Charlie Chat Recap -- March 10th

Dvr Advantage: Price Freeze
Authors note: my receiver crashed so I missed about 5 minutes of the chat...
Your receiver saw the words "DVR" and "Freeze" on the same screen, so it was just doing what it was told.

This is known as the DVR Dis-Advantage package... time for you to upgrade! :D
 
Dish HD Channels Coming Soon:
AMC*
ABC Family*
BET*
Bio*
Bravo
Cartoon
CNN
CMT
Disney*
Espn News*
HBO2*
IFC*
MTV
MoreMax*
Nick
SciFi
Smithsonian
StarzEdge
Tennis Channel
Toon Disney*
The Weather Channel
USA
VH1
WGN*
* Would be Dish Exclusives if these were added at this time...


What I find interesting is that all the existing HD channels plus all these (except the premium I expect) will be in the $29.99 HD only package. I see a number of channels that have been said are 'high price' like the ABC/Disney channels. Is Charlie going to be loosing money on this package when all these get added and folks switch ton the $29.99 package when you also consider that it's got to cost more $'s in infrastructure expenses to provide HD channels vs. SD ones.
 
I was fairly impressed with the Charlie Chat last night. We did get an idea of what might be coming. ALthough I dont quite get it. Why mention channels you "may not offer"? Negotiation tactic?

Perhaps with his subscribers. Sounds to me like those financial results hit pretty hard and Charlie's trying to stop the bleeding any way he can. Whatever it was, it must have been something powerful to get him to go as far as he did, which of course was far short of being specific and definite. I was really surprised he would even MENTION channels he doesn't carry (i.e. ones which "might" be carried sometime "soon" if he can get a "deal").
 
Thanks dfergie, digiblur and all the other folks at SatelliteGuys who contributed to this report. I know it was hard duty having to look at Trisha Helfer AND take notes at the same time :)

I'm happy now that I stuck with Dish and "downgraded" to the dishHD Stand Alone package instead of switching to D* when my contract ran out.

1) Looks like I'll finally be getting the Austin locals in HD soon (as part of the first 22 "Starting in April")

2) All new HD in 2008 will be included in the dishHD Stand Alone pac

3) Sci-Fi HD will be lit up "soon" (the ONLY SD channel I miss since switching)


Talon Dancer

p.s. does anyone know if Austin HD locals will likely be on 129? or will I need a "wing dish" for 61.5?
 
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Chat..

It seems to me that Charlie had little choice but to dangle some sort of "carrot" last night. He is losing and turning over subs at an alarming rate. This of course is a marketing scheme at this point. Showing what maybe coming doesn't "put food on the table" so to speak however.
Without lighting up a couple channels at the very least (Scifi, pick another) immediately, the Charlie Chat will be long forgotten in a couple weeks. He admits that the BW is available and then goes into a song and dance about negotiations, uplinks, time of the month:), etc..
I was not overjoyed with his comment about NO rate increases, etc.. He just shoved it to me again less than a month ago!
Oh well, I guess everything will work out S---O---O---N !
Gerry
 
"coming soon" reminds me of a politician saying, " I won't raise taxes"...

will believe it when I see it, otherwise its all meaningless babble, meant to keep people from jumping ship...
 
I was unable to watch the chat last night, so can someone tell me if Charlie mentioned the New Orleans HD locals, and if he did, when did he indicate they would be available, and please don't say SOON!!!!!
 
The Charlie Chat was a joke! I watched it on channel 101 on Dishnetwork. He failed to mension that the 622 and 722 only Serve HD in One room! and its better then TIVO,a company thats spent years suing him. He's not going to have squat for HD IMO. After satellites are launched, if we see even 20 new HD channels "REAL ONES" I'd be really surprised. No provider IMO seems like they want to do anything for charlie,He doesn't want to pay! I know,I know,,, He's doing it for us! Try removing some of the Bull S#$% fee's then Charlie Boy!

That has crossed my mind too. The providers will have the leverage by being able to say "Hey Charlie, you're the one with the new sats in space waiting to be used and a churn rate that could sky-rocket at any moment. We're dictating terms, not you."

That being said, I thought the chat went pretty good, and the end result will be likely be good for us customers. Not great, not bad, but good.
 
I was unable to watch the chat last night, so can someone tell me if Charlie mentioned the New Orleans HD locals, and if he did, when did he indicate they would be available, and please don't say SOON!!!!!
New Orleans was not mentioned but it looks like you will be able to "move" to Jackson MS soon for some locals in HD.
 
Of course. Why do you think Direct did it for two years?

Did what for two years?

While D* has its own problems and is often less than honest, I would disagree with your assessment. As general as D* was, Charlie isn't even nearly as specific as they were. As I recall, D* indicated they didn't have enough bandwidth for HD, they were sending up satellites, and when those satellites were in place would be launching this and that new HD channel.

Charlie says he's sending up a satellite or two (or three), you'll be getting "most" of these channels "soon" if they can strike a "deal". As a matter of fact, he indicated that they DID have enough BW for more channels but wouldn't elaborate on why they're not lit.

Of course you can't rely on EITHER provider but Charlie's "pronouncements" aren't anywhere near as specific and logical as D*'s.

You might feel comfortable equating our position, now, with that of D*'s subscribers a year or so ago, because that might mean we'll be getting what they got. I don't think you can make that connection, at all. We might, we might not, but nothing Charlie has said so far gives me reason to believe E* will be anywhere near as aggressive with launching national HD as D* was.
 
I already have the dish 500 with a single arm lnb that is a dishpro single aimed at 61.5 sat and hooked into my dish 1000.2 sat dish. My question is if we don't need the 110 or 119 sats any longer and only look at the 61.5 sat dish , what kind of switch will allow you to do this and still split the coax into two for dual tuners dvrs. THis is going to be a problem unless they come up with another solution for it before summer.

The way to do it right now, is with seprate dishes using duals connected to a DPP44 switch.
 

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