To be fair, this was the plan just before AMC 14 was set to launch. HD was already behind schedule due to launch delays, and a delay in AMC 14's launch, as well.
As we now know, AMC 14 never reached its intended orbit. This really was a set-back for Dish, although they downplayed it. AMC 14 would have provided many spotbeams (steerable spotbeams at that) and increased capacity on the ConUS at the 61.5 slot, the Eastern Arc. Dish's big HD channels launch was delayed by MONTHS, and scaled back until they could implement a plan B. That involved moving a lot of channels around various transponders and satellites and waiting for subsequent satellites to be launched.
Now, the question is, what would the list of Direct TV's promised "over 100 HD channels by the end of the year," claim looked like had the first Spaceway satellite failed--by pure luck no fault of their own, like Dish?
Direct TV took a gamble by playing commercials telling people to dump cable and sign-up for Direct TV now, before the satellite was up and the HD channesls on. A lot of people on this board criticized Charlie for not airing similar commercials (we knew he would easily have the capacity when AMC 14 got up--129 was never a capacity issue in the short term, just the Eastern Arc, as they would squeeze every bit of juice out of Echo 5 until Ceil II was up shortly thereafter). But Charlie is conservative, and making such a promise when any malfunction can happen in the launch of a satellite would have been too big a risk (yeah he is a poker player, but in business he is about as conservative as they come, and Dish is among the very few to have very healthy finances in these perilous times).
Well, Charlie was right not to crow in national TV ads about his upcoming HD channels and AMC 14. Instead he limited this information to the Power Users and some of the industry press, but certainly nothing like the noise Direct TV was making (there were numerous posts urging Charlie to let the world know of his HD plans like Direct TV was doing at the time or questioning why he wasn't). This delay in HD and the customer service are top reasons why Charlie did lose subs. He was late to the HD game, and he admitted it (the first time Direct TV got somewhere before Charlie since Direct TV was first to offer DBS), but this was not the plan. Everything was to be up and on by January, the same time as Direct TV. But a lot of bad luck (2 separate launch failures at 2 separate facilities pushed by all of Dish's satellite launches.
I think Charles recovered very nicely. By my most recent count, Direct TV has about 7 more HD channels than Dish, and I am counting both FAIRLY. Let's face it gang, all the best HD channels were already on both Dish and Direct. All the recent adds (not counting the Premium Movie channels) all have way too much SD content. SciFi is airing
Threshold in SD!!!! Universal HD played the whole series several times in glorious HD.
The only channels worth putting up that will have a great majority of HD are the premium movie channels at this point. And as an AEP sub, I get a lot of HD, but would love all the premiums in HD. What't the point of seeing the
Golden Girls in stretch-o-vision on Liftetime HD?
