Dish Network: Distant Networks

[Chris Walker]

Uh, if the theory holds, a court of law will force Dish Network to stop delivering distants.

So, now let me make sure of your issue. If the court issues an injunction, you would still want Dish Network to break the law and deliver you distants?

I want Dish to cut off people who shouldn't have them to begin with. People who are geographically entitled to them or have waivers (like myself) have every right to keep them. If Dish sells us out and cuts off ENTITLED viewers, I will drop their service immediately. They need to settle this with the NAB and agree on something that doesn't cut off entitled viewers.

 

[Chris Walker]

And this "savemychannels" website is a crock, we are supposed to do Dish's dirty work because they didn't follow the last court ruling? What good does it do to contact a senator? The problem is with Dish and the NAB (The NAB hating Dish is the real problem). Pay damages to the NAB, cut off viewers who aren't supposed to have them, and get this done.

 

[Robert NTSC Archivist]

I dont think the consumer should be made to suffer for this. Way back in a Charlie Chat in late 1999 or early 2000 he told every one that had survived the Thanksgiving Day 1998 switch off that if Dish Network put your locals on the air then you would loose DNS. It seems to me that Charlie added many marklets but never cut of the NY and LA signals in places where they did add them.

Now Being born in NY and growing up in LA I consider them home especially now that I am out in the middle of nowhere I dont see why you cant get a TV station from where ever you want.

After all you can get just about any FOX SPORTS NET and get the games with the out of market programing packages I just dont see what the big deal is if some one in West Virginia wants to watch the news from Los Angeles. . . .


Hope fully the courts wont punish the entire E* DNS community but if it does then it does we have been warned about these cut offs since 1998 but hopefully they will drag it out a few more years.

Still thanks to Charlie for keeping the fight going but its sad that you didnt cut off the DNS feeds off to people who didnt need them ianymore is causing this problem.

Fight on Dish Network

Bob

 

[BigFella]

Echostar may have broken the law (or regulation, whatever), but it was a bad law. As far as I'm concerned, you can call what E* has been doing these past several years "civil disobedience". He has been fighting the good fight. Sure offering DNS increases Charlies bottom line (after all that's what he's in business for), but the customer benefits too. The only groups that want this law enforced is the stinking NAB (who do everything possible to not serve the public interest) and DirectTV.

 

[Slamminc11]

rumor going around is that the "special chat" scheduled for today then moved to tomorrow has now been postponed until further notice. Maybe someone is trying to get something worked out somewhere!!!

 

[Juan]

rumor going around is that the "special chat" scheduled for today then moved to tomorrow has now been postponed until further notice. Maybe someone is trying to get something worked out somewhere!!!

hmmm perhaps their is some behind the scenes legal manuvering

 

[goaliebob99]

rumor going around is that the "special chat" scheduled for today then moved to tomorrow has now been postponed until further notice. Maybe someone is trying to get something worked out somewhere!!!

Wow thats the first I have heard that rumer, Allthough it would be benifical to the coustomer.

 

[Robert NTSC Archivist]

I hope that they do for as long as Charlie does not want to publically announce there is a problem and I have seen nothing on the Dish Network web site and nothing on Dish Network perhaps they are working some kind of settlement.

God I hope so as I dont want to see any one loose their TV stations reguardless of where they got them from. I cant help remember how many times NY and LA filled "preemption" holes on WVEC 13 in Norfolk, every time a U.S. Navy ship got underway they would go live from the pier and preempt "Port Charles". I would have missed a good 15 or 20 episodes over the last 3 years had I not had WABC.


Well in this business I guess no new news is good news


Bob

 

[Slamminc11]

like I said, at this point it is only a rumor, but I got it for a pretty good source who works at Dish, so... Of course around here nothing is fact until Scott chimes in from his contacts!

 

[Rexorg]

Good law, or bad law, it's still the law and we are a nation of laws, or at least we used to be. However, I love Charlie's rendition of "Don't cry for me Argentina."

