SatelliteGuys Live Recap - Dish Retailer Chat 2/4/09

[Scott Greczkowski]

Hello and welcome to SatelliteGuys.US coverage of today's Dish Network retailer chat!



As always all information recapped is non dealer sensitive information, Ie information you could find out from your local retailer if you called them (and if they watched the chat.)

With all the HD additions this week, this could be an exciting chat, as just maybe Dish Network will give its retailers a roadmap of where they are going with HD. But then again they could give us nothing, but no matter what we will recap what is covered for you!

I want to thank our pub members for their support of SatelliteGuys, as in this economy and with the internet ad market being what it is we would not be here without the support of these members. So if you post a message today be sure to thank a pub member. They really are the true reason why we still exist today as they help us keep the lights on!

This recap will be done in near real time, I am watching via a Slingbox and can pause and rewind things, because of this the recaps are normally delayed 10 minutes or so. This thread normally stays locked until after I post the first update from the chat. Thank you for your understanding!

Thanks for making SatelliteGuys YOUR first choice for Satellite News and Information. More people (and competing sites) get their satellite news from SatelliteGuys then any other source.

[Scott Greczkowski]

In a strange move, at 11:45 Dish Normally goes to screens telling retailers about contact numbers and how to call into the chat, but at 11:45am they instead showed a 2 min ad for A&E then went to a Q1 Promotions video.

I don't believe this is the start of the chat, but I will keep you informed.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok the ads were just ads for Dish U, Dish Networks online training center for retailers. The slides are now running like they normally do and the Retailer Chat will start in about 10 minutes.

[Scott Greczkowski]

And here we go, its another Retailer Chat, we are welcomed by Jim Defranco and New VP of Sales & Distribution Steve McElroy.

Steve has been with Dish for 13 years. Jim welcomes Steve to his new post.

Jim tells us they have a lot to cover today.

The new promotion is working well, higher call rates and and closing rates with the new promotion.

They then go over what they will be talking about today on the chat.

They start by talking about Team Summit event in May...

[Scott Greczkowski]

And wouldn’t you know it, the database server got stuck running a backup which took SatelliteGuys down for a few minutes, but that’s ok as while I was fixing things they were showing highlights of past Team Summit videos, so nothing exciting to report there.
They announce that motivational speaker Orvel Ray Wilson will be speaking at Team Summit. Now showing a video of Mr. Wilson speaking.
Note still working on the server.

[Scott Greczkowski]

And wouldn’t you know it, the database server got stuck running a backup which took SatelliteGuys down for a few minutes, but that’s ok as while I was fixing things they were showing highlights of past Team Summit videos, so nothing exciting to report there.
They announce that motivational speaker Orvel Ray Wilson will be speaking at Team Summit. Now showing a video of Mr. Wilson speaking.
Now talking about classes given at Team Summit. So far this has been all about Team Summit, with our server issue you haven't missed anything.

[M Sparks]

Yer stuck...

[tjwgrr]

Server to be fixed soon.

[dahenny]

Looks more like a DoS from us peons.

[Scott Greczkowski]

After talking about Team Summit for a half hour they go into talking about the Q1 promotions.

The Cinemax 1 year for a penny promotion has been extended.

Dish is offering free locals for 1 year for all Free For All new customers who subscribe to DishFAMILY or higher and the $5/month locals package. 12 monthly credits of $5 each will be applied. (*Latino Packages not included)

HD Locals Market Launches: Launching on February 18th: Cedar Rapids, IA; Champaign, IL; Dayton, OH; Fresno, CA; New Orleans, LA; Toledo OH. Launching February 25th Charleston, SC; Colorado Springs, CO; El Paso, TX; Savahhah, GA; Tallahasse, FL; Tri Cities, TN/VA.

Scheduled to Launch sometime in March include: Albany, Ga; Deluth, MN; Indianapolis, IN; Palm Springs, CA; Santa Barbra, CA; Bakersfield, CA; Erie, PA; Lafayette, LA; Peoria, Il; Sherman-Ada Tx/OK; Boise, ID; Eugene, OR; Las Vegas, NV; Roanoke, Val Sioux City, IA; Chico, CA; Fargo ND; Monterey, CA; Reno, NV; Yakima, WA; Corpus Christi TV, Harlingen, TX; Montgomery, AL; Rockford, IL, Youngstown, PA/OH.

HD Locals coming after March, Baton Rouge, LA; Ft. Smith, AR; Great Falls, MT; Medford, Or; Panama City, FL; Butte MT; Ft. Wayne IN; Idaho Falls, ID; Meridian, MS; Sious Falls, SD; Cheyenne, WY; Gainsville, FL; Johnstown, PA; Minot, ND; Terre Haute, IN; Columbus, OH; Grand Junction, CO; La Crosse, WI; Missoula MT; Twin Falls, ID; Columbus-Tupelo, MS; Ft. Smith AR; Laredo, TX; Odessa, TX; Wausau, WI.

Now onto the Price Increase. Dish feels they are still the low price leader.

Jim says they raised prices for 2 reason, the cost of programming has gone up and they have continued adding programming. They play on the fact that some packages such as DishFamily, Dish Mexico, Turbo HD Add On, Starz / Sinemax and Showtime have had no price change and in fact DishLatino CLasico and higher’s price has gone down.

In 2008 Dish added 41 more national HD channels, 25 PPV channels, VOD and specials in HD. Plus in 2008 Dish added 49 more HD local markets, 6 SD channels and 1080p Movie on Demand and Turbo HD.

Talk about new national HD added this week, Crime and Investigation HD, Fox Business News (HD) and Fox News HD. Plus they announce that coming this spring the following new national HD channels… BET, BETJ, Comedy Central, CMT, MTV, Nickelodeon, Spike TV and VH-1.

Jim says more national HD is coming besides the ones listed above.
Dish will have special offers for existing customers who are impacted by the price change. Turbo HD Silver or Gold customers can get $10 Dish Dollars in Billing statement (must be mailed in to redeem). DishDVR advantage 200 with phone line or broadband connected or solo DVR receiver will receiver a $3/ month credit through the end of the year. Americas Everything Pack customers get nothing.

They note the monthly fees and the fact that that the HD enabling fee went down by $2 a month.

They throw it to Phil Klein in Marketing. Phil shows the new Existing customer price increase notice they will be sending out. He then goes into the new “Come on Get Happy” ads. The new ads are shown.

Back to Jim and they start talking about the new 722k and the reason why they are selling the OTA module separate. The 722k will be launching in the next few weeks. Then they toss things over to Leslie Harper who tells us more about the 722k. She tells us its like the 722 but has the new 21.0 remote and the ota tuner cartridge. Leslie then tells us the function to back up settings and timers to the new remotes is almost ready and walks us through how to do it. New feature coming soon to the 612, 622 and 722 the Custom Groups feature which is a folder like feature. Dish 211’s will soon support Terabyte hard drives and will have new menu options. She tells us about next week’s Tech Chat which happens on Monday Night at 9PM Eastern Time. And that does it for Leslie. (She took a long time but had a lot of great information!)

And that wraps up the Retailer Chat!

Sorry about the server issues.