if you recall founder bob Johnson planned on spreading the word via skyangel SATELLITE as per his vision.
When he had this idea, there was no concept of having highspeed internet in the majority of people's homes. It would be silly to require people to stay true to a vision that has had more light shed on it to show how the overall vision can be achived. Moving to IPTV seems more feasible in achieving the overall goal, than their current offering given their money mismanagement/financial issues.
He wanted to reach the rural areas. something that IPTV clearly can not do right now.
I disagree. Most rural areas have access to high speed internet. Maybe not in america, but do some reading on how other countries have setup highspeed wireless networks for rural (and low-income!) areas - actually read up on the OLPC project that was founded partially on the concept of developing wireless networks to connect children via cheap laptops in 3rd world countries.
Not only is IPTV viable in a huge amount of the world (say hundreds/thousands of times the number of households currently able to be served by their one satellite), but it's cheap, flexible, and convenient.
I would not be surprised to learn that skyangel canada is not fairing well these days. they have recently waived the activation fee, offered first month free (2 months if you commit for a year) and internet viewing is now included as well. why make these changes that cost them $ if skyangel is such a big hit in canada?
That's called marketing. They've been in Canada for awhile now, so they change their market strategy every once in awhile. Did they ever change their offering and/or pricing for satellite?
I am sure these changes are not "costing" them anything. The cost of an internet distribution us virtually nothing (per person) to them. Any fees lost due to making these offers is gained through reduced advertising requirements (at least every company that I've ever worked with used their marketing budget to offset the costs of gaining/keeping a customer through price incentives)
another odd thing, I can no longer access the canadian site, it takes you back to american. some sort of cookie perhaps...........
Could be, or maybe they are shifting directions temporarily as they ramp up distribution to America, and their website is now reflecting that
