EchoStar Statement in Response to Florida Court Ruling

[minnow]

I doubt Dish will keep NY and LA on Conus beams after December 1st. They could do other more profitable things with those transponders even offer more HD on a Dish 500.

I agree. What benefit would it be to E* to keep NY and LA on Conus. NY & LA after 12/1/06 will be just like every other local offering.
I wonder if anyone at E* is thinking that maybe instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars on antenna's to subscribers that most likely don't want them and more importantly won't work, why not just finish off the 30 dma's left. I do know that E* needs to get out in front of this and let the DNS subscribers know what the plan is real soon.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Well you guys know we have a legalize marijuana initiative on the ballot in Colorado this year. I am thinking the folks at E* thought that it had already passed - caused they had to be smoking something funny when they thought than an OTA antenna would help folks who needed Distants to get broadcast network feeds.

 

[JohnH]

I posted this in another thread so here goes. What is stopping all the distant network customers from "moving " to keep their distant networks? All Dish has to do is keep all the distants on counus beam for NewYork and L. A.. Then all the customer has to do is google search say movie theaters for the above cites and then add an apartment number and you get to keep NewYork and L. A distants. You wouldn't get the sub channels but you would keep main 4 networks. YOu would of course keep your billing address what it really is but change your service address. This would keep all truckers and rv owners with their networks. Dish would have to use the web boards members to get the message out but it could work.

There I just did Dish a favor and helped all distant network customers keep their distants after Dec. 1, 2006.

Any move by E* in this direction would simply be fuel to the fire. Could be cause for an audit of the Locals subscribers and away the locals go.

 

[rad]

I doubt Dish will keep NY and LA on Conus beams after December 1st. They could do other more profitable things with those transponders even offer more HD on a Dish 500.

What 'local's would E* then be offering to the customers that can actually receive a waiver due to not being able to receive "B" OTA signal? Or am I missing this and the judge says that all DNS must be turned off, even if you actually really do qualify for them?

 

[JohnH]

What 'local's would E* then be offering to the customers that can actually receive a waiver due to not being able to receive "B" OTA signal? Or am I missing this and the judge says that all DNS must be turned off, even if you actually really do qualify for them?

Your last statement should not be a question as it is a fact.

Congress did the right thing. The only way to stop the offering to ineligible subscribers is to stop the offering altogether or declare Marshal Law.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Or am I missing this and the judge says that all DNS must be turned off, even if you actually really do qualify for them?

Bingo we have a winner.

All DNS must be turned off, it does not matter if you qualify or not.

 

[nitstalker]

In response to my earlier thing about D*... The customer does not live in Cumberland whatsoever... They have completely moved to Delaware... They rent the home to someone else... D* knows that because the renter in Cumberland has an account with them as well... D* did not want to lose the customer so they set up an illegal account by the SHERVA...

Anyway just a stupid question: Could E* round up a few tv stations that are on FTA and let them use their satellites? If a station is FTA, there is no law about picking it up with my reciever...???

 

[shimma]

I'm still confused. Come 12/1/06, will I lose the signal from CBS2 in LA? I only watch this channel for the newscasts, and I have a whole dish dedicated to this one station.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I'm still confused. Come 12/1/06, will I lose the signal from CBS2 in LA? I only watch this channel for the newscasts, and I have a whole dish dedicated to this one station.

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.

 

[BigFella]

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.

I believe you meant KCBS Scott (if the OP gets CBS out of LA)

 

[RandallA]

Well you guys know we have a legalize marijuana initiative on the ballot in Colorado this year. I am thinking the folks at E* thought that it had already passed - caused they had to be smoking something funny when they thought than an OTA antenna would help folks who needed Distants to get broadcast network feeds.

I think the folks at E* have been smoking something for the last year or so.
It's been one bad decision after another one.

 

[mikew]

I disagree, I think if everyone settled, I don't see an injunction happening. I wondered what the judge would do in this case when there's a settlement that doesn't cover everyone. I figured the logical thing would be to shut FOX distants off, but maybe that the whole thing is getting shut down it will cause congress to step in for more drastic action than if just one network was pulled.

The judge decided that Dish broke the law in it's method for qualifying customers. The punishment for breaking the law was to remove E*'s priveledge to distribute distant networks.

Say I kill somebody...even if I give the family of the victim a million dollars that won't absolve me from the punishment that the law dictates. It wouldn't have mattered if Fox agreed....the law was broken.

