DISH Network Announces Third Quarter 2011 Financial Results
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Losing 100k subs per quarter is good for all of us subs. At some point Dish will be forced to revisit their inflated extra receiver fees.
I saw a DIRECTV commercial that compares the two services via two matching tv flat screens. In it they talk about the extra HIGH additional receiver fees with DISH . You pay an extra $11.00 a month to get an extra dual tuner dvr or $132.00 a year with DISH or an extra $7.00 a month with DIRECTV. DIRECTV has lower additional receiver fees. OUCH!! It sounded much worse than even I said it was in my other posts. DISH better listen and drop the extra made up fees that inflates their additional receiver fees. Or like Netflix and Bank of America they will soon learn how low they can go in subs. Looks like to me that ever since they did the fee increase , they have been losing subs each quarter ,exception of this first quarter where they added some.
: got to love the fees. 
No, the churn is represented by the 953,000 existing customers that DIRECTV lost. The 327,000 number is what they came out ahead by after introducing 1.28 million new customers to their average $92.21/month average bill and 24 month programming commitment.
Adding customers at $793 each is a very expensive proposition and it had a noticeable negative impact on DIRECTV's earnings.
At the same time, one can not make a huge profit by giving away almost $800 in goods and services to each new subscriber.
Thats Charlie's philosophy being cheap, but not for the subscriber's benefit. Being cheap with Programing. Their churn rate is simple. Give away basically the entire NY NJ CT and northern PA Sports Subscriber group, by refusing to carry any of their RSN's; those former subs will flock to a provider whom will give the programing they want and are willing to pay for. Their profit strategy is simple too; charge your existing subscribers the highest receiver fees in the industry and force them to be happy with the sub standard sports programing he deems necessary.
They still make a profit, non the less and gain more subs on top of it.
If you were running a company, which position would you rather be in? One in which you have a net gain of subs every single quarter or one in which your subscriber base declines? Each quarter we hear excuses such as, it is the economy, or DirecTV gains subs because they give stuff away. Keep in mind, all providers give things away in order to attract customers, but over the 2 year commitment, they actually profit off of them. Keep in mind both companies are profiting.
I would rather be in the latter. I would much rather have a higher larger customer base and more certainty than be uncertain how many customers we will lose each quarter. Eventually this will eat into your profits.
I want to start a company where my motto is, "Let's profit by losing customers". Yeah, that is smart.
Again, the reason why I am concerned is because I do not want to see Dish fail (yes, I know they are a long way from that happening). I want to see both DBS companies strive and compete. This keeps innovation high, prices down, and allows for more options.
My wish for the last 3-4 years has been RSN's in HD 24/7 and MLB Extra Innings, yeah a lost cause, but now that I'm having issues with either my switch or the 129 dish, it is cheaper to go D*. Plus easier to do sports recordings in HD. Maybe I will try using just the newer switch.
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With Dish supporting services such as "HBOtogo" on the Roku I can see more and more dish customers giving up the expensive second or third DVR ..perhaps charlie has a longterm business plan to get out of the DVR business model (VOD over his on personal LTE Network)..someday sports fans maybe purchasing sports channels directly (via LTE) from the sports channel producer rather than thru a "middleman" such as directv...At the end of the day charlie just may have the last laugh all the way to the bank
Tuche..... What I'm saying is the sub they are shedding would be the one who subs to AEP, or a sporting packages, ect. Owning a DVR doesnt mean that your automatically a high profit sub. Also, I know charlie said that 20 percent of tv viewing is sports (Wall St. Journal), I would disagree with that as the ratings released every week show that sporting events are time in and time out some of the most viewed events.
Actually according to todays wallstreet journal, Charlie is wanting to distribute his channels over the internet instead of via satellite. Brilliant move, but according to the article he doesnt want to pay for the sports programming. That is what's killing him. I understand why he is doing what he is doing, but its not the right thing when it comes to sports programming.
He won't "pay" for sports programming my bet he plans to have the sports channels "pay him" for access to his nationwide LTE network (kinda like netflix and comcast internet network) and then let the individual subscribers foot the bill for their sports addiction. this could be a brilliant move on his part
That may very well be the case. Gambles like this is what separates the icons from the failures. When they gamble with notions like this and succeed, they are viewed as a geniuses with great foresight. When gambles like this fail, then they are looked at as failures. Our private sector is dependent on people taking risk and gambling. No matter if they fail or not, people like Charlie are necessary in a free market. I wish him success
Well, could it be while there are less Subs involved here, they're enjoying the huge customer service improvement in Dish from a year ago they are buying more of what's available including Blockbuster? Dish's CSvc has so mightily improved compared to Direct's even a blind Sub would see the difference.
Actually, comparable packages are not that much different. Once you add additional eqipment, then Direct maybe less expensive for some. With my setup, Direct is about $1 less than it would be for me to get Dish and the same channels.I would hope it is,when you see the differences in package prices.
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