BestBuy and Costco to stop selling recievers
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Not to dispute anything Stone, but do you have a link and/or source for that info? That's going to make life a bit better for me as well seeing as how Best Buy and Sam's Club are two of my bigger customers. If people are going to need HD, the chances of them flipping accounts and coming in as a new customer is even greater since now they can't simply purchase their leased receiver.
It is on a memo we got today. Basically you will still be able to sign up for service at bestbuy and costco but will not get any more addiotnal recivers.
I post something tomarrow when i get back to work I post the memo.
when I asked about it basically told that once there supplies run out they will not get new inventory.
So we can probably expect the recvrs at BB and Costco replaced by a D* Kiosk
There is always a DTV BB hired guy there now in my BB.
I think it says something when two of the largest retail electronics outlet cant figure out how to successfully sell the product without customer confusion.
But I dont think what its saying is "stupid customers who cant read" or "stupid retailers who cant sell the product".
I think its "the sales strategy and pricing models dont compute with most people, because they arent like anything else sold in the store".
By the way, these boxes dont cost $500 or $700 or $800 to make. The build cost on them is under $200. The original HR20's may have cost a good amount years ago when hard drives cost more, the mainboard with bus mounted tuners cost a lot because they were a newer product, and the overall part bin was costly.
They're still making a little profit with the upfront $199 lease cost. Then they get the box back and get to refurb it and send it to a customer to replace a busted receiver.
Pretty good deal.
But I dont think what its saying is "stupid customers who cant read" or "stupid retailers who cant sell the product".
I think its "the sales strategy and pricing models dont compute with most people, because they arent like anything else sold in the store".
By the way, these boxes dont cost $500 or $700 or $800 to make. The build cost on them is under $200. The original HR20's may have cost a good amount years ago when hard drives cost more, the mainboard with bus mounted tuners cost a lot because they were a newer product, and the overall part bin was costly.
They're still making a little profit with the upfront $199 lease cost. Then they get the box back and get to refurb it and send it to a customer to replace a busted receiver.
Pretty good deal.
Thats all they normally had around here
mine are usually loaded with 8 to 10 hddvrs 5 to 6 hd boxes and a tone of d12 sd boxes.
I've listened to many of their financial calls. I think when the HR20s were originally released they were upwards of $500 to produce.
Today they are probably much closer to the $200 that they charge for the lease upgrade fee.
Why peoples have to pay for the equipment and its not your property, you stuck in a two years commitment plus pay the monthly fee and programs fee.
And THIS IS NOT A FREE LUNCH anyway.
And THIS IS NOT A FREE LUNCH anyway.
IF you all find these boxes now only cost $200 to build, or less ....
And they are charging $ 199 or there abouts for most ....
Shouldn't they be owned by the sub ?
Originally they were charging about $850 to "buy one" ...
I can understand with the difference in cost, but none of us know how much they really spend to build them.
Also there is no laws that prevent them from making whatever profit amount that they can...
And they are charging $ 199 or there abouts for most ....
Shouldn't they be owned by the sub ?
Originally they were charging about $850 to "buy one" ...
I can understand with the difference in cost, but none of us know how much they really spend to build them.
Also there is no laws that prevent them from making whatever profit amount that they can...
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When i was at my local bestbuy store last week.. there weren't any directv recievers on the shelf
today i see the bestbuy website no longer has them to purchase only redirects you to directv.com
today i see the bestbuy website no longer has them to purchase only redirects you to directv.com
When i was at my local bestbuy store last week.. there weren't any directv recievers on the shelf
today i see the bestbuy website no longer has them to purchase only redirects you to directv.com
Hmmm, I thought you were always directed to the D* website when looking for them online at BB.
Two sources. One is a teardown of the HR22-100 from last year that gave the build cost at $188. I could give you a link but its a subscription product and you have to purchase it, and I'm not allowed to disclose the content detail.
Here's the link:
Teardown Analysis - DirecTV Plus HR22-100 HD DVR Set-Top Box - iSuppli
Other source is to break it down ourselves. The broadcom hd dvr chipset which includes just about everything is around $32 in ~10k unit quantity. The WD disk drive in most of these retails for ~$45. The PCB and supporting piece parts with soldering and assembly are going to run around $30-35. The power supply is around $25-30 in quantity one. Sheet metal and box assembly around $30 in larger quantities. Couple of bucks for some cables and the cardboard box it all goes in.
That puts us around $160-180ish without a remote, and I'm sure directv's suppliers get better quantity discounts than 10k unit or single unit pricing. Plus they have a handful of box builders to keep the box pricing competition going.
I'm sure the HR20-100's back 3+ years ago cost a lot more to make. There were a lot more components on the board, the memory it used was expensive then, the disk drive cost a lot more, there were two outboard plug in satellite tuners, it had OTA tuners that cost a good bit, and it required a much more powerful power supply due to the larger content and chips made with a larger nm process.
A corollary to this is the tivo HD. Except for the satellite tuners which are largely integrated in the newer broadcom chip sets without a big hike in the price, the content in the tivo HD is very similar to several of the HR series dvr's. You can buy brand new tivo HD's for under $200 and refurbs for $99. Since tivo may only be making ~$7 a month for these boxes if added to an existing tivo subscription, there obviously isnt a whole lot of service cost subsidizing involved. They're not getting $75-100+ a month in service fees.
That these guys are dropping the product should make a big statement to directv management. Here you have a retailer who can sell computers, cell phones, tivo's, and all other manner of consumer electronics products loaded with contracts, support issues, and enormous complexity and be successful at it and make a profit.
But they cant successfully sell a set top box for a tv and they're either so unsuccessful at it or unprofitable in selling them that they're getting out of the business.
Bestbuy is one thing, but Costco customers tend to be more affluent and intelligent than the average joe, according to their demographics and their employees tend to be a lot further up the retail food chain than most companies.
Directv has to make their sales and pricing models simpler and learn that sometimes its better to make the carrot longer than to continue adding larger sticks.
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