Echostar and CenturyTel team up

[Scott Greczkowski]

CenturyTel and EchoStar Sign Strategic Partnership Agreement to Offer CenturyTel | DISH Network Satellite TV Services

MONROE, La. & ENGLEWOOD, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 26, 2004--CenturyTel, Inc. (NYSE: CTL) and EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) announced today a strategic partnership that will allow it to provide CenturyTel | DISH Network satellite television to households in 22 states served by CenturyTel. The relationship allows CenturyTel to offer customers multi-channel digital TV as part of its full suite of bundled product and service offerings. CenturyTel expects to begin offering its co-branded satellite TV services by the end of the year in a one-bill, one-point-of-contact service.
"Integrating video entertainment services into our product and service bundles offers our customers more choice, value and convenience," said Glen F. Post, III, CenturyTel chairman and CEO.
"This agreement puts CenturyTel in a strong strategic position to compete with other service providers in our markets and should help drive additional revenue."
Under this arrangement, CenturyTel will be the primary point of contact for CenturyTel | DISH customers with responsibility for marketing, account management and billing-related inquiries.
Programming, installation and technical support will be handled by a co-branded DISH Network team.
"We're pleased with this opportunity to provide CenturyTel customers the savings and convenience of a single bill and single point of contact for DISH Network's all-digital TV and CenturyTel communications services," said Charles Ergen, chairman and chief executive officer at EchoStar. "We are also excited about the additional leverage that this partnership gives us in our efforts to educate consumers on the benefits of satellite over cable."
CenturyTel will market the satellite TV product as CenturyTel | DISH Network, offering CenturyTel customers hundreds of popular, all-digital TV channels including movies, sports, news, music and high-definition TV programming. The satellite TV product will be part of a bundle that may include local and long-distance telephone service, multiple feature offerings and dial-up or high-speed DSL Internet service.

Key Elements of the Co-Branded Partnership Include

-- Unified Customer Experience -- CenturyTel will manage the
customer relationship, allowing consumers to order, arrange
installation and activate service from one source.

-- Single Bill -- CenturyTel | DISH Network customers will be
billed for their TV services as part of a single CenturyTel
bill.

-- Bundling Flexibility -- CenturyTel customers will have
additional choice, better value and greater convenience in
their communications and entertainment service bundles.

-- Co-Branding -- The TV service will be co-branded as CenturyTel
| DISH Network, delivering strategic marketing benefits for
both EchoStar and CenturyTel.

-- CenturyTel Investment -- CenturyTel will make a $25 million
investment in EchoStar in the form of a convertible note.

CenturyTel, Inc. provides communications services including local, long distance, Internet access and data services to customers in 22 states. The company, headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana, is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CTL, and is included in the S&P 500 Index. CenturyTel is the 8th largest local exchange telephone company, based on access lines, in the United States. Visit CenturyTel at www.centurytel.com.

EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH) serves more than 10.1 million satellite customers through its DISH Network(TM) and is a leading U.S. provider of advanced digital television services.
DISH Network's services include hundreds of video and audio channels, Interactive TV, HDTV, sports and international programming, together with professional and 24-hour customer service. DISH Network is the leader in the sale of digital video recorders (DVRs). J.D. Power and Associates ranks DISH Network No. 1 in Customer Satisfaction among Cable/Satellite TV Subscribers. Visit EchoStar's DISH Network at www.dishnetwork.com or call 800-333-DISH.

Note to Editors: There is a pipe between CenturyTel and DISH Network.


CONTACT: EchoStar Communications Corporation
Steve Caulk, 303-723-2010
steve.caulk@echostar.com
or
CenturyTel
Media:
Annmarie Sartor, 318-388-9671
annmarie.sartor@centurytel.com
or
Investors:
Tony Davis, 318-388-9525
tony.davis@centurytel.com

 

[Chris Freeland]

Yay, Century Tel is my local landline phone provider, I just hope as a current E* sub that I will be able to take advantage of a bundling deal when I am ready to upgrade to broadband from dial-up. I get my dial up internet service for free which is one reason I have not upgraded yet, but with a bundled discount I may upgrade.

 

[RBBrittain]

Yay, Century Tel is my local landline phone provider, I just hope as a current E* sub that I will be able to take advantage of a bundling deal when I am ready to upgrade to broadband from dial-up. I get my dial up internet service for free which is one reason I have not upgraded yet, but with a bundled discount I may upgrade.

You may have to hold your breath awhile. This sounds like a carbon copy of SBC Dish, right down to the vertical bar separating the brands (officially it's SBC | DISH Network). SBC isn't taking on existing E* customers yet, so those who had E* before SBC Dish came along are presently SOL as far as bundling is concerned. I was just lucky that SBC Dish came along about the time I was looking at satellite myself.

Think of it this way: SBC, not E*, "owns" all SBC Dish customers; the same will probably be true with CenturyTel. How thrilled do you think Charlie would be to just let SBC or CenturyTel "steal" his customers?

I can tell you from experience it's hard enough moving a stand-alone Cingular account to combined billing with SBC--and SBC owns 60% of Cingular. (At least SBC Dish's billing system seems more seamless than the SBC/Cingular system.) And CenturyTel's bundling experience is even worse: They sold their wireless division to Alltel a few years back (though perhaps to keep Alltel from snapping up the whole company). Bundling is a great idea, but pulling it off is another business entirely.

 

[Chris Freeland]

You may have to hold your breath awhile. This sounds like a carbon copy of SBC Dish, right down to the vertical bar separating the brands (officially it's SBC | DISH Network). SBC isn't taking on existing E* customers yet, so those who had E* before SBC Dish came along are presently SOL as far as bundling is concerned. I was just lucky that SBC Dish came along about the time I was looking at satellite myself.

Think of it this way: SBC, not E*, "owns" all SBC Dish customers; the same will probably be true with CenturyTel. How thrilled do you think Charlie would be to just let SBC or CenturyTel "steal" his customers?

I can tell you from experience it's hard enough moving a stand-alone Cingular account to combined billing with SBC--and SBC owns 60% of Cingular. (At least SBC Dish's billing system seems more seamless than the SBC/Cingular system.) And CenturyTel's bundling experience is even worse: They sold their wireless division to Alltel a few years back (though perhaps to keep Alltel from snapping up the whole company). Bundling is a great idea, but pulling it off is another business entirely.

You are probably correct that the CT/E* deal will be similar to the SBC/E* deal. Since I get my dial-up internet service for free I can live with that for a little longer if I need too and besides even with out a discount the CT dsl service is cheaper then Comcast. I know Comcast internet is faster then dsl except maybe during peak hours, however dsl is much cheaper and I could live with the slower speeds, it is still much faster then dial-up and does not tie up my phone line. Even with out a bundled discount I can get the slowest dsl tier for $34.95/mo, Comcast charges $57.95/mo without cable TV service or $42.95 with cable TV service, cheapest Cable TV service from Comcast is $9/mo for Limited basic, so for me to get Comcast Internet and Limited Basic cable TV service it would cost me $51.95/mo, a full $17 more a month then Century Tel DSL without a bundled discount.