Bundling Tipping point has been reached?

[bobvick]

Channel stability ...(self explanatory )
They can do what they have to in a more professional timely manner.

Definitely agree with you here. I can't really see where these disputes lead to nothing more than a pissing match between Dish and the programmer, and provide fuel for Charlie's fire that he is doing everything he can to "keep programming costs down." Interstingly enough, Dish for several years has had a price increase each year just like the others (DirecTV, Comcast, Charter, FiOS, "insert your local cable company here")

ADVERTISING is so pathetic with Dish, I mean seriously I see more Comcast,and Directv commercials, If I had a 16 Tuner DVR that had a larger recording capacity, I would take the positive profit growth and everyone and their mother would know what my equipment could do and they wouldn't have to be a Current Dish subscriber looking at the Hopper3 channel.

The only good marketing that I can recall they had in years and years was the Boston accented "Hoppa" commercials. You actually heard people in conversation talking about Dish when those promotions ran. I believe that those came about in the Joe Clayton years, he must have believed in providing the marketing department with a bigger budget than Sir Charles does. They should be promoting the 16 tuners in the Hopper 3 to the hilt, and promoting that it is the only current STB that offers a 4K output.

Last but not least, let's add HD channels, Not SD.

They should place a moratorium on adding any channel in SD that has a HD feed available and they have a contractual agreement to carry. Absolutely stupid to be adding SD only feeds in 2016.

 

[ChadT41]

The SD feeds have been removed from EA when they have a counterpart. I'm not sure if the same on WA, I'd have to check.

 

[Troch77]

The SD feeds have been removed from EA when they have a counterpart. I'm not sure if the same on WA, I'd have to check.

Only like 6.
And they just added like 6 more SD feeds in the Flex Packs.
ZERO HD has been added.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

 

[bobvick]

The SD feeds have been removed from EA when they have a counterpart. I'm not sure if the same on WA, I'd have to check.

They will not remove the SD channels on the western arc, they can't unless they replace all those 311, 322, 522, and other MPEG-2/DVB receivers first, and if they did that all of the western arc could be ALL MPEG4 just like the eastern arc. They can remove SD channels from the EA because all of the receivers are
MPEG4 (211, 411, 612, 622, 722, 922, Hopper) and can receive HD and down convert it.

 

[bobvick]

Only like 6.
And they just added like 6 more SD feeds in the Flex Packs.
ZERO HD has been added.

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

Last HD addition I can recall is Smithsonian.

 

[ChadT41]

Well, the Olympics will be in 4K, so there is that also.

 

[Troch77]

Well, the Olympics will be in 4K, so there is that also.

We'll be sure to look for that .

Samsung Galaxy S6 Active

 

[jerryez]

The Flex pack might be worth $29, if they had the locals or they would provide you a tv guide for your OTA locals. The OTA locals are not viable without a tv guide to record your favorite programs.
Like has been pointed out. Charlie's net profit each quarter goes up even though the number of subscribers goes down. Where do YOU think this extra money is coming from other than raised prices for those of us left. Look at Dish's financial report.

 

[MikeD-C05]

The Flex pack might be worth $29, if they had the locals or they would provide you a tv guide for your OTA locals. The OTA locals are not viable without a tv guide to record your favorite programs.
Like has been pointed out. Charlie's net profit each quarter goes up even though the number of subscribers goes down. Where do YOU think this extra money is coming from other than raised prices for those of us left. Look at Dish's financial report.

Definitely the average revenue per subscriber has gone up , even as the amount of total subs continues to drop. This is due to a combination of programming price hikes and or DISH fees going up. Look at the hopper fees from 2012 you paid $7.00 for the dvr fee and $7.00 for the additional hopper. Since then the dvr fee / hopper additional receiver fee has gone up to $10.00 ,them $12.00 and now $15.00 for the hopper 3. Now you supposedly can't add a second hopper 3 on your account -for now, but I am sure when you can the fee will be the same as the dvr fee. To have the hopper fee more than double in less than 4 years is quite ridiculous. This is where Charlie can't see the forest for the trees.

