at the risk of getting bashed forever.... I Love Dish....

[RandallA]

People hate Charlie, because they have a preconception of a Billionaire as some sophisticated urban guy like James Bond. When they are confronted with a successful person who doesn't meet their preconceptions, it bothers them.

I don't agree. People don't like Charlie because in the last few years this company has gone down in quality of customer service, removal of channels from packages and the nickel and dime fees and I'm sure there are other reasons. Wall Street and customers are not happy with the way this company is being run, like our new president said: "Change is needed".

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I don't agree. People don't like Charlie because in the last few years this company has gone down in quality of customer service, removal of channels from packages and the nickel and dime fees and I'm sure there are other reasons. Wall Street and customers are not happy with the way this company is being run, like our new president said: "Change is needed".

I could not agree more!

 

[Hemi 6.1]

Without Charlie, it would be DirecTV Bland and boring..

Really whats so boring about D*? NFL pack, MLB pack,Nascar pack,NBA pack,, Gol TV, More Free VOD then I've ever seen.? What makes D* so boring?
While again they are adding customers E* is still losing them. Change is needed.

 

[Rey]

what i still love about dish? their dvr's! still the best and the example for the rest to follow. What's next for dish in dvr's will be very exciting. i wonder when others will catchup in this category?

 

[Ronnie-]

While again they are adding customers E* is still losing them. Change is needed.

And fast! More channels, more kept promises, less running it like they have done in the past. The past model wont compete in todays marketplace. I swear, sometimes they simply act like they dont care.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I swear, sometimes they simply act like they dont care.

I agree, I think some of us need to wake up and look around, Because E* is far from squeaky clean.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

what i still love about dish? their dvr's! still the best and the example for the rest to follow. What's next for dish in dvr's will be very exciting. i wonder when others will catchup in this category?

Yes DVR and Premiums are good, For now! D* with a growing subscriber base is only going to get better,
E* with its channel dropping,Sub Losing, BS advertisements is in for the worst. E* will be dead by 2011. D* will have bought them and if Chase Carey is smart he'll kick Charle to the curb.

 

[scrooloose]

I ahve Starchoice (I'm the opposite of you...live in US but have SC) and they got the simsub thing right. I have none due to my location. (you probably know this but I'll explain for others) the only time they can simsub is if you have that local channel near you that requests the simsub. So if I live in Toronto I would have simsubs...but my address has no OTA options so I get no simsubs.

Bell is one for all and all get simsubbed regardless of address,

The problem is that Dish doesn't have the software to do the Canadian simsub properly, since locals are handled entirely different in the US. I suppose they could request the feature, but from what I've seen the Bell software is almost identical to what Dish customers get, minus a few features. Since Bell relies entirely on Dish for support, I suspect they want to keep it that way.

-Mike

 

[Mr Tony]

But yet both can do blackouts just fine?????

It shouldnt be that hard to implement it...hell Starchoice uses motorola boxes and they can figure it out...but Bell does the cheap way and line the CRTC's pockets to get around that issue

 

[JonE]

Really whats so boring about D*? NFL pack, MLB pack,Nascar pack,NBA pack,, Gol TV, More Free VOD then I've ever seen.? What makes D* so boring?

That's exactly it for those who could give a rat's ass about sports outside my local market. All that wasted bandwidth on something I'll never watch. I follow the local teams in three sports (Broncos, unfortunately, and the Rockies and Avalanche, yes I'm a glutton for punishment). And the only other non-market team I follow (The Red Sox) are on National TV every 24 hours or so during baseball season. Dish has more than enough sports for me, the casual sports fan. While DirecTV is at it, they can have NBA and NHL exclusively as well since they already have baseball and NFL. All the more bandwidth available for More HD.

And the same problems most of you have had with E*, I've had in the past with D*, billing issues, double charges, charges I never knew about, and the signal crapped out constantly everytime a fly landed on the dish and farted. Dish has had some signal issues, but not nearly the frequency DirecTV did. Plus the 722 is fantastic for someone like me who doesn't watch a lot of live TV. And the times I have called Customer Service, the agent has been very helpful, courteous, and knew their stuff, and if they didn't know it, they asked someone who did and I had an answer before I hung up.

I have the HD Absolute package, Locals, and all the Premiums. The same package on Comcast would cost me upwards of $100, only $65 on Dish, even if it goes up with Turbo and my local RSN(s), it will still be lower than Comcast. And don't even get me started on Comcast!

