SatGuys Exclusive: Dish Network answers some VOOM questions

[charper1]

Oh yeah, Charlie is dumb alright. $200M, with no risk, bought him a satellite that's already operating, a slew of frequencies and spot beams, and a brand new groundlink station, and D* is left with their satellites on the drawing board. Everybody that said E* was lagging behind in capacity is now saying "What just happened?" I think Charlie suckered D* into committing to the new launches, forcing a D* rate increase. We may find a D* customer backlash flocking to E*, which is likely to have expanded content much sooner.

Everyone that dropped E* for D* promises of future capacity might want to rethink their decision. This really has been an interesting couple of days.

Actually those large capacity D* birds are are slated to launch, at least one in a few months, and if you look VERY carefully the Rainbow1 bird has a terrible 61.5 location, the D* birds will have an exceptional CONUS footprint. They more than likely added Rainbow1 for some spotbeamed locals and to get the uplink facility, it is any major competition advantage.

 

[rad]

The major purchase in the deal of course is the Rainbow 1 Satellite, when asked about what Echostars plans were for Rainbow 1 and if Echostar planned on using the spot beam capabilities on Rainbow 1 Caulk said that Echostar was "assessing our needs as they correspond to the functionality of the satellite"

You would think that a corporation would have a plan on what they were going to do with this before spending $200,000,000.00

 

[mdonnelly]

You would think that a corporation would have a plan on what they were going to do with this before spending $200,000,000.00

They do have a plan. They just aren't telling YOU (or ME, or D*).

 

[jrjcd]

hey guys, you gotta know when to hold 'em...and know when to fold 'em...
know when to walk away and know when to run...you never count yer spot beams when yer sittin' at the table cause there'll be time enough for countin', when the deal is done!!!!

 

[BFG]

This has turned into quite a comical day

 

[mdonnelly]

... By the way, love your avatar.....Longhorn fan laying down.......

Barney

Yeah, right. Good spin.

Boomer Sooner!

 

[DishSatUser]

Check out the significant costs in ordering, testing, launching, testing and locating Satellites.

It basically came down to the equivalent of purchasing an Dream Home ($1.5 Million home for you and me) for $20.00. No brainer even if you aren't sure if you are going to move into the home, rent it or simply resell it.

D* and everyone else would have liked to purchase the Sat because it is soooo cheap. $200 Million ain't nothin when you have couple billion in "cash" reserves. Rate increases are not even required to cover the cost, but it makes since to replenish the reserves for other opportunities.

I'm sure the Stockholders are totally jamming over this excellent opportunity, that it eliminates a competitor is icing on the cake.

If Dollan still wants the VOOM customers and programming, he's going to have to spend another 1.5 Billion to launch, test and service another Sat. Maybe it's possible, but I think that VOOM if it continues to exist in any form will be as a "content" provider. Note that no one else want's their content. Sure it was HD, but if it was SD no one would have put up with the repetitive loops and redundant content. Why would D*, E* or even Cable suppliers want such anemic content. Sure if you don't have it all those themes sounded great, but ran the same material like they were Pay-per-view channels or something, worth watching once or twice a month and then waiting for new "compelling" content. There were a few exceptions, but that was the same content available on the other providers, nothing truely new under the sun.

So new Sat and uplink facilities. If you truely want to know the value, find out how much it cost to build just the uplink facility without a Sat. $200 million for an uplink facility may be a great bargain as well with the Sat considered the "icing".

 

[rad]

They do have a plan. They just aren't telling YOU (or ME, or D*).

We are taking about E* here aren't we? You mean they actually have a plan for something????

 

[DishSatUser]

Yeah, right. Good spin.

Boomer Sooner!

I'd tell you what that upside down longhorn looks like to me, but it'd probably get me banned.

 

[HD921]

Looks like Satelliteguys scores another first break of news. Sorry SkyChat.

I do feel bad for all the Voom subs out there. I hope that Cablevision allows the programming to be available to both satellite companies.

skychat had the info on Wednesday you better check the post.

 

[slimoli]

Scott,

I am in the finantial business and almost all the analysts involved with Echostar are saying that the top priority in using VOOM's assets will be the availability of HD LOCAL CHANNELS. According to comments in Wall Street, Dish now wants to be the first satellite co to offer HD local channels (ahead of Directv). Most likely they will use the resources to do something cable can now offer and they can't.
Don't expect improve on PQ (less compression), new hd movie channels or anything else that WE want.

Sergio

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sergio,

The FCC approval may take up to a year, DirecTV's Local HD Rollouts are scheduled to happen in July as was announced at the CES press conference.

I don't see how Dish can get access to that spectrum that quick and beat DirecTV to the punch.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

skychat had the info on Wednesday you better check the post.

Can you show me where that is? Especially since all of this just happened yesterday?

Man I would love a crystal ball like that.

 

[slimoli]

Skychat was talking about a possible takeover. I started the thread on Tuesday, a day before ,here on this forum so the credit belongs to Satelliteguys anyway. Here is the proof:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=43207

Sergio

 

[BFG]

Oh please, We've been talking about a "takeover" for almost a year...

The actual news from the companies is what counts...

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Now that I think about it, I think we have been talking takeover since we first heard VOOM was going to launch.

 

[jake14mw]

OK, I have no expertise in this, but could somebody please tell me why they think Cablevision will keep broadcasting for any significant length of time? The only reason they have done it to date is holding out hope for this service to be able to turn around. Unfortunately, they failed miserably, and it's over. There's no way that their customer base and programming have much value, so why would they continue broadcasting past at the very latest, the end of this month? Why wouldn't they stop the bleeding as quickly as possible?

 

[korsjs]

Skychat was talking about a possible takeover. I started the thread on Tuesday, a day before ,here on this forum so the credit belongs to Satelliteguys anyway. Here is the proof:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=43207

Sergio

what the last few people said. this was a rumor going on for a while.

 

[BFG]

Because they're crazy

 

[upNdown]

Scott,

I am in the finantial business and almost all the analysts involved with Echostar are saying that the top priority in using VOOM's assets will be the availability of HD LOCAL CHANNELS. According to comments in Wall Street, Dish now wants to be the first satellite co to offer HD local channels (ahead of Directv). Most likely they will use the resources to do something cable can now offer and they can't.
Don't expect improve on PQ (less compression), new hd movie channels or anything else that WE want.

Sergio

Makes sense. Just like delievering SD locals to middle America was a priority, so should delivering HD locals. You and I both know I can get my HD locals OTA with an antenna. But do you think my wife wants to get up and turn the rotor when Survivor ends and Apprentice begins? Nope.