If he was to offer a smaller fee for these receivers and smaller dvr fee, he might actually build his sub base ,rather than cause more churn. Is it any coincidence that they lost 281,000 subs this last quarter when they raised their hopper fee another $3.00 a month? Add to that the endless disputes over channel carriage and that doesn't help the situation any either. The higher the fees the more churn he seems to have each quarter. Reverse those fees and add to it the FLex pack options to save money and you might prevent some of that churn and attract some more new subs. But of course you would have to sacrifice some of that average revenue per sub in order to accomplish that.

 

[Tampa8]

I guess I would ask how did you come to the figure of $29 for those cable channels and the locals, locals that are now nearing $10 to DISH to carry. How do you know DISH could give those channels and locals for $29 and not lose money? If it was that easy to bring it to that price point, with the loss of subscribers to just about everyone why isn't there even one provider that comes anywhere near to the $44 (or $39) for those cable channels and the locals to keep customers? Or one step better, $51 (or $46) including a DVR?
Maybe what you mean is $29 is all you are willing to pay, all it is worth to you for what you want. That's a totally different discussion and much more a personal decision and not necessarily based in reality any more than what I am willing to pay for that new car.

Also their profit could not possibly all come from the subscribers. They had about $86 million more in profits from which about $10 million came from subscribers. So they were able to save in areas, maybe fuel costs, maybe a big loan was paid off, better return on investments......

 

[MikeD-C05]

Charlie seems to be more focused on making more profits from subs who will stay long term with DISH rather than add more subs. So putting profits over growth in his situation. Which is why the profits increased (small but an increase) over last year at this time, even though the sub losses were the biggest loss ever. In the articles I have read he says this as much. He recognizes that not only is satellite tv a mature industry, but is in serious decline -at least for DISH it is. Directv doesn't seem to be suffering that loss and is even adding more subs due to the conversion of Uverse accounts to Directv by ATT. He seems to be putting all his faith into Sling tv and thinks that it will be his salvation long term. I don't agree. Without a dvr or cloud function included in Sling tv , I just don't see it working out. People do NOT want to watch commercials PERIOD. Satellite will always have a future as long as there is rural areas with little to no competition. IF Broadband was prevalent all over the country than ott service would be great, but I don't see this happening without the government stepping in and mandating it.

Either way I don't see the trend of sub losses reversing on DISH's part. Especially if Charlie is putting profits over growth. But it would explain why he is standing up to channel companies over carriage and taking down channels like WGN and may not even bring them back. He is making all the money he can, off the remaining subs he has and damn the whole growth strategy. He can do this for quite a while , till the sub losses are so great that even he can't ignore them. When the board members and stock holders start worrying about long term growth and viability as a company , then maybe this will change. If not we are at the beginning of the end of DISH and can expect a sell out of the company to the highest bidder, so Charlie can go out while the company is still making profits.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dish-loses-281000-pay-tv-913145

 

[bobvick]

. IF Broadband was prevalent all over the country than ott service would be great, but I don't see this happening without the government stepping in and mandating it.

I don't see it ever happening, but what we need for rural America is a 21st century version of the REA. If the government could provide grants, low interest loans and subsidies to rural electric coops and allow them to get into the broadband business we could see REAL broadband in rural areas. Unfortunately the large telecom companies have Federal, State, county, and municipal governments in their hip pockets to keep anything such as this from happening. Hence rural dwellers such as myself are stuck with subpar service from telecoms such as CenturyLink, Frontier, or FairPoint for DSL or have to pay exorbitant prices to AT&T or Verizon for low data cap fixed LTE service.

 

[MikeD-C05]

I don't see it ever happening, but what we need for rural America is a 21st century version of the REA. If the government could provide grants, low interest loans and subsidies to rural electric coops and allow them to get into the broadband business we could see REAL broadband in rural areas. Unfortunately the large telecom companies have Federal, State, county, and municipal governments in their hip pockets to keep anything such as this from happening. Hence rural dwellers such as myself are stuck with subpar service from telecoms such as CenturyLink, Frontier, or FairPoint for DSL or have to pay exorbitant prices to AT&T or Verizon for low data cap fixed LTE service.

Wasn't that REA started back in the 30s by President Franklyn Delano Roosevelt? Like 1935 the president created the REA by executive order and in 1936 the congress actually approved it by passing the Rural Electrification Act. What is the chance we get another FDR and this kind of New Deal policies?