 

[LLodge2]

The Court Screwed Up

I know many people are chuckling about this, but I'm one of those million that it affects. I am smack in between three markets none of which can be obtained without a bunch of snow. The old "Contour B" place. Much as I dislike DISH, PT-24 pulled the west feeds years ago. DISH does serve a purpose for some. Would I prefer it over the old PT C-bands? Nope. But it is all that I have. If only PT-24 would at least add the NY FOX and NY CBS then it wouldn't be so bad or the added the western ones back. Yes, DISH sucks. But for some of us in the country it is a necessary evil.

Some of this banter is kind of like kicking the homeless man in the gutter. It makes some people "feel good" but it does actually affect someone.:exclamati

 

[Chris Walker]

Should we start contacting our local congessional members since Dish will probably turn to Congess for help with this matter?

 

[Chris Walker]

I know many people are chuckling about this, but I'm one of those million that it affects. I am smack in between three markets none of which can be obtained without a bunch of snow. The old "Contour B" place. Much as I dislike DISH, PT-24 pulled the west feeds years ago. DISH does serve a purpose for some. Would I prefer it over the old PT C-bands? Nope. But it is all that I have. If only PT-24 would at least add the NY FOX and NY CBS then it wouldn't be so bad or the added the western ones back. Yes, DISH sucks. But for some of us in the country it is a necessary evil.

Some of this banter is kind of like kicking the homeless man in the gutter. It makes some people "feel good" but it does actually affect someone.:exclamati

I don't see anyone "chuckling" about this. There are a lot of DNS subscribers here and posting in this thread, and we're (well I speak for myself at least) are a little surprised by the judge's decision. The good news is that this is far from over.

 

[Bob Haller]

Time for the supreme court, with no change till its decided, that would take a couple more years

 

[Chris Walker]

Time for the supreme court, with no change till its decided, that would take a couple more years

Well this is a fairly low-level court that issued this injunction so there's steps that can be taken below the supreme court thankfully.

 

[waltinvt]

I know many people are chuckling about this, but I'm one of those million that it affects. I am smack in between three markets none of which can be obtained without a bunch of snow. The old "Contour B" place. Much as I dislike DISH, PT-24 pulled the west feeds years ago. DISH does serve a purpose for some. Would I prefer it over the old PT C-bands? Nope. But it is all that I have. If only PT-24 would at least add the NY FOX and NY CBS then it wouldn't be so bad or the added the western ones back. Yes, DISH sucks. But for some of us in the country it is a necessary evil.

Some of this banter is kind of like kicking the homeless man in the gutter. It makes some people "feel good" but it does actually affect someone.:exclamati

Good post but many here don't "get it" because they DO have options. In fact, some people here actually complain about loosing distants because it will drop them down to only one or two choices for getting their networks.

Greed and power do strange things.

Because of greed Dish ignored the law and ultimately crapped on legitimate dns qualifiers by selling to non-qualifiers as well.

Because of greed, congress caved to NAB lobbing for the affiliates and wrote the law with this mandatory penalty which is going to disinfranchise thousands of people like you.

I think congress knows they're not completely blameless in this and was hoping it would all go away by virtue of the settlement but because of Murdoch's desire to be king of the turdbirds, Fox forced the injunction.

The best thing we all can do (and the last thing congress wants just before an election) is to make as much noise as possible in hopes that they can do something - not to help Dish but to help all those that SHIVA - SHVERA was designed to really help in the first place.

 

[waltinvt]

Well this is a fairly low-level court that issued this injunction so there's steps that can be taken below the supreme court thankfully.

That's the rub ! There are no more options. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but barring an act of congress, this is A DONE DEAL - the distant's license for Dish Network IS now gone and it becomes effective on December 1st.

I honestly don't even think there is much even congress can / will do for analog dns BUT they do have a certain incentive (in the interest of the digital transition) to write / amend / clarify legislation that could make it easier for both Dish and DirectTV to provide the distant DIGITAL feeds to ALL those in true DIGITAL white areas temporarily until they get enough satellite space to provide digital locals everywhere.

 

[Greg Bimson]

That's the rub ! There are no more options. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but barring an act of congress, this is A DONE DEAL - the distant's license for Dish Network IS now gone and it becomes effective on December 1st.

Bingo. We have a winner.

The lower court (District Court) issued the injunction for two reasons:
1) because the mandatory penalty for willful infringment of the SHVIA is an injunction from using the license.
2) because the Appeals Court waded through almost three years of interpreting the District Court ruling, to make sure the District Court applied the law correctly. The Appeals Court found that the District Court did not go far enough, and ordered the District Court to issue the nationwide injunction. This is by far the most important of the two issues.

This leaves only one court in the land to review the Appeals Court. The Supreme Court already ruled they will not issue an emergency stay of the injunction. Therefore, unless the Supreme Court places this on their docket for arguments before 1 December, the injunction will take affect on that date.