I emailed SkyAngel about the E* issue, because I bought Dish for my grandma so she could watch Daystar. Here is what I got back...
It's disappointing to us that Daystar interferred with our contract with DISH Network even though Sky Angel had been carrying Daystar at no charge to Daystar and still continues to do so to this day. May I ask why you didn't get Sky Angel for your grandmother to receive Daystar?
It would have actually been a lot less money. You can arrange to have your grandmother's dish repointed to receive Sky Angel. Just give us a call at 1-800-759-2643 (1-800-SKY-ANGEL) or visit us at
www.skyangel.com for more information.
In defense of Sky Angel (Dominion) since you have accused us of not being "Christian like," in all fairness you owe it to us and yourself to get all of the facts before making such a judgement. There is much more to this issue than what I can explain to you here, however, I will provide you with some of the major details, and then for further information, including court-documented evidence, I would like to refer you to a special web page we have set up at
www.skyangel.com/echostarlawsuit that provides extensive background of the facts and events concerning Dominion, EchoStar and these channels.
It's important that you get all of the facts regarding this issue since a lot of misinformation is out there about it.
Without coming to Dominion first, FamilyNet and Daystar, which were very well aware of our agreement with DISH Network, secretly put together a deal with DISH Network for carriage. In doing so, both FamilyNet and Daystar claimed in documents received during Dominion's litigation with DISH Network that they are not Christian religious networks. And FamilyNet's president told EchoStar that it considered some Christian ministries that it carried to be non-religious/educational in nature such as The 700 Club (Christian talk show), Life Today with James Robison (Christian ministry show), Acquire the Fire with Ron Luce (Christian youth show), Quick Study (Christian Bible teaching show), and Precepts for Life with Kay Arthur (Christian Bible teaching show), because they "make occasional references to a higher power, or God in a more general sense." A federal court judge ruled in July 2003 that FamilyNet engaged in some "monumental fibbing" in presenting its network to EchoStar.
After Dominion discovered what FamilyNet, Daystar and EchoStar had done to breach Dominion's agreement with EchoStar, and only after Dominion was unsuccessful at resolving the breach with EchoStar outside the courts, in order to defend our agreement, Dominion saw no other choice by to take defensive legal action by filing suit against EchoStar - not Daystar, not FamilyNet, even though we had a legitimate legal right to do so. Their apparent modus operandi was to first get on DISH Network, making it more difficult for Dominion to enforce its agreement after the fact; after all, what would the "court of public opinion" think, according to Daystar's President Marcus Lamb in a letter he sent to Dominion Sky Angel's founder and my father, Robert Johnson, who passed away last month, insinuating the public relations disaster that would result if Dominion were to enforce its agreement with DISH after the channels were already on. "Bob, we can either be enemies or allies,"
Lamb wrote. "The choice is up to you. What will you really accomplish if you 'win the battle but lose the war?'" Unfortunately, Lamb made good on his threats of a so-called PR war with misleading and even libelous comments against Sky Angel and personally against our late founder through on-air diatribes and a letter that he sent to Sky Angel programming associates which he was later forced to retract.
Up until April 2003 when Dominion was forced to file a lawsuit against EchoStar, EchoStar had refused all reasonable requests over three months by Dominion to stop violating the EchoStar-Dominion agreement.
Under that agreement, EchoStar insisted that Dominion's Sky Angel service carry only channels with predominantly Christian themes and content while EchoStar's DISH Network service would carry all other types of channels for the 12- to 15-year life of the agreement.
However, Dominion ensured that there were some Christian channels grandfathered into its agreement with EchoStar so that the Gospel would be abundantly available for the lifetime of the agreement to DISH Network subscribers who are not believers. One of those channels is Angel One, where virtually all of the ministries, large and small, are provided no-cost airtime; we have made a conscience effort to put programming on Angel One that is evangelistic and that doesn't just merely appeal to Christians, and there are no telethons on that channel, which can be a turn-off to unbelievers trying to be reached with the Gospel.
