EchoStar dealt blow by U.S. House Panel Bill barring two dishes

Chris Freeland said:
Yes it appears that we have the best Congress that the NAB can buy :( . If they give E* a year to comply with the new 1 dish rule they may be able to get E10 up in time to cause very few if any problems. What Congress should have done is to allow splitting of DMA's with a 2 dish solution but require either the 2nd dish at instillation and before a sub can order effected locals or require them to sign a release form if they do not want the 2nd dish with the wright to change their mind at any time and have the 2nd dish installed Free with no questions asked.
yup, maybe all dish owners should find out how their elected officals voted on this... and if they are up for re-election vote for the other person.
 
I am guessing that the smaller markets will get swapped over to a wing slot first if they have a lot of channels at the wing slot. I wonder how many consumers will choose to dump Dish if they all of a sudden have to get an additional dish to get their locals? It would be cheaper to provider a second dish than to provide a SuperDish but would make customers angry either way, either a second dish or a bigger dish.

I wonder if Dish will increase the prices of locals as a result, or prices across the board more because of this. How many local channels are on the wing slots right now? Would a way out of this be to duplicate all the locals from some areas at 61.5 and at 110/119 or would they have to have all the
 
I am guessing that the smaller markets will get swapped over to a wing slot first if they have a lot of channels at the wing slot. I wonder how many consumers will choose to dump Dish if they all of a sudden have to get an additional dish to get their locals? It would be cheaper to provider a second dish than to provide a SuperDish but would make customers angry either way, either a second dish or a bigger dish.

I wonder if Dish will increase the prices of locals as a result, or prices across the board more because of this. How many local channels are on the wing slots right now? Would a way out of this be to duplicate all the locals from some areas at 61.5 and at 110/119 or would they have to have all the locals at the same orbital location and no other location?
 
It is believed that DirecTV made another backroom deal with the NAB again. If DirecTV was smart enough to hurt their competition like this, then I am impressed. Normally DirecTV isn't that smart! :)
 
Dune said:
I just picked this up from Briefing.com. They picked it up from Bloomberg.com

"Bloomberg.com reports that EchoStar Communications was dealt a blow by a U.S. House panel that passed a bill forbidding the No. 2 satellite broadcaster from forcing subscribers to use two dish antennas to receive all local news and programs"

Dune

Yet another example of how lawmakers are clueless as to the nature of carrier waves, and their data carrying limits. :rolleyes:
 
bcshields said:
Aw heck!

There goes the launch schedule for locals. Dish really needs to learn how to butter up polititians better.

HD is probably going back on the wings, folks... and probably the new international channels on 121.

Either that or they need to buy better politicians. They should ask the MPAA and RIAA how much they paid for their lawmakers, theat way they'd know how much they need to spend on them. :mad:
 
bcshields said:
What's the big deal with a second dish? Is this just a competitor's ploy or is there real consumer fracas about this?

I don't have a bit of problem with it. I wouldn't mind having multiple dishes. In fact, as soon as I can get ahold of a DishPro single LNB, I'm putting up a second dish so I can recieve Classic Arts Showcase. :D
 
This is not a big deal anyways, Dish is building another spot beam satellite now anyways for 110. With that spot beam satellite in place they will have plenty of capacity to move the stray stations from the wings to 110. Now it is just a matter of whether or not they can get it launched before the deadline!
 
I thought that press report said that this action was from a congressional subcommittee. That means that it still has to pass either the full House or Senate (or both). So it ain;t a done deal... yet. If you feel strongly about this, then it's time to write some letters!

/Don
 
Tyralak said:
Yet another example of how lawmakers are clueless as to the nature of carrier waves, and their data carrying limits. :rolleyes:

Yea, so when are we all going to quit whining about it and get organized ? Congress (because they're highly lobbyed by the NAB and cable) has been putting it to Satellite viewers for a long time now, even with SHVIA. Now it looks like "SHVIA - The Sequel" isn't going to be much better.

