CV Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2005 Earnings Teleconference 2/27 at 11am ET

[Sean Mota]

Voom question: Why not in other systems? How many subs? Are you losing money?

Answer: Echostar is our affiliate with the VoOM channels. We do not disclose information about current subs or financial money about the VOOM channels. You can find some information in our financial disclosure. We are currently in talk with other service providers and we will continue. We do not carry VOOM HD channels on Cablevision because there is a currently a bandwith proclamation project going on Cablevision. We do not have the capacity to carry 15 VOOM HD channels but by the end of the year our bandwith will be different and we will look at the 15 VOOM channels again.

 

[Sean Mota]

end of conference.

 

[Sean Mota]

Well at least we now know why the heck the VOOM channels are not on Cablevision. I was surprised that no one asked about the Mets Network on CV.

 

[hbk409]

Voom question: Why not in other systems? How many subs? Are you losing money?

Answer: Echostar is our affiliate with the VoOM channels. We do not disclose information about current subs or financial money about the VOOM channels. You can find some information in our financial disclosure. We are currently in talk with other service providers and we will continue. We do not carry VOOM HD channels on Cablevision because there is a currently a bandwith proclamation project going on Cablevision. We do not have the capacity to carry 15 VOOM HD channels but by the end of the year our bandwith will be different and we will look at the 15 VOOM channels again.

sean, i find this very surprising that there is bandwidth issue, being that they have done tests 100Mb up/down for internet. I have also spoken to senior trainers and they have informed me that its definatly not a bandwidth issue. Maybe this was them buying more to hold out on getting the voom channels to appease wall st. Or maybe the trainers didnt know what they were talking about.

edit I also find it funny the Multi room dvr is being test when we had training for the dvr svc when it was first introduced I told them about it and I was told nothing existed and would be years before that technology would be avail. So after the meeting I went to the scientific atlanta website and printed out the 8300mr and showed it to the trainer that it was avail back then. His response oh, didnt know about this.

 

[liquidnw]

Well at least we now know why the heck the VOOM channels are not on Cablevision. I was surprised that no one asked about the Mets Network on CV.

Do they have to be so cryptic? "We will look at them again".
Would it be such a big deal for them to say we are reclaiming bandwidth and will be adding these channel by the end of the year or something more definitive. Sometimes CV acts like there defending national secrets. They own the channel what leverage would they loose by making a definitive statement about adding them. If anything it just makes you look bad that your trying to sell these channels to other cable companies but your pussyfooting around adding them to your own system.

Also weird that they admitted they don't have the bandwidth when at previous quarterly conf calls they said the bandwidth wasn't an issue for adding voom. Even when this was the voom forum Wilt the Vp of engineering stated bandwidth wasn't a problem for CV. So who exactly is no tell the trurth? I tend to believe Wilt as hes been more credible.

 

[Lucky]

Thanks for the coverage, Sean. Too bad no one asked about the Mets.

 

[liquidnw]

edit I also find it funny the Multi room dvr is being test when we had training for the dvr svc when it was first introduced I told them about it and I was told nothing existed and would be years before that technology would be avail. So after the meeting I went to the scientific atlanta website and printed out the 8300mr and showed it to the trainer that it was avail back then. His response oh, didnt know about this.

Wow are you serious? I would think SA would of been bombarding all cable companies with info about it. I mean Time Warener in the same city has them Maybe the info just never filtered down. But for him to say years of when thing the Windows Media Center, tivos,exsisted that can do multiroom dvr is really ashame. Question for you though are these "traniers" technical people or just buisness people who repear what ever memo and script is given to them?

 

[hbk409]

Wow are you serious? I would think SA would of been bombarding all cable companies with info about it. I mean Time Warener in the same city has them Maybe the info just never filtered down. But for him to say years of when thing the Windows Media Center, tivos,exsisted that can do multiroom dvr is really ashame. Question for you though are these "traniers" technical people or just buisness people who repear what ever memo and script is given to them?

this was about a year and a half ago before I believe time warner had them. At the time I do not believe any company signed an agreement with sa to carry those boxes

 

[hbk409]

Do they have to be so cryptic? "We will look at them again".
Would it be such a big deal for them to say we are reclaiming bandwidth and will be adding these channel by the end of the year or something more definitive. Sometimes CV acts like there defending national secrets. They own the channel what leverage would they loose by making a definitive statement about adding them. If anything it just makes you look bad that your trying to sell these channels to other cable companies but your pussyfooting around adding them to your own system.