 

[bobvick]

Wasn't that REA started back in the 30s by President Franklyn Delano Roosevelt? Like 1935 the president created the REA by executive order and in 1936 the congress actually approved it by passing the Rural Electrification Act. What is the chance we get another FDR and this kind of New Deal policies?

Never again, and never another Congress that might actually pass legislation to help the people rather than themselves or the corporations that fund them.

 

[MitchDeerfield]

I don't see it ever happening, but what we need for rural America is a 21st century version of the REA. If the government could provide grants, low interest loans and subsidies to rural electric coops and allow them to get into the broadband business we could see REAL broadband in rural areas. Unfortunately the large telecom companies have Federal, State, county, and municipal governments in their hip pockets to keep anything such as this from happening. Hence rural dwellers such as myself are stuck with subpar service from telecoms such as CenturyLink, Frontier, or FairPoint for DSL or have to pay exorbitant prices to AT&T or Verizon for low data cap fixed LTE service.

I will also start a low cost Rural Cable TV Satellite company for you as long as it is funded by the federal government. It sounds like a sweet job, but you probably have to contribute to somebody's campaign or foundation first.

 

[bobvick]

I will also start a low cost Rural Cable TV Satellite company for you as long as it is funded by the federal government. It sounds like a sweet job, but you probably have to contribute to somebody's campaign or foundation first.

My thinking was along the lines that the Rural Electric Coops could provide this service. They have the poles and right-of-ways already to get the service to customers, they have that much of the infrastructure already in place, the funding would be needed for the other materials needed to provide broadband services. I imagine one big sticking point in many States, counties, and municipalities would be that the local telephone company would claim that they had an exclusive franchise for voice/data for a particular area, and a not for profit like a coop couldn't compete with them.

 

[bobvick]

Directv doesn't seem to be suffering that loss and is even adding more subs due to the conversion of Uverse accounts to Directv by ATT.

It will be very interesting to see what happens with DirecTV after the "move over" of most of the UVerse customers is completed. I imagine their base will eventually begin to erode some after that stops. Perhaps not at the rate that Dish has seen, since AT&T can provide a wireless/data/video bundle with DirecTV. The "growth" will probably slow to a crawl though once they have the biggest part of UVerse converted though.

 

[MitchDeerfield]

The future of broadband will be via G5 wireless and perhaps satellite transmission of Internet. There will be no need for poles, copper, right of ways, underground conduit , etc. It will probably take about 10 years if that long.

 

[bobvick]

The future of broadband will be via G5 wireless and perhaps satellite transmission of Internet. There will be no need for poles, copper, right of ways, underground conduit , etc. It will probably take about 10 years if that long.

Could be, but we were also saying that 10 years ago. 5G and Satellite won't do any good with 10, 20 and 30 GB data caps.

 

[osu1991]

My thinking was along the lines that the Rural Electric Coops could provide this service. They have the poles and right-of-ways already to get the service to customers, they have that much of the infrastructure already in place, the funding would be needed for the other materials needed to provide broadband services. I imagine one big sticking point in many States, counties, and municipalities would be that the local telephone company would claim that they had an exclusive franchise for voice/data for a particular area, and a not for profit like a coop couldn't compete with them.

They are already on it, of course their zone 10 ends a half mile or so from my lake house

https://register.lrecok.net/campaigns/lake-region-technology-communications

A New Necessity, Fiber-to-the-Home

In the 1930s, rural America had been left in the dark as electricity made its way across the country. Electricity had become a modern necessity, and big cities enjoyed the opportunities this emerging technology brought. But rural folks had to do without.

Into the gap stepped the hardworking men and women of rural America who formed electric cooperatives to bring power to areas that had been overlooked. In our part of Oklahoma, they formed Lake Region Electric Cooperative.

In the 21st century, a new technology is emerging: Broadband Internet. This new technology is transforming lives and bringing economic development to the areas that adopt it. Once again, we have been left behind. Your cooperative must step up to the plate and do what others won't do.

Lake Region Electric Cooperative (LREC) is implementing a fiber-based communication system across our electric grid. With this investment, we are able to provide fiber-to-the-home internet service through Lake Region Technology and Communications, a subsidiary of LREC. You will enjoy access to blazing high-speed internet, crystal-clear HD television and unlimited local and long distance home phone.