I listened to part of those hearings yesterday and I heard a few good arguments presented for Sat viewers but apparently enough minds are already made up in Congress.

It's just like hundreds of other issues in this country - we complain to each other but that's as far as it ever gets. Special interests will always rule if that's the case.

There needs to be a unified coalition of satellite viewers. A group that will fight for our interrests - both in Washington and with the Sat signal providers.

Instead we have the 2 major Sat companies, Dish and DTV pissing on each other; fighting with the big channel block providers like Viacom, Turner, etc; pissing on their customers by putting out crappy hardware; filling the bandwith with programming 90% of us don't want; making promises they can't keep (HD) and on and on. As long as Cable is more organized and keeps getting special treatment from the FCC, we're always going to get the short end of the stick.

WaltinVt
 
waltinvt\ said:
Yea, so when are we all going to quit whining about it and get organized ?

Ok, what do we need to do? What's the most logical and fruitful way of pursuing our interests in satellite services.

I say we need a snappy title.
 
Maybe E* could start a crawler on all the stations is split areas stating Congress wants us to take away your locals. If we have to use one dish we will be forced to drop your locals from our service.

That should get some people calling and writing.
 
bcshields said:
Ok, what do we need to do? What's the most logical and fruitful way of pursuing our interests in satellite services.

I say we need a snappy title.

I'm sure there are people much more informed than me that could jump in here but I'll say what I think.

I would think first off we'd need some place to assemble. Even if we just start here with a thread, we could then maybe start a dedicated web site where we could register and see just how many of us are serious and commited. Maybe a few polls to establish common ground and priorities. Elect a few reps to consolidate our concerns and pass them on.

It can only work if enough of us are willing to give it a try and stick with it. That means being willing to make some decisions and then act on them as a group. Even a group of a few thousand people can influence a big entity like Congress if they can convince them how we vote WILL depend on what they do. It could also work for convincing our Sat providers about certain things. For instance, say a group of 5000 HD subscribers told "D" and / or "E" they had 1 month to show some sign of improving the selection of HD channels or we would collectivly drop our respective HD packages or switch providers - I think we could have some influence.

WaltinVt
 
Greg Bimson said:
It is believed that DirecTV made another backroom deal with the NAB again. If DirecTV was smart enough to hurt their competition like this, then I am impressed. Normally DirecTV isn't that smart!
GaryPen said:
Believed by whom?
From SkyReport, dated 23 April, 2004
SkyReport said:
Are shenanigans going on in the background concerning renewal of the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act (SHVIA)?

EchoStar thinks so, saying it has heard of back-room negotiations allegedly designed to freeze out certain interests tied to the SHVIA debate. EchoStar released a statement early Thursday concerning the matter, only to release a second statement in the afternoon accusing its main competitor in the satellite TV business of working with broadcast and Hollywood interests on SHVIA matters.

The afternoon statement read: "DirecTV confirmed that it has been in private discussions with the National Association of Broadcasters and the Motion Picture Association of America, potentially with the goal of presenting joint legislation to Congress on the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act."
 
Greg Bimson said:

Ahhh. It was Echostar that believes that DirecTV was up to no good. Gee. That's surprising. :rolleyes:

However, the quote "DirecTV confirmed that it has been in private discussions with the National Association of Broadcasters and the Motion Picture Association of America, potentially with the goal of presenting joint legislation to Congress on the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act." tells me that the powers at DirecTV are simply better business people than Charlie and his minions. Instead of alienating the opposing side with insults and threats like Dish and Charlie so often do, DirecTV has chosen to work with them towards compromise.
 
So those spotbeam satellite that they are going to launch to 110 will end up being used to broadcast all locals from the same dish instead of adding more markets and providing more HD, isn't that just great. Maybe they need to bring their previous plans back and put HD on SuperDish since that will take up a lot of space of that spotbeam satellite.
 

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