at the risk of getting bashed forever.... I Love Dish....

**Hemi 6.1** · 11-16-2008 04:54 PM

Originally Posted by JonE

I have the HD Absolute package, Locals, and all the Premiums.!

Well I would say far more people do care about that stuff, Since E* has less then 2 Million total HD customers.

**kylekatarn** · 11-17-2008 12:17 AM

Not only am I an installer, but customer too...lol

**vampz26** · 11-17-2008 12:52 AM

Originally Posted by JonE

That's exactly it for those who could give a rat's ass about sports outside my local market. All that wasted bandwidth on something I'll never watch. I follow the local teams in three sports (Broncos, unfortunately, and the Rockies and Avalanche, yes I'm a glutton for punishment). And the only other non-market team I follow (The Red Sox) are on National TV every 24 hours or so during baseball season. Dish has more than enough sports for me, the casual sports fan. While DirecTV is at it, they can have NBA and NHL exclusively as well since they already have baseball and NFL. All the more bandwidth available for More HD.

And the same problems most of you have had with E*, I've had in the past with D*, billing issues, double charges, charges I never knew about, and the signal crapped out constantly everytime a fly landed on the dish and farted. Dish has had some signal issues, but not nearly the frequency DirecTV did. Plus the 722 is fantastic for someone like me who doesn't watch a lot of live TV. And the times I have called Customer Service, the agent has been very helpful, courteous, and knew their stuff, and if they didn't know it, they asked someone who did and I had an answer before I hung up.

I have the HD Absolute package, Locals, and all the Premiums. The same package on Comcast would cost me upwards of $100, only $65 on Dish, even if it goes up with Turbo and my local RSN(s), it will still be lower than Comcast. And don't even get me started on Comcast!

+100

Seriously, the reason I left D* YEARS ago is because I felt like their sports package customers were their only valued customers....everyone else just 'got what they gave them'...which wasn't much....

And if you look at D*'s greatest protagonists around here, all you get from them is "sports pack, sports pack, sports pack...EVERYONE BOW DOWN AND WORSHIP THE GREATNESS OF THE ALMIGHTY SPORTS PACK!!!" And if you don't care...well...then who cares? lol...the poor and unenlighted to not understand the greatness of the sportspack.

The only reason I'm still with E* today, is for lack of any compelling reason to switch...thats it...and if I do switch, it will be more likely because D* added Voom before it will ever be on the basis of some overpriced sports pack.

...or E* crashes and burns...whichever comes first.

**Hemi 6.1** · 11-17-2008 08:30 AM

Originally Posted by vampz26

...or E* crashes and burns...whichever comes first.

That may happen.

**msmith198025** · 11-17-2008 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by Hemi 6.1

That may happen.

Current path makes it very likely (long term). Hopefully they will see this and make the needed changes

**vampz26** · 11-17-2008 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by Hemi 6.1

That may happen.

You know, six monthes ago I would have had to respectfully disagree...but today? I'm afraid that anything can happen...

Even with some of these lawsuits some of us love to banter about. If E* hasn't appropriated sufficient cash to settle these things "just in case", it will not be good. IF E* is required to sell off any assets or even company stock in the near future to cover any significant debt, the amount required would equal a significantly larger percentage of the company's worth than it would have about a year ago, in effect...costing E* over twice as much in the long run.

For example, if X dollars would have bought you 10 percent of the company a year ago, that same X dollars would buy you 20 percent of the company now, while X remains a constant. Which means if E* has to sell off any assets NOW to cover any of this nonsense thats been going on for a while...not good.

Not good at all...

**Quantum** · 11-17-2008 10:16 AM

Ya, Dish is pretty well underwater. According to
this

, Book Value is -$4.763/share, and so they are insolvent.

E* carries roughly $6.5 billion in debt, charging between 3% and 8%. D* has $6.1 billion in debt, charging between 6% and 8.4%. Similar yes, but D* wins because it has nearly twice the cash that E* does. Balance sheets matter. D* has a decent one, E* doesn't.

When Dish and Echostar split in January, Dish got most of the debt and Echostar got most of the tangible assets. So from a debt survival perspective the split puts most of the risk on the Dish half of the company. Dish does still however have most of the external income, with a subscriber base of about 13m. This new structure has definitely proven bad for the company; a hollow shell always gets the short end, even as it's the customer connection and the vital economic engine.

Oh, Charlie could bail out the debt? Nah, his net worth is in the stock, and as the companies wither, pfffft.

I used to like E* alot better than D*. But there has been a turn toward callousness and an attitude of punishment toward employees, suppliers, and contractors, the very ones in front of customers. Would it be a Bad Thing if E* went away? Certainly.