The Dish Network Universe will be paradise after CES
- Thread starter TNGTony
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The thing we really don't know is, even if those new satellites go up, what Dish plans to do with them. They may figure that they can make more money by expanding locals service; i.e. a new sub brings money in while all they'd be doing with more HD is keeping a few technology buffs from leaving.
If that turns out to be the tack they're taking they won't find out until it's too late that their decision will turn E* into a second-rate provider (actually, might even be third or fourth rate considering FIOS and certain cable systems). When AT&T turns their nose up Dish will have administered the coup de grace to itself (tough trick to accomplish, by the way).
I'm not saying that's what Charlie's doing, or that I hope that's what he's doing, because it would be tough for me to switch from Dish. But it CAN be done easier than Charlie thinks.
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If that turns out to be the tack they're taking they won't find out until it's too late that their decision will turn E* into a second-rate provider (actually, might even be third or fourth rate considering FIOS and certain cable systems). When AT&T turns their nose up Dish will have administered the coup de grace to itself (tough trick to accomplish, by the way).
I'm not saying that's what Charlie's doing, or that I hope that's what he's doing, because it would be tough for me to switch from Dish. But it CAN be done easier than Charlie thinks.
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Dish already covers 90+ % (is it actually 94 or 96%) of the US with locals coverage.
Understood, and I really haven't (and don't want to) figure out what additional revenue is there to get. Don't forget, there is also the prospect of attracting subs in markets they currently serve by offering that all-MPEG4
solution and replacing current satellite(s).
Who knows? And that's exactly the problem. Charlie could be planning to add more channels than D* has, and in full resolution/high-bitrate, but no one will know it. Perception is reality. By the time he decides to announce something there may be very few people there to listen.
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I've said it before and I'll repeat it again: Many companies do NOT announce their plans publically. What that does is gives the competition a chance to try and do the same or worse, beat them.
What if company "a" announces a cool new concept that takes company "b" totally by surprise ? "b" gets to work on implementing it also; "a" runs into an unforeseen glitch. In the end, "b" gets it out the door first !!! Now, what good did it do for "a" to pre-announce this ?
Where I work, we develop new products or improvements and only a handful of people know anything about it. When a salesman comes around, we tell them we're working on something else. It's not made public until it's ready for sale ! Also, not every project gets released. What Dish does or what happens with Dish is NOT unique. The problem is unrealistic expectations of a handful of customers. They're the same ones who don't understand why a low-level CSR doesn't know what the next HD channel Dish has on the table is... That CSR's boss doesn't know either (nor should they). If people want to cancel over this, so be it, but do it quick 'cause that CSR needs to take another call from someone signing up to take their place ! That reminds of many people using the word "churn" and I suspect they don't know what it means. It does NOT mean "losing" customers. When Dish loses 900 customers a day but sign up 900 or 925, they lost nothing.
You mean like D* announcing their HD plans?
Or Charlie announcing his "all MPEG-4" solution?
Come on. This isn't rocket science (although it does INVOLVE rockets). If I have a choice between a known quantity and an unknown quantity, both with the same mean, I'll take the known one. Of course you may be a risk lover. We'll each do what's best for us. I just think most people are risk averse.
I don't really care what happens to E*; I just do what's appropriate for me. Of course if EVERYONE feels that way then E* WILL lose subscribers. Businesses lose customers, shrink and fail every day; Dish is no different. It is just as susceptible to the power of the consumer as any other company.
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DISH has had their highest churn levels since 1997 this last quarter. There is every indication that this will continue since the housing market crisis is expected to get worse. No new houses sold no new installs for satellite, meaning that they may lose more subs than they gain this next quarter. Especially if they sit quiet like the sphinx saying nothing .
DIRECTV touted their general plans to have more hd for 2 years. THis did nothing but build anticipation for whether they would do more hd or not. They gave a general time frame which they missed by a week. They have also helped push many channels into doing hd versions before they were even ready based on DIRECTV's advertising campaign. THis advertising campaign also gave their hd subs something to look forward to in the future. Many a sub would stay with them no matter what because of what they heard was coming.
TEam Summit is more DISH's time to shine with plans and details but they don't have the luxury of waiting another 5 months to announce their plans. They need to address what is going on with the plans CHarlie Ergen announced last May at team summit. It wouldn't hurt to update subs and customers and give stock holders some idea of what is coming for the future. IT worked for DIRECTV.
Just in case you forgot his plans announced last May here is the thread.
www.satelliteguys.us/dish-netowrk-forum/96083-team-summit-general-assembly-notes.html
So tell us, how many of those have come to fruition ? Maybe they learned a lesson by announcing too much....
If Dish chooses to make announcements, they certainly can. Announcing that they plan to launch (2) satellites for MPEG4 service within 6-7 months is relatively safe though. That is one thing that the competition can't hurry up and beat them at. Then again, where are those (2) satellites right now ? December is over in days.... Yeah, yeah, I know it's not Dish's fault, so go back to my previous post and recall the words "unforeseen glitch".
LEts see Hall, the 722 came true. I am watching it right now . The external hard drive support came true. I have two externals right now on two of my receivers. The dvr advantage plan came true . My second DISH account has it for top 250 . The 612 didn't premier yet , but I see no reason for a single output dvr since we have the 622 /722 that can do the same thing in single mode.
