Retailer Chat Recap - May 19, 2010

[TheKrell]

Actually Scott was thinking nobody has HD in which case the price goes up $2 as previously stated. If Scott is paying separately for his locals, I don't know about that. I pay $62.99 as TravelFan does for AT250 + locals. The net price reduction in these new charts is due to the Free HD (for Life), so it's +$2 - $10 = -$8 for AT250 (minus Platinum).

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Jim and Amir talking about more dealer sensitive items.

 

[RandallA]

Actually Scott was thinking nobody has HD in which case the price goes up $2 as previously stated. If Scott is paying separately for his locals, I don't know about that. I pay $62.99 as TravelFan does for AT250 + locals. The net price reduction in these new charts is due to the HD Free for Life, so it's +$2 - $10 = -$8 for AT250 (minus Platinum).

Thank you. I'm also paying $62.99 for AT250 and that includes the locals.

If they would stop changing names and fees, there would be no confusion. Sounds to me that they do this on purpose even though they say is to simplify the billing.

Ah huh!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

DISH customers when calling for support will be required to have 4 digit pin number when calling DISH as of 6/3. Customers will be asked to create that pin when they call and the pin can be changed via DISHnetwork.COM.

 

[TheKrell]

Are the Offers Extended (capture 3 in post 4) for new customers only? The reason I ask is the 1st 2 captures were for existing customers.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nothing really interesting, all dealer sensitve info.

Just about to go to calls. Hope it ends soon as I am home sick today and I am getting dizzy sitting up again. (Yup my son got me sick...)

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its Amir's Birthday today and Jim gives Amir a cake as a surprise.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok on to question time.

 

[joecap1946]

Nothing really interesting, all dealer sensitve info.

Just about to go to calls. Hope it ends soon as I am home sick today and I am getting dizzy sitting up again. (Yup my son got me sick...)

Thanks for the updates Scott.

 

[digiblur]

Not even a mention about E14

 

[navychop]

Scott, could you clarify, from the Retailer Chat or other source, regarding current subscribers:

Those of us with locals available from Dish, but not subscribing - Is Dish going to automatically start providing us with locals (even without our request/permission) and charging us the $5? And if so, when (6/3? 7/1)?

 

[millworker]

You might want to check your bill on that one...

Just looked on mine and I am paying for locals.

When I look online at my programing, it shows I am paying $57.99 for AT250, and $5.99 for locals. My bill, however, says $62.99 with locals. It looks like when this great offer starts that I'll be paying $2.00 more a month.

 

[yaz96]

Charlie talks a bit about DIRECTV and says he would rather see DISH Network dishes on everyones houses instead of DIRECTV dishes. He says that DIRECTV is too angry and this new CEO is taking the company in a negative direction.

Charlie says he is proud that the appeals court will hear then in the Tivo case as DISH is fighting for innovation. Charlie says that he and the CEO both worked for Frito Lay, and the first thing they were taught there was integrity. He says you never see Pepsi calling coke a liar. He thinks that DIRECTV will keep on the negative campaign.

What CEO was Charlie referring to?

 

[harshness]

What CEO was Charlie referring to?

Most likely Michael White, CEO of DIRECTV. Notably, Malone also did a stint at Frito Lay.

 

[yaz96]

Most likely Michael White, CEO of DIRECTV. Notably, Malone also did a stint at Frito Lay.

But Malone is gone.

 

[Jim S.]

Once again no word on fixing the Scranton HD debacle, not that I was expecting any.

More blather about the importance of broadband, which I'll never understand because the satellites have more bandwidth.

 

[yaz96]

Once again no word on fixing the Scranton HD debacle, not that I was expecting any.

More blather about the importance of broadband, which I'll never understand because the satellites have more bandwidth.

Broadband delivery is the future, my friend. EVERYTHING.

 

[Stargazer]

IPTV anyone?

 

[MikeD-C05]

I found out the hard way that what ATT passes off as broadband /dsl is really not broad band enough for my 922 sling player. They advertise 10 mbps but the most you ever get in download or upload speed is 6000 kbps. So no hd video delivery. I talked to an ATT tech last weekend and asked him to cut the sh*t and tell me exactly how much speed I am getting for upload speed & download speed since they advertise 10 mbps as the speed in their elite pack, which is their fastest & most expensive internet pack. He finally admitted only 6000 kbps period. I can watch the video by sling in sd just fine, but once you try hd the picture slows and the sound cuts in and out every other second. So if the future depends on broadband and HD , then we have a problem in most of the country that has only dsl or satellite delivered internet services.

I will be calling Time Warner cable next week to get their "minimum" internet services , which will give me 512 kbps upload speed and 7 mbps down load speed. DISH only requires 1.5 mbps down load speed and between 150 - 600 kbps upload speed. I will actually pay less with them using their cheapest internet service at $29.99 a month and their digital phone service at $29.99 also , than I do with ATT dsl & phone service.

 

[SpaethCo]

Broadband delivery is the future, my friend. EVERYTHING.

IPTV anyone?

It's important to frame the key reasons why IPTV is gaining traction:

1) Time shifting (watch what I want, when I want it)
2) Place shifting (same as #1, but not primary viewing location)
3) Archived content (watch past episodes / missed recordings)
4) Niche content (Limited distribution, ie: Revision3)

Tme shifting is by far the largest driver towards Internet-based delivery, and it also represents the most inefficient use of network resources. You're taking content that is already being digitally delivered to your house via OTA ATSC feeds, cable QAM feeds, and satellite QPSK/8PSK feeds.... and transferring yet another copy of the same content over the network. Time shifting is better accomplished through local capture and playback using an already established stream as the source.

In terms of IPTV making things cheaper, just look at ESPN. Disney currently gets approximately $3.65/mo in subscriber fees from 100.7 million viewers thanks to forced channel subscription packages that won't let viewers opt-out of channels. Is anyone really naive enough to believe that ESPN is going to make a move that threatens their $4.4 billion a year money train? IPTV isn't going to change the game in terms of channel pricing because it's the companies that produce the content who want things packaged the way they are. It's not a coincidence that the channel line-up of cable and satellite providers everywhere in the US have a high degree of consistency across their channel lineups in various packages.

Internet-based video has a huge future, but not as a replacement technology.