I have used this site to keep up on Sky Angel news for a long time, but only today did I decide to register and reply. Never had the time.
I have been a life time member from almost the beginning. So that everyone knows, the lifetime membership at the time I signed up was for the members life time, not the lifetime of a satellite. I still have my paperwork. So in that regards, they are legally obligated to provide service until Sky Angel no longer exists. To bug out of their obligations, they will probably change their name to avoid a law suit. Highly doubtful they would keep the name since Sky Angel's name is called that because the satellite was called the angel in the sky. I remember Bob talking about that many times. I wish I had kept some of the programs I recorded with him. At one time I used to record them so I could watch them at a convenient time. I think they were called something like the Sky Angel update. I quit watching them after the format changed, never the same because they quit updating what was really going on. At one time I was very excited about Sky Angel and promoted them. :clap
I for one am concerned too with the many, and I mean many subscribers that do not have a clue to what is going on with the change. My parents in their 80's have Sky Angel and don't know anything about it. They have no computer, no internet. I don't have the heart to tell them it's going to end. My parents number one program used to be Gospel Music Television (not the new one) with southern gospel music.
: It was a shame it ended. Even if they were on a computer (don't know how to use one) they wouldn't have the money for the high speed connection or the monthly fees. I have a feeling many of the life time members will go away when this happens. A most terrible thing to happen to Bob Johnson's dream. I remember many of the programs with Bob talking about the dream. It ended when he died. :river
I agree that Sky Angels funding and finances have been a secret, even when Bob was alive. They never let us know though you could tell they needed more money. I suspect Bob was good at getting donations which kept things afloat, that too ended when he died. The massive cost of building and launching a satellite was something I always wondered how they were going to accomplish. I thought and told others that Bob probably has someone or a group that must be going to fund it. Monthly subscriptions would never accomplish it unless they had the revenue of Dish Network. I can't remember ever hearing anywhere of how many monthly subscriptions Sky Angel has, but is obviously not even enough to sustain them while using Dish Networks satellite. Maybe Bob did have someone and that went away, we may never know.
For myself, I do have internet, but not high speed. I live in a remote area where it's unavailable, and if it was, may not be high enough I'm told even if it was here. So, like other posts before, I may need to go to Glory Star. I will miss the specials, many were unique to Sky Angel, not available anywhere else. Some programs too, are not available either that I like to watch because they are unique to Sky Angels two channels.
There is no reason why Sky Angel could not offer Sky Angel 1 and 2 to broadcast on Dish Network as public access channels. Of course, if we don't have a basic dish programming package, we wouldn't get it. Right now I pay nothing to Dish since I am only a Sky Angel subscriber and neither are my parents. They could not afford even the basic Dish package. Watching free public access Dish programming may all end with the transfer of their satellite spots to Dish. We have no idea what kind of agreement they have with Dish. Bob Johnson made the original deal with Dish, I doubt very much if he would have done anything like what is going on now. So, when Sky Angel ends, unless you have subscribed to Dish, you have a dish and receiver that won't receive anything. My receiver is so old that it's not worth anything. I didn't keep up with the new stuff.
Now I have things to do I should be doing instead of writing this.