Couldnt have said it better myself, maybe little jimmy finds no compelling content

Also weird that they admitted they don't have the bandwidth when at previous quarterly conf calls they said the bandwidth wasn't an issue for adding voom. Even when this was the voom forum Wilt the Vp of engineering stated bandwidth wasn't a problem for CV. So who exactly is no tell the trurth? I tend to believe Wilt as hes been more credible.

I know talk about double talk, a few months ago bandwidth is no problem we could have added the voom21 now theres an issue

 

[RemyM]

sean, i find this very surprising that there is bandwidth issue, being that they have done tests 100Mb up/down for internet. I have also spoken to senior trainers and they have informed me that its definatly not a bandwidth issue. Maybe this was them buying more to hold out on getting the voom channels to appease wall st. Or maybe the trainers didnt know what they were talking about.

edit I also find it funny the Multi room dvr is being test when we had training for the dvr svc when it was first introduced I told them about it and I was told nothing existed and would be years before that technology would be avail. So after the meeting I went to the scientific atlanta website and printed out the 8300mr and showed it to the trainer that it was avail back then. His response oh, didnt know about this.

The Boost Internet service runs on DOCIS 2.0 which is a higher frequency then cable and won't effect cable bandwith. The real fast Internet service they offer runs on Lighpath's fiber loop and that also doesn't effect cable bandwith.

The network DVR they are talking about is not SA's Multi Room DVR. It's their own in house system that works with the existing SA4200's. Each user would get an amount of storage space on CV's server to store programs they want for playback at a later time. Think of it as your own personal VOD.

 

[Sean Mota]

The Boost Internet service runs on DOCIS 2.0 which is a higher frequency then cable and won't effect cable bandwith. The real fast Internet service they offer runs on Lighpath's fiber loop and that also doesn't effect cable bandwith.

The network DVR they are talking about is not SA's Multi Room DVR. It's their own in house system that works with the existing SA4200's. Each user would get an amount of storage space on CV's server to store programs they want for playback at a later time. Think of it as your own personal VOD.

That is a very interested idea of having space on their own server first time I hear anyone doing something like this. I think the other solution looks better. It will not depend on CV's server where there could be bandwith issues. Also an interested question will be about HD on this Network DVR CV server. Can it be done?

 

[hbk409]

The Boost Internet service runs on DOCIS 2.0 which is a higher frequency then cable and won't effect cable bandwith. The real fast Internet service they offer runs on Lighpath's fiber loop and that also doesn't effect cable bandwith.

There is also supposed to be ultra for the home which is 50/50.

The network DVR they are talking about is not SA's Multi Room DVR. It's their own in house system that works with the existing SA4200's. Each user would get an amount of storage space on CV's server to store programs they want for playback at a later time. Think of it as your own personal VOD.

It would be nice if they finally started with this, they have been talking about this since before they released the DVR box. Thats why it was taking so long to get the s/a dvr boxes because they were looking at just saving everything on the servers and using it almost like an ondemand title.

 

[Sean Mota]

If CV has the bandwith and it is holding out the addition of the Voom channels, maybe there is a reason for it. The only I can think of is "sale" of CV. Today's CVs earning re-assured all investors that CV was back in the profit tape while their Rainbow Media unit was still not clear whether profits have been acquired. In my opinion, they want their programming unit as far away from their cable operation. Maybe they don't want to sell CV with the already VoOM channels there. (of course, this is just speculation). The sale of CV has been put in the back burner for a while but it still can happen.

 

[hbk409]

If CV has the bandwith and it is holding out the addition of the Voom channels, maybe there is a reason for it. The only I can think of is "sale" of CV. Today's CVs earning re-assured all investors that CV was back in the profit tape while their Rainbow Media unit was still not clear whether profits have been acquired. In my opinion, they want their programming unit as far away from their cable operation. Maybe they don't want to sell CV with the already VoOM channels there. (of course, this is just speculation). The sale of CV has been put in the back burner for a while but it still can happen.

sean thats a great point, maybe they feel it would be harder to sell the cable operations if they had the voom channels already on the sysetem. Then whatever provider purchased be it time warner or comcast, they would have to continue with those channels if the subs were already getting them.

 

[cforrest]

That is a very interested idea of having space on their own server first time I hear anyone doing something like this. I think the other solution looks better. It will not depend on CV's server where there could be bandwith issues. Also an interested question will be about HD on this Network DVR CV server. Can it be done?

LonghornXP posted in the FIOS forum about VZ doing this. http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=56320 See the third paragraph! And more and more providers will be going this route IMO. It all comes down to DRM IMO. Put it on cable tv provider's HDs the end user does not have possession of it and the content on the HD can be locked down, so to speak, from the user moving it to different devices. Interesting times ahead.