Directv Going To Lease Only On 3/1/06

[lovswr]

Ok, I'm stupid. Currently I have a regular Tivo, a H20 & 3 basic receivers. So instead of saying "mirroring fee" they will now show as "lease fee" for the same exact amounts that I am paying now. (Actually that sucks as I paid for all of them). Also the biggee for me. I pay for the repair Insurance. Since they will be "ostensibly" leased on 1 March 2006, will that go away? (I's about 7 bucks per month).

Now in my personnel opinion. This along with no more freaking HD content (I could care less about the so-called lite issue) this year is just about the last damn straw. Cable, here in Stockbridge, is Charter & even though I know they are about to go under any day now (or should with 20 Billion in debtr) I am so close to pulling that trigger

I was on Dish for 3 years & I 'm fed up with them too.


I can't believe I'm about to say this




Help me Ver-ri-zon-1 You're my only hope! (yes I know that BS will never let that happen, but I can have my Star Wars fantasy any way I want )

[charper1]

If you paid for and own your hardware there will be no change! If you add receivers to that or are a new user, mirror fees / lease fees, same thing. Its not a huge deal, but it now seem that with lease everyone leasing is in an automatic protection plan. This is no biggie to end users. Although I don't care to ever get used gear.

[mcbeevee]

Through the Lease Program, there is the possibility that customers may get reconditioned equipment.

Since I'm usually upgrading receivers every few years, the lease program might be cheaper for me ($5x24=$120) vs buying $200 receivers with a limited market for resale. If the mirroring fees go away, it would really save money. The new D* receivers are a little flaky, so the comment above worries me!

[turnerd]

What about the HD DVR upgrade - if you already own one and were supposed to get the upgrade.....do we give up the one we have paid for, so we can lease the new one I'm thinkin' something smells

[LonghornXP]

Besides all of this I've been hearing that the programming packages will be dropping in price a little bit. The biggest drop will be for total choice premier customers with local channels. They know they must redo their pricing to compete with cable packages. I've also got hints that HD customers might just get the HD Package at no extra cost. What is unknown is if that would only be free for total choice premier customers or for all HD customers. Again consider this all rumors as of now because pricing is still being looked at from different points and as such things might change for the worse or better. Just rest assured that programming prices are being looked over and are planned to be adjusted to compete with both upcoming FIOS and cable offerings.

They also have plans for a triple play offering as well. They are looking at getting the wireless internet (not satellite internet but wimax type internet) service going as quick as they can. They are also looking at testing VoIP over the wimax system as well for customers with and without internet service. They are looking at the biggest discounts going to customers who order the video, VOD (via Wimax), internet service and VoIP services. These are being put into place for the future.

Once 2007 comes around and the first of the last two satellites go up expect a massive increase in both HD picture quality and national HD offerings. Once the last satellite goes up they will offer as you know all local HD stations.

The future plans for around 2008 is to have the following in place below.

One all SD local channels will be gone as they will no longer be broadcasting anymore. This means that all existing non local SD channels will be given much much better picture quality. This will also free up more space for new things in the future if technology allows. All HD local channels can and will be offered along with all available national HD channels. Again contracts must be done but they will have the room for them all and tons of future offerings.

They will also have their own high speed internet service offerings along with full two-way VOD ability using the Wimax system. They will also offer VoIP services over the Wimax system. They will have a leased hardware system and a triple and a future quad-play bundled offering.

The only problem with all of this is that for the next two or so years DirecTV customers will have great drawbacks as this is one of the most major transition periods DirecTV has ever done in their history. All I can say is that these next two years will no doubt be quite a bit crappy but they are laying one great foundation for the future with such great promise. All of these steps when announced one at a time look small but when you look at all these small steps in the bigger overall picture you can see what they are doing.

This isn't making excuses for them but just pointing out how all of this is and will be falling into place. This stuff just doesn't happen overnight and any type of change this big will tick off tons of customers.

[The Tate]

Besides all of this I've been hearing that the programming packages will be dropping in price a little bit. The biggest drop will be for total choice premier customers with local channels. They know they must redo their pricing to compete with cable packages. I've also got hints that HD customers might just get the HD Package at no extra cost.

thats should kick dish in the a$$

[syphix]

Wow, Longhorn...that's a mighty rosey picture you paint for DirecTV. Where's all this coming from (just curious, an HDTV/DirecTV newbie)?? Once all these services (phone, "WiMax-like" internet/VOD etc. etc.) are in place, would DirecTV change their name?? Seems like they'd be offering many more services than just television, and might want to position themselves as a multi-media conglomerate..

[Stargazer]

The lease fee replaces the additional receiver fee so the fees are the same. Dish Network does this on DHA with their leased receivers.

I wonder when Dish Network will change everything to lease themselves. I am surprised this has not already been done.

So people that have used receivers and want to activate those or sell them to others.

I can see why DirecTv would want to do this. Just look at how much turnovers they do? The churn is so high that they would probably get most of the receivers back within 3 or 4 years. It would be important to get the hardware back if it is going to be expensive HD MPEG-4 hardware. By getting the hardware back they can invest more money into each peice of hardware and be able to use it over and over saving lots of money and it would make up for a lot of the extra cost of the receivers.

If DirecTv rearranges and drops the price on their packages then Dish is going to be hurting. DirecTv is already going to be $3 cheaper on their packages and if they drop the prices even more then it will probably be at least a $5 difference if not more. Murdoch is playing HARDBALL and Charlie is not going to like this one bit. Charlie will have to react or lose their customers to DirecTv. People WILL switch on a $5 difference in cost, trust me! I think Dish Network has some plans of their own but we have not heard them all yet. Are they going to use some of that spectrum that was bought a while back that allows companies to reuse the satellite frequencies?

[Scott Greczkowski]

I will add that I have heard rumblings of them dropping the cost of the HD pack for Total Choice Premiere customers, and in addition will soon be signing up beta testers for DirecTV Broadband.

[syphix]

Scott - broadband via satellite or DSL?