 

[Robert NTSC Archivist]

True I do have to follow laws I dont like. Then again perhaps because its an election year the people at the top of the Government food chain will want to talk about this before making a final decesion until late November as was late November 1998 when the Govenrment forced Charlie to makes lots of DNS signals go dark.

 

[ggw2000]

At first I was..

really bent out of shape at the courts and there rulings! The more that I have thought about it over the past few days the more my anger has shifted towards Dish. I spent time years ago in getting all my waivers from each of the networks because of where I live. I assumed that Charlie was providing DNS to "qualified" subs over these years. But this hasn't been the case and he has been passing them out to pretty much anyone for the past 7-8 years! Now it appears that I will lose because of his lawless activities.
Whatever final decision is made (or the current ruling enforced) will have nothing to do with writing your congress person or the "saveourbutts" website. It has gone way past that at this point.
I have sent an email tonight to the CEO at dish with my thoughts about how they have operated. Along with this I informed them that I will consider any contract with them to be null and void if I lose DNS as I have no OTA available. I would be forced to go cable and will not pay for two services. Gerry

 

[MikeD-C05]

Answer I got from Pete Domenici:

Thank you very much for contacting me with regard to media diversity. I am glad you took the time to share your thoughts with me on this important issue.

The thoughtful input of New Mexicans has always been and continues to be of the utmost importance to me as your U.S. Senator. I have always believed that it is essential to know what is on the minds of the people it is my honor to represent in Washington, and I assure you that I will keep your concerns in mind.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I hope you will continue to keep me apprised of the issues most important to you.

Sincerely,
Pete V. Domenici
United States Senator



PVD:LC

Blah blah blah blah - vote for me- blah blah blah blah. Same old form response.

 

[hobojoe]

that's a good point what did dish do with all the wavers? did they sell our info? i really hope not! i wonder if he just doesn't want to spend the money they are requesting to settle? i have a remedy though, how about they require us to have our locals then allow us to add other city's? wouldn't that resolve the problem? and if its the dam commercials i use my dvr more and more to delete them. some equipment is setup to allow you to "skip" them. so why aren't they crying about thouse also? the hole dam thing sucks for everyone!!!

 

[dfergie]

Blah blah blah blah - vote for me- blah blah blah blah. Same old form response.

You noticed that too...

 

[BoisePaul]

Hmm, I got one response that said something about the high volume of emails received and that the Senator and his staff don't have time to read every one, and the other response I received talked about Cable Choice and Ala Carte, completely disregarding the issue I wrote about. One left - we'll see what that brings.

 

[Bruno]

Well dont get to excited...Charlie must not have liked Scotty getting the jump on him...

The Special Retailer Chat on Channel 999 has been postponed. We may reschedule this Special Retailer Chat or we will cover this information on the next Retailer Chat currently scheduled for August 16th at 12PM ET.

 

[Derwin0]

Im going to be really unpopular if I state my views on this.

My opinion. Dish should negotiate the following:

Allow DNS, but only under certain situation.
#1, Only if the local DMA does not provide that network
#2, Only allow a DNS station from the subscribers time zone (New York, Chicago, Denver, or Los Angeles)

That would satisfy all white area subscribers, and likely the NAB as well.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yup the chat for today was postponed until August 16th.

No word on whats happening to the savemychannels.com site.

 

[Clancy]

Echostar may have broken the law (or regulation, whatever), but it was a bad law. As far as I'm concerned, you can call what E* has been doing these past several years "civil disobedience". He has been fighting the good fight. Sure offering DNS increases Charlies bottom line (after all that's what he's in business for), but the customer benefits too. The only groups that want this law enforced is the stinking NAB (who do everything possible to not serve the public interest) and DirectTV.

How right you are.
I think the best thing that could happen for the NAB is that people stop subscribing to the networks concerned.
There are other ways and programs to watch. There is even off air antennas for some. The rest of us could do without the concerned networks for a while anyway.
Let's hit back with a denial of subbing to them.
High time this country advanced to the 21st century and let people sub to whatever network station they want to pay for.
It works in Canada.