In a recent news article, FamilyNet's chairman of the board stated that coming off DISH was "not a major disaster or major setback for FamilyNet", that the network's "strategy" is to "enter cable markets,"
which, again, is the stated reason why they took themselves off Sky Angel back in 2001 even though we had no problem with them pursuing carriage on cable while still airing on Sky Angel. We had actually wondered why FamilyNet and Daystar targeted DISH Network in the first place when there are scores of other secular outlets that have no Christian channels at all, unlike the DISH Network. Could it be because Sky Angel has helped attract a large ready-made Christian audience to DISH Network? Many of Sky Angel's subscribers are also DISH subscribers. If this is all about soul-winning, shouldn't these networks be targeting their resources at cable systems that don't have any Christian channels?
In 1980, God placed a call on Robert Johnson's life to secure a multi-channel television and radio outlet that would insure that Christians who are called to teach, preach and minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ electronically would have a secure platform from which to do so in the end times when secular-owned and -operated media TV station, cable system and satellite TV gatekeepers will eventually shut-out the Gospel. If there is any doubt about this, just look at how negatively Jesus Christ and Christianity are being perceived today here in America, in the electronic media, and certainly around the world.
Secular cable and satellite systems are not required to carry Christian networks like Daystar and FamilyNet, therefore, they can decline to carry them or remove them at will. In fact, both Daystar and FamilyNet received short-term carriage agreements from DISH, and FamilyNet was placed by DISH on "wing" satellites that are not viewable by all DISH subscribers. Daystar was given more access but apparently had to trade away all current and future valuable "must-carry" stations to DISH Network, resulting in each station's community losing the programming, in this case Christian programming, directed to the local community's needs and interests which a local station is required by the FCC to provide. The FCC is currently investigating this trade and other related issues.
All of this is why it's so important to protect and preserve the Sky Angel platform and to stress to Christians the importance of subscribing to and supporting this Christ-centered, Christian-owned platform, the only one of its kind in the world, so that Christian programmers will always have a secure outlet. And our mission is to expand the Sky Angel service globally and make many of our programs free-to-air in many parts of the world with Christians' support here in America.
Had we not taken this action, EchoStar would have been free to continue to add Christian theme and content channels to their DISH packages, in all likelihood short-term, making it uncompelling for existing and future Christian subscribers to DISH Network to sign up for Sky Angel and subsequently putting Sky Angel out of business, a potential viable DBS competitor, for good. Then, no one really knows what would have become of these channels on DISH with Sky Angel out of the picture.
Those Christians who currently subscribe to DISH Network, not Sky Angel, to receive Christian programming prove my previous point. Are you willing to trust these commercial-secular companies to carry even one let alone multiple Christian television channels permanently or long-term when DISH Network was unwilling to honor its agreement with Sky Angel and other secular carriers are becoming increasingly hostile to Christian values? (Isaiah 31:1-3)
After more than a year of litigation, an arbitration panel has unanimously ruled that EchoStar violated its contract with Dominion and has ordered EchoStar to pay monetary damages to Dominion and to come into compliance with the eight-year-old contract between the two DBS operators. EchoStar wanted the agreement to be this way in the beginning, so it is not right that they would break the agreement while we uphold our end, thus, causing harm to Dominion while causing a lot of unnecessary confusion and grief among viewers such as your grandmother. In all fairness, Sky Angel has been wronged here, too.
Thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail. I know it is lengthy, but it really is necessary in order to properly convey all of the key facts and hopefully give you a clearer understanding of them.
I would like to still encourage you to visit our web page at
www.skyangel.com/echostarlawsuit for additional information.
Thank you again for this opportunity. God bless.
Sincerely in Christ,
Nancy Christopher
VP, Public Relations
Dominion Sky Angel DBS Television & Radio System
