March 12 Retailer Chat Recap

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yesterday Dish Network held a retailer chat. Unfortunately I forgot about it and when I found out it was on the chat was almost over. Because of this I had to wait for a replay to be aired.

So now I am watching the replay and reporting items of interest from this retailer chat.

I apologize for the delay in getting this retailer chat recap up, but the good news is not much of anything to report.

The show opens and they start talking about Team Summit. A bulk of the first half of the show is dedicated to Discussing Team Summit which is Dish Networks big retailer event which will be held this year in Denver.

From there they go and talk about channel launches, and start with HD local cities which have launched in February. Jim says in about 90 days there will be a bunch more HD local launches and a few of them will be simulcast on both Eastern Arc and Western Arc however no list is given.

They then go over the national HD channel launches. Jim says that they are looking at serveral HD expansions over the next few months. Then a slide is shown is the next wave of HD channels coming (all the Viacom channels). Jim says more national HD is coming.

After that they switch to talking about marketing (nothing really exciting here)

They then talk about DSL and Wildblue sales... again nothing important here...

Dish Network will be updating their website for retailers (about damn time!) so that it support IE 7, Firefox, Safari and Netscape. Currently the website only worked correctly with IE 6, so this is a major step forward!

They then talk about dealer fraud.

From there they talk about the Smart Card upgrade going on. Whats interesting is they say they can not send smart cards to PO Boxes. May 1st is the deadline for upgrading commercial accounts. Some services such as adult and premium will be switched over to the new security within the next few weeks. The complete switchover will be done by the start of Q3.

From there they go to commercial sales talk then into questions which then wraps up the show.

[Fiveft20in]

Whats interesting is they say they can not send smart cards to PO Boxes.

Funny - they sent my smart cards to my PO box.

[Lt Disher]

Whats interesting is they say they can not send smart cards to PO Boxes.

And yet, they seem to have no problem sending bills to the PO Boxes.

[Scott Greczkowski]

The PO box thing might just be for retailers as they are shipping them boxes of smart cards, not just envelope containing 1 or 2.

[HDRoberts]

They then go over the national HD channel launches. Jim says that they are looking at serveral HD expansions over the next few months. Then a slide is shown is the next wave of HD channels coming (all the Viacom channels). Jim says more national HD is coming

Well, that's specific

Viacom is a nice start, but since they have the bandwidth, they need to match DirecTV with FX, Speed, and Fuel. They also need to get with Rainbow and set aside the Voom debacle long enough to get IFC and AMC. Unfortunaltey, from what he has said about Fisher, Dish won't sign a contract with someone suing them.

Also, why never any talk about some new SD channels? Logo, Sprout, American Life, etc.?

[Fiveft20in]

The PO box thing might just be for retailers as they are shipping them boxes of smart cards, not just envelope containing 1 or 2.

Duh. That makes sense.

[M Sparks]

Funny - they sent my smart cards to my PO box.

Me too. There's no USPS home delivery where I live, they would have to FedEx or UPS it.

[billymac]

That's not good. Erie, PA isn't on any of those lists, even though it was in the March list on Charlie Chat.

[jerryez]

I see they moved Tucson,AZ from soon to April 1st.

[nelson61]

. Jim says in about 90 days there will be a bunch more HD local launches and a few of them will be simulcast on both Eastern Arc and Western Arc however no list is given.

I'm guessing that would fit in with the arrival of E1 at 77W (16 transponders for US) which is scheduled for May 22 (FCC filing).