EchoStar Statement in Response to Florida Court Ruling

[TheForce]

Maybe Dish is considering that the FREE antenna they will install will be a quad stacked VHF LP long range array with a quad stacked 7ft parabola UHF antenna on top of a just legal 190 ft. tower. That will probably get good reception in just about the most remote locations unless one lives at the bottom of the Grand Canyon or inside the Carlsbad caverns.

When I lived in NY I had a 120 ft. tower with a single 7 ft. parabola UHF antenna and I could get reliable stations in as far as Washington DC, Baltimore, Harrasburg, PA, Philadelphia and even on occasion Richmond, VA.

Folks this post was a tongue-in-cheek. defense of what E* was maybe thinking. After all they are the experts on antennas and are pretty free with spending huge amounts of money to resolve problems. I would imagine they could errect an antenna like the one I describbed for about $25,000ea. assuming they could get the permits.

 

[yellowdragon]

Maybe Dish is considering that the FREE antenna they will install will be a quad stacked VHF LP long range array with a quad stacked 7ft parabola UHF antenna on top of a just legal 190 ft. tower. That will probably get good reception in just about the most remote locations unless one lives at the bottom of the Grand Canyon or inside the Carlsbad caverns.

When I lived in NY I had a 120 ft. tower with a single 7 ft. parabola UHF antenna and I could get reliable stations in as far as Washington DC, Baltimore, Harrasburg, PA, Philadelphia and even on occasion Richmond, VA.

Folks this post was a tongue-in-cheek. defense of what E* was maybe thinking. After all they are the experts on antennas and are pretty free with spending huge amounts of money to resolve problems. I would imagine they could errect an antenna like the one I describbed for about $25,000ea. assuming they could get the permits.

190 ft tall? Good! No need for a blinking light... Still, I don't think I can get my distants OTA from the mainland with such a setup...

 

[SmityWhity]

Provided you are not in the flight path.

And provided you are not a farmer where the FOA (Farm Owner's Association) prohibits the installation of outside antenna's.

 

[Jim5506]

Is that your tongue in your cheek, or a chaw?

 

[jim81labrie]

Are you getting WCBS HD or WCBS SD?

If its WCBS HD, it will remain.
If its WCBS SD you will lose it on the first.

Scott -- clarification please ... are HD broacasts exempt from the court's ruling?

I live in the SF Bay Area. I currently get the L.A. CBS feeds in both Standard & High-def. I don't mind losing the Standard-Def feed -- I almost never watch it -- but losing the HD feed would be a bummer ... having that feed occasionally frees me from having to watch the Unwatchable Bay Area football teams.

 

[minnow]

According to a reply in another thread by Greg Bimson:

From Multichannel.com, an article relating to the loss of the distant network license, written by Ted Hearn:
Quote:
CBS HD IMPACT

Separately, EchoStar has a deal that allows it to offer the high definition feed of a CBS affiliate to any household within a market that includes a CBS-owned affiliate. But the injunction would doom that in about 20 major markets.

So why would Dish Network pay $100 million to the affiliate boards? In order to keep the license not for the distant networks, but for the others services that are attached to the license:
Quote:
“Among their bouquet of core HDTV services, the CBS [deal] is probably the most viewed, it’s the most important,” according to Jimmy Schaeffler, senior financial and consulting analyst with The Carmel Group, who has been involved in legal matters for and against EchoStar in the last decade. “If you lose that, then you’ve lost a core sales tool for a part of your service which you consider the most important going forward and that is the HD channel.”

The loss of the distant CBS in HD is important, but now the inability of ever using the distant license for ABC, NBC and Fox in HD is just as important. Dish Network will not get the rural customers network HD any longer. Also...
Quote:
The injunction would prevent EchoStar from providing what are called “significantly viewed” stations. These are popular TV stations seen by viewers who live outside the official boundary of a market, but within range of the stations’ signals, according to Seth Davidson, a cable and copyright attorney at Fleischman and Walsh in Washington, D.C.

