How Many Subs does Sky Angel have?
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I don't see millions signing up for SkyAngel IPTV. I see lots of people getting GloryStar systems.
I found this information in an article on the Wall Street Journal's web page:
"One of NeuLion's latest deals was with Dominion Video Satellite Inc., which for a decade has sold a Christian-oriented satellite TV service that about 110,000 households pay $14.99 a month to receive. Later this year, Dominion will begin transmitting to TV sets over the Internet instead, using NeuLion boxes."
Link to the article is here:
Seeking a Niche, Companies Try New Web-to-TV Technologies - WSJ.com
"One of NeuLion's latest deals was with Dominion Video Satellite Inc., which for a decade has sold a Christian-oriented satellite TV service that about 110,000 households pay $14.99 a month to receive. Later this year, Dominion will begin transmitting to TV sets over the Internet instead, using NeuLion boxes."
Link to the article is here:
Seeking a Niche, Companies Try New Web-to-TV Technologies - WSJ.com
To put that in perspective - dish networked added 110,000 new subscribers in the 3rd quarter of this year.
Bob
Bob
110,000 subs @ $14.99 per month comes to just under $20 million per year. They are using at least two of those transponders that lease @ approx $2 mil per transponder, so they are paying at least 20% of their gross just for satellite time. I wonder what other costs (staff, uplink, etc) were. You'd think that for 20 million they could make this thing viable.... I'd always thought that the transponder lease was eating up most of their revenue (since most of their channels come to them freely), but with that many subs, I don't think so.
Moving to IPTV may have cut some expense, but not that much. Going from a failing/losing business to a profit center would require a better than 20% gain in profits... and they aren't going to get that given the number of people who are going to jump ship..
Moving to IPTV may have cut some expense, but not that much. Going from a failing/losing business to a profit center would require a better than 20% gain in profits... and they aren't going to get that given the number of people who are going to jump ship..
don't forget, they were using the 2 transponders for free, in exchange for letting dish use the other 6 frequencies that they owned.
One thing is for sure, they could not launch their own satellite with only 110K subscribers. With a dying satellite and no way to replace it, I believe they had to do something.
To do nothing would mean the ultimate death of a dream. So even if their revenues decline with a new business model, they are probably better off to do something, to keep the dream alive.
The upfront cost for the user has always been the downside for the Sky Angel ministry. It is a no-go for most non-Christians that might have a passing interest in Christian TV.
Those of us who bought the Lifetime subscription are owed nothing, the dream has not worked out, there are just not enough subscribers paying the monthly fee to replace the satellite.
Bob
To do nothing would mean the ultimate death of a dream. So even if their revenues decline with a new business model, they are probably better off to do something, to keep the dream alive.
The upfront cost for the user has always been the downside for the Sky Angel ministry. It is a no-go for most non-Christians that might have a passing interest in Christian TV.
Those of us who bought the Lifetime subscription are owed nothing, the dream has not worked out, there are just not enough subscribers paying the monthly fee to replace the satellite.
Bob
They say 110,000 subscribers who PAY $14.99. That would lead me to believe that all the $ they received from lifetime and 10 year subs was above and beyond that.
Never mind the people that are going to jump there are people who might WANT sky angel but high speed internet isn't an option for them.
I think the reason they have been slow to make an offer to the lifetimers is they want to see how many join without any "special offer". the same reason I believe they are slow to give a firm price is that they are trying to get a feel for the market.
If those figures are right they will probably spend over $100,000 in mailings and postage . Instead of just one informative mailing they send nonsense which doesn't answer any questions. then you have to call the 800 # which costs them again...... Definitely not cost effective way to do business.
As for them "not owing lifetimers" I disagree. They clearly stated they would LAUNCH a new satellite by 2002. If they could NOT afford to due to poor cost projections on their part it is certainly NOT the fault of the lifetime members. They did not say "hope to", "might" or "if we can afford to". They breached their contract if you want to get right down to it.
Never mind the people that are going to jump there are people who might WANT sky angel but high speed internet isn't an option for them.
I think the reason they have been slow to make an offer to the lifetimers is they want to see how many join without any "special offer". the same reason I believe they are slow to give a firm price is that they are trying to get a feel for the market.
If those figures are right they will probably spend over $100,000 in mailings and postage . Instead of just one informative mailing they send nonsense which doesn't answer any questions. then you have to call the 800 # which costs them again...... Definitely not cost effective way to do business.
As for them "not owing lifetimers" I disagree. They clearly stated they would LAUNCH a new satellite by 2002. If they could NOT afford to due to poor cost projections on their part it is certainly NOT the fault of the lifetime members. They did not say "hope to", "might" or "if we can afford to". They breached their contract if you want to get right down to it.
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It was their dream, however, they didn't get 1/10th of one percent of the households in the US to subscribe.
Having to have any users pay anything each month is a broken outreach effort. It ends up like preaching to the choir rather then to those who need conversion.
Catkoko, IMHO, let it go! It's over, suing to get your due is just wrong, two wrongs don't make a right.
Bob
Its not over
until sky angel has the decency/guts to actually inform their lifetime members in writing of their intentions. All we really have has only been implied or written in personal emails.
As for suing, I didn't say I was or wasn't going to. I think the jury is out until skyangel actually makes an offer to the lifetimers or cuts us off. to sue now would be premature to say the least.
Even if no one chooses to sue and we just quietly walk away the fact remains that sky angel did breach their contract. I am betting more than1 of those 110,000 monthly subs are going to sue them because they recently bought equipment etc
The sad thing is that they have never practiced the Golden Rule. They sued DISH and turn off their subscribers if they are a day late paying. Tere have been other billing issues posted elsewhere.
I am sorry but I am sure they will hold anyone who signs up for that 18 month offer to every month of it. they won't want to hear about illness, lost job or lack of $. yet they can use lack of $ as an excuse.
until sky angel has the decency/guts to actually inform their lifetime members in writing of their intentions. All we really have has only been implied or written in personal emails.
As for suing, I didn't say I was or wasn't going to. I think the jury is out until skyangel actually makes an offer to the lifetimers or cuts us off. to sue now would be premature to say the least.
Even if no one chooses to sue and we just quietly walk away the fact remains that sky angel did breach their contract. I am betting more than1 of those 110,000 monthly subs are going to sue them because they recently bought equipment etc
The sad thing is that they have never practiced the Golden Rule. They sued DISH and turn off their subscribers if they are a day late paying. Tere have been other billing issues posted elsewhere.
I am sorry but I am sure they will hold anyone who signs up for that 18 month offer to every month of it. they won't want to hear about illness, lost job or lack of $. yet they can use lack of $ as an excuse.
There is no way there is going to be a lawsuit that is taken seriously by the courts. People are acting liike SA sold drugs for cancer patients then people found out they were just tic tacs. SA was going OOB, so they switch gears to keep from going under. All who bought lifetime subscriptions in the beginning should have known it was a risk. Most compaines go under in the first 2 years of business. The fact that SA has lasted this long is quite amazing. I know of no one except FIL IRL who has actually heard of SA. They have done a horrid job at advertising (probably due to low funds) and name recognition. Now they are trying to lower costs for the company and get away from satellite, which they obviously cannot afford to continue to broadcast from. Pleanty of companies make statements about what they HOPE to do in the future, but you cannot sue them because things didn't work out. Honestly, it's silly to even consider suing at this point in time. We are talking about a satellite provider, keep that in perspective.
