

If you can guarantee that every Dish Network satellite launch will go perfectly, and that channels will ask for reasonable prices for their HD channels, then Charlie can give you specific guaranteed dates. But, since no one can guarantee those two conditions, then he cannot guarantee specific channels on specific dates (at least not until the satellites are deployed successfully and the contracts for the channels are signed).

Thank you for that Public Service Announcement, Charlie.

 

[kstuart]

That said, I am still on the verge of leaving Dish when my contract expires in Feb for one reason...the audio blips on recorded shows from my local ABC channel. It only happens on this one channel, and only on recorded or paused shows, but trying to watch Grey's Anatomy when every other word is inaudible is driving my wife bonkers. I don't care if DISH isn't at 150 HD channels by the end of the year (I don't even believe there are that many out there). DISH would be much better off by spending their time and talents in fixing the problems that are really turning people off!

This is reported to be fixed by the L615 Software Update that has just begun spooling to some 622 and 722 receivers, as reported in another Forum:

Originally Posted by yovinman
My 622 receiver has software version L6.15 today. I have NOT done full test on the audio droputs, but I did play about 5 minutes of a recorded ABC show that is notorious for audio dropouts ("Dirty, Sexy, Money" - wife's show, not mine) and there were no dropouts. Ususally the first 5 minutes of this show is unwatchable due to audio droputs. Again, not saying this is proof that the audio dropout dragon is slain, just wondering if anyone else got this release and if it solved any audio dropout problems.

 

[yaz96]

The only time we are watching cable, is when E* don't provide the channel we need. I.E. the MSG family of HD channels. Dish has the bandwidth to provide these channels, they have been uplinked in the past, and there is no reason they shouldn't provide certain channels.

It is amazing the all the Colorado Sports Channels are available in HD formats, but not MSG when the population of Colorado is 1/4 that of NY. Charlie and his Staff must enjoy his teams in HD while large markets are forced to be glad we have a SD version or subscribe to other services inorder to get our teams in HD.

Charlie did it for me!

You've got to think that Altitude and FSRM are much cheaper than MSG, just for the reason you stated.
People out here are still pissed that Charlie hasn't added "the mtn.", the Mountain West Conferences' channel with Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, BYU, Utah, etc.
Direct has it.....

 

[Islandguy43]

Charlie did it for me!

You've got to think that Altitude and FSRM are much cheaper than MSG, just for the reason you stated.
People out here are still pissed that Charlie hasn't added "the mtn.", the Mountain West Conferences' channel with Air Force, Colorado State, New Mexico, BYU, Utah, etc.
Direct has it.....

But in reality is it good business sense? You are giving subs the opportunity to churn, because of cable's triple play and their growing hd channel lineup. I love my dvr; however if and when TWC in Western New York brings their hd lineup up to the offering available downstate (60-80 hd channels); which includes MSG channels (Buffalo Sabres) and the Yes Network (Yankees) both in HD; I may have no choice but to return to cable (yikes did I say that )

 

[yaz96]

But in reality is it good business sense? You are giving subs the opportunity to churn, because of cable's triple play and their growing hd channel lineup. I love my dvr; however if and when TWC in Western New York brings their hd lineup up to the offering available downstate (60-80 hd channels); which includes MSG channels (Buffalo Sabres) and the Yes Network (Yankees) both in HD; I may have no choice but to return to cable (yikes did I say that )

In no way did I imply that it was good business sense, we know this is Dish Network!
And we also know Charlie is cheap!