Special Charlie Chat Tonight

[bkimbler]

Talk about a tough year for Dish. Tivo Lawsuit, lost satellite, bad channel negotiations, missed HD roll out target, recently announced price increase....

Here's hoping to a better 2009.

[TRSmudge]

Charlie charges us $5.00 to get locals....
Why shouldn't the stations charge him?????

[Hall]

Charlie charges us $5.00 to get locals....
Why shouldn't the stations charge him?????

I've no doubt that the satellite and cablecos make a "profit" on the charges they get for locals, but I also consider that them providing this as a service to their customers, for which they should be compensated. For some people, who can't reliably get their locals via OTA, is $4.99/month worth it over the cost of buying and installing an antenna ? And what if their stations are in different directions and a rotor is req'd ?

The other thing is, satellite and cable no doubt "bring" the local stations substantially more viewers than they get via OTA. How many use OTA today ? I've seen the number as low as 12% and typically no more than 20%. Would the local stations want to give up 80-88% of their viewers ? Would they be willing to give the satellite and cablecos a cut of their advertising revenue ?

[Art7220]

Any "Chat" Chat or thread coverage?

There might be some Torrent coverage later.

[jerryez]

If Charlie is savings us so much money, who is getting it. Dish charges the same thing for channels as everyone else, maybe even more. Sounds like he is lining his own pockets with that money. You do not see D* or cable pulling channels off the air to save us money. Does Dish think we are that stupid.

[navychop]

Yeah, actually, you do. Read posts above.

[Hall]

If Charlie is savings us so much money, who is getting it.

Their response can be as simple as "instead of a $3/month price increase, it would be $4 or $5 or $6 or more if we didn't negotiate like we do".

You do not see D* or cable pulling channels off the air to save us money.

Uhhh, yeah, they do. Try again....

[tigerfan33]

While watching "Two and a Half Men", there was an ad running from CBS programming being yanked by Charter Jan.1, 2009. It gave two phone numbers to call if you have Charter.

See. It does not happen to just Charlie.

[teamw]

Charter is dropping ABC in the Norfolk area Dec 31 - Chan 13 wants a penny a day per subscriber.

[Joe Capitano]

Right. KMOV and WFAA both have spats with Charter right now (per tvnewsday.com - and you can add KING to that list as of tonight. This is obviously a Belo v Charter dispute.).

Meanwhile,The Chat just ended for the Fisher channels. The main news for those affected: $1 off your bill and a Freeview of Hallmark Movie Channel on channel 63 for the duration.

Other than that, no Earth-Shattering Breaking News. Just the usual statements you'd expect from the E* side.