This public service message was brought to you by the always incorrect Greg Bimson.

So the answer to your question is yes, your going to lose your NY HD CBS feed.

 

[Bob Haller]

According to a reply in another thread by Greg Bimson:

From Multichannel.com, an article relating to the loss of the distant network license, written by Ted Hearn:
Quote:
CBS HD IMPACT

Separately, EchoStar has a deal that allows it to offer the high definition feed of a CBS affiliate to any household within a market that includes a CBS-owned affiliate. But the injunction would doom that in about 20 major markets.

So why would Dish Network pay $100 million to the affiliate boards? In order to keep the license not for the distant networks, but for the others services that are attached to the license:
Quote:
“Among their bouquet of core HDTV services, the CBS [deal] is probably the most viewed, it’s the most important,” according to Jimmy Schaeffler, senior financial and consulting analyst with The Carmel Group, who has been involved in legal matters for and against EchoStar in the last decade. “If you lose that, then you’ve lost a core sales tool for a part of your service which you consider the most important going forward and that is the HD channel.”

The loss of the distant CBS in HD is important, but now the inability of ever using the distant license for ABC, NBC and Fox in HD is just as important. Dish Network will not get the rural customers network HD any longer. Also...
Quote:
The injunction would prevent EchoStar from providing what are called “significantly viewed” stations. These are popular TV stations seen by viewers who live outside the official boundary of a market, but within range of the stations’ signals, according to Seth Davidson, a cable and copyright attorney at Fleischman and Walsh in Washington, D.C.

This public service message was brought to you by the always incorrect Greg Bimson.

So the answer to your question is yes, your going to lose your NY HD CBS feed.

if true charlie will take it to the supreme court, which will likely bring a stay till its heard in 2 or 3 years, when conveniently all stations are up

 

[Claude Greiner]

How can D* be judged to comply with the law when they still allow people to"move" and keep the same billing address. I think what is good for the goose should be good for the gander.

But moving is legal, its the customer who bares the responcibility of the lie. Giving customer distants when they don't qualify is illegal and the programming provider bares the responcibility.

 

[Chris Walker]

I don't like E*'s silence on this. Where are the "CALL CONGRESS!!" messages? This is an election year, why not put some heat on these people right before people go vote? Where is any information from E* to the people that this potentially affects? It concerns me that Dish would be replying with such "they will be removed December 1st", while other sources say an appeal can be heard. I assume it's quite possible that E* themselves don't even know what to do? This is a HUGE problem for them, it'd be different if just the analog distants go away(which is a million pissed subs), but losing HD distants, and significantly viewed as well? This is a killer, E* has to go the appeal route.

 

[Greg Bimson]

if true charlie will take it to the supreme court, which will likely bring a stay till its heard in 2 or 3 years, when conveniently all stations are up.

Uh, no.

Dish Network already filed for an emergency stay to the Supreme Court, back in July. It was denied.

 

[Greg Bimson]

This is a HUGE problem for them, it'd be different if just the analog distants go away(which is a million pissed subs), but losing HD distants, and significantly viewed as well? This is a killer, E* has to go the appeal route.

Appeal to whom?

A few people have had this conversation before. The affiliate boards that tentatively settled can now walk away with nothing but the injunction. After all, now that the judge has effectively ended the old settlement, only Dish Network would appeal.

This only leaves the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the court that told the lower court ot issue the injunction, and the Supreme Court. I am certain that the Court of Appeals will not revisit the decision, as the entire judicial bench of the Circuit Court declined to review the decision by the three judges that mandated the injunction be issued.

That leaves the Supreme Court, which already denied a temporary stay back in July. Dish Network has already filed their writ of certoriari with the Supreme Court to review the decision by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. That is the last appeal in this whole process. And if the Supreme Court refuses to hear this (and I believe they will refuse to hear this), the entire suit is over.