 

[Hemi 6.1]

I have the HD Absolute package, Locals, and all the Premiums.!

Well I would say far more people do care about that stuff, Since E* has less then 2 Million total HD customers.

 

[kylekatarn]

Not only am I an installer, but customer too...lol

 

[vampz26]

That's exactly it for those who could give a rat's ass about sports outside my local market. All that wasted bandwidth on something I'll never watch. I follow the local teams in three sports (Broncos, unfortunately, and the Rockies and Avalanche, yes I'm a glutton for punishment). And the only other non-market team I follow (The Red Sox) are on National TV every 24 hours or so during baseball season. Dish has more than enough sports for me, the casual sports fan. While DirecTV is at it, they can have NBA and NHL exclusively as well since they already have baseball and NFL. All the more bandwidth available for More HD.

And the same problems most of you have had with E*, I've had in the past with D*, billing issues, double charges, charges I never knew about, and the signal crapped out constantly everytime a fly landed on the dish and farted. Dish has had some signal issues, but not nearly the frequency DirecTV did. Plus the 722 is fantastic for someone like me who doesn't watch a lot of live TV. And the times I have called Customer Service, the agent has been very helpful, courteous, and knew their stuff, and if they didn't know it, they asked someone who did and I had an answer before I hung up.

I have the HD Absolute package, Locals, and all the Premiums. The same package on Comcast would cost me upwards of $100, only $65 on Dish, even if it goes up with Turbo and my local RSN(s), it will still be lower than Comcast. And don't even get me started on Comcast!

+100

Seriously, the reason I left D* YEARS ago is because I felt like their sports package customers were their only valued customers....everyone else just 'got what they gave them'...which wasn't much....

And if you look at D*'s greatest protagonists around here, all you get from them is "sports pack, sports pack, sports pack...EVERYONE BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP THE GREATNESS OF THE ALMIGHTY SPORTS PACK!!!" And if you don't care...well...then who cares? lol...the poor and unenlighted to not understand the greatness of the sportspack.

The only reason I'm still with E* today, is for lack of any compelling reason to switch...thats it...and if I do switch, it will be more likely because D* added Voom before it will ever be on the basis of some overpriced sports pack.

...or E* crashes and burns...whichever comes first.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

...or E* crashes and burns...whichever comes first.

That may happen.

 

[Ronnie-]

That may happen.

Current path makes it very likely (long term). Hopefully they will see this and make the needed changes

 

[vampz26]

That may happen.

You know, six monthes ago I would have had to respectfully disagree...but today? I'm afraid that anything can happen...

Even with some of these lawsuits some of us love to banter about. If E* hasn't appropriated sufficient cash to settle these things "just in case", it will not be good. IF E* is required to sell off any assets or even company stock in the near future to cover any significant debt, the amount required would equal a significantly larger percentage of the company's worth than it would have about a year ago, in effect...costing E* over twice as much in the long run.

For example, if X dollars would have bought you 10 percent of the company a year ago, that same X dollars would buy you 20 percent of the company now, while X remains a constant. Which means if E* has to sell off any assets NOW to cover any of this nonsense thats been going on for a while...not good.

Not good at all...

 

[Quantum]

Ya, Dish is pretty well underwater. According to this, Book Value is -$4.763/share, and so they are insolvent.

E* carries roughly $6.5 billion in debt, charging between 3% and 8%. D* has $6.1 billion in debt, charging between 6% and 8.4%. Similar yes, but D* wins because it has nearly twice the cash that E* does. Balance sheets matter. D* has a decent one, E* doesn't.

When Dish and Echostar split in January, Dish got most of the debt and Echostar got most of the tangible assets. So from a debt survival perspective the split puts most of the risk on the Dish half of the company. Dish does still however have most of the external income, with a subscriber base of about 13m. This new structure has definitely proven bad for the company; a hollow shell always gets the short end, even as it's the customer connection and the vital economic engine.

Oh, Charlie could bail out the debt? Nah, his net worth is in the stock, and as the companies wither, pfffft.

I used to like E* alot better than D*. But there has been a turn toward callousness and an attitude of punishment toward employees, suppliers, and contractors, the very ones in front of customers. Would it be a Bad Thing if E* went away? Certainly.