As to the reason why the satellites haven't been launched yet, and they are ready to go , has been widely talked about. The launch sites that were supposed to launch the satellites had a rocket explosion that put all satellites launches behind. Even Directv has been effected by this and their second sat that will bring more locals has been delayed. Funny you talk about company plans announcements. Directv's latest sat that was launched this year and was supposed to provide hd locals had a failure as well. The national conus beams worked for national channels but not for locals. And yet I don't hear any one screaming about where's my locals ? Although they did screwup and take out the ota tuner in their latest hd receivers - jumped the gun on that one. But yes all companies are subject to "glitches" or unforseen circumstances out of their control.
As to the reason I think we will see those plans come true, Charlie publicly said last month that DISH will launch 3 sats in 2008. One will be the replacement for the 129 sat. HE also said this month that DISH will have 100 hd dmas or cities in 2008 . This goes hand in hand with what was posted they will have with the mpeg4 service. DISH has to compete with more hd. There is no reason that they won't do just that, once the new sats are launched in the spring and the spare sats doing nothing, are moved to new slots. Possibly the new slots at 86.5 and 97 as Scott G. speculated they would use. The fact that Echostar has a VIP service at the 85 slot doing just what CHarlie said they would do with a relaunch of DISH leads me to think that those slots maybe right? Look at the satellite part where they list the 85 slots.
EchoStar ViP-TV™
As to the reason why the satellites haven't been launched yet, and they are ready to go , has been widely talked about. The launch sites that were supposed to launch the satellites had a rocket explosion that put all satellites launches behind. Even Directv has been effected by this and their second sat that will bring more locals has been delayed. Funny you talk about company plans announcements. Directv's latest sat that was launched this year and was supposed to provide hd locals had a failure as well. The national conus beams worked for national channels but not for locals. And yet I don't hear any one screaming about where's my locals ? Although they did screwup and take out the ota tuner in their latest hd receivers - jumped the gun on that one. But yes all companies are subject to "glitches" or unforseen circumstances out of their control.
As to the reason I think we will see those plans come true, Charlie publicly said last month that DISH will launch 3 sats in 2008. One will be the replacement for the 129 sat. HE also said this month that DISH will have 100 hd dmas or cities in 2008 . This goes hand in hand with what was posted they will have with the mpeg4 service. DISH has to compete with more hd. There is no reason that they won't do just that, once the new sats are launched in the spring and the spare sats doing nothing, are moved to new slots. Possibly the new slots at 86.5 and 97 as Scott G. speculated they would use. The fact that Echostar has a VIP service at the 85 slot doing just what CHarlie said they would do with a relaunch of DISH leads me to think that those slots maybe right? Look at the satellite part where they list the 85 slots.
EchoStar ViP-TV™
Has Charlie or Dish said anything about the Sky Angel sat. that could come into play 2008?? I wonder if Charlie is thinking about launching hd on it sometime soon. No doubt with the last several uplink reports they are looking to open up more bandwith for more hd. The retailer chat back in October told us so. I wonder how long it will be before we see the results of this moving around.
They announced a LOT and you can only point out (3) of them that came true (so far) ? What about the others ?
Okay Hall. I am not playing this anymore. Believe what ever you want. Most of all that was posted in that thread EXCEPT the relaunch due to the sat launch site failures and the 612 have come true. All the locals they announced are up . THe dishonline is up , such as it is. The tr40 digital tuner isn't available till I am hearing February when the government sends out the $40.00 coupons offers. I only pointed out a few things that I personaly had come true. I am trying to be positive and offer DISH subs the positive, possiblities of what has been said and what will happen if the sats get up there. If all you want to do is tear it down , so be it.
I 'm moving on.:tux:
Did anyone catch what they're calling the birds at 85 and 105? There's 2 listed for 85, one of them shows as ViPTV 85, and the other is Echostar XVI as in Echostar 16. At 105 it shows Echostar XV or Echostar 15. What gives?
Anyone remember when Dish first started rolling out the 921 and they had that special deal where you could purchase one of two pretty lame HDTV sets to go along with it? As I recall they announced that at CES, as well as introducing their HD roadshow van which went around the country that year to fairs and tradeshows. That was back in 2003 IIRC.
I know I am not quite sure why one is called VIP and the other Echostar except it looks suspciously like the same slot or near enough at 86.5, that DISH will use for the relaunch of DISH in mpeg 4. Maybe the Vip is just for the cable end companies to use and the Echostar 16 will be used for DISH? I don't see any mention of 97, which was supposed to be the other sat slot used in the relaunch. Either way if they use the 85 slot it covers the entire U.S., Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico and Cuba. Looks like a great slot for the relaunch. IF they can indeed fit upto 200 hd channels on this sat along with all the rest of the existing programming that is up there now, no one should have a signal strength issues . Although I believe they are using Ku instead of dbs. This is why I wish Charlie would give us some details because this looks good for the future if it is connected to the relaunch of DISH in mpeg 4.
Has Dish mentioned anything at all on what they may do with the Sky Angel sat. that belongs to Dish?? I woner if that sat. may come into play for us in 2008.
Good questions. Actually, despite promises to their supporters, Sky Angel never built their own satellite. They are only using 2 transponders on Echostar 3 in exchange for giving Dish 6 transponders whose bandwidth was formerly granted to Dominion (Sky Angel) by the FCC. I believe all those frequencies have now been transferred to Dish. Nevertheless, we're only talking about 2 transponders more than Dish has control of right now.
