Welcome to SatelliteGuys.US and our coverage of the 2007 Dish Network Team Summit.
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The Dish Network Team Summit Opened with a video showing the Dish Network Nascar team and all of the success they have had this year.
After the video is done "REX" a animated face appears on the screen. Rex welcomes us to Team Summit and then introduces Charlie Ergen.
Charlie comes out and welcomes us to Dish Networks Team Summit, and announced that this years team summit is the 10th Team Summit event they have had.
At the first Team Summit in 1986 Charlie said his vision was a Dish in every Home.
Today is is modifying this vision, which now is.
A Dish in Every Home
A DVR in Every Home
HDTV in Every Home
Broadband in Every Home
Charlie tells the attendees that the oportunities for DIsh Network and retailers have never been better.
Dish Network is the leader is Digital Delivery with a fleet of 15 satellites.
In addition he lands a major bombshell.
Dish Network will be launching two new satellites by this December.
On these two Satellites they will be relaunching Dish Network in FULL MPEG4. All current Dish Network Channels will be available in full MPEG4. And everything will be receivable with just one 18 inch dish.
On these two satellites they will be able to offer the following:
200 LIL Cities in Standard Definion
HD Locals to 100 Cities
200 National HD Channels
1000 Standard Definition Channels
200 International Channels.
Again all on one 18" Dish with one cable coming into your house.
Charlie is very proud of this announcement and its another first for Dish Network. Other Firsts include...
First IRD (Intergrated Receiver, Descrambler)
First DVR
First Dual Tuner
First MPEG4
First HD DVR
Charlie then talks about broadband and talks about Wildblue, Dish DSL and also announces that WIMAX will be coming soon.
Charlie talks about programming and says how Dish offers the most choice anywhere. He said he would love to sell all channels ala carte but the programmers wont let him.
In the last year Dish has captured 52% of all new Satellite subscribers, and in the last 5 quarters has outpaced DirecTV by 58%.
Charlie wraps up by telling the retailers that Opportunity has never been greater.
With that Charlie wraps up and REX introduces Leslie Harper.
Leslie comes out and shows us how to use the new features on the 622.
She also tells us that DishCOMM has been turned on in the 622's and will soon be turned on in the 211, this will allow all the boxes to talk to each other.
With that Mark Jackson comes out and joins Leslie Harper on stage.
The QAM QBOX will work with the 622 and 211 this summer, this will be the first time dealers can install HD in a QAM enviroment.
He then tells us about a few of the new receivers coming out. the ViP 222 which is like a Dish 322 but it does HD.
The 612 is a Dual Tuner DVR that feeds out to one TV.
The 722 will have a 500 gig hard drive and will also supposet HD VOD.
He then talks about DishONLINE and how simple it is to wire using DishCOMM / Homeplug technology.
External Storage will be available this summer and currently it will support hard drives up to 750 GB. He explains that external sorage will help Dish reduce churn as customer who fill up external hard drives are not going to leav dish, as they will not be able to view their recorded libraries anywhere else.
He then showed us that we can turn a Dish 211 into a DVR by hooking up an external hard drive. He said it would act like a Dish 510 reciver and would do trick play (pause rewind fast forward) and also do a 9 day EPG. Again he said it would be like a Dish 510 receiver but in high definition.
He then talks about the Echostar TR40 which will be an Off Air Digitial Tuner which will convert digital off air signals and will convert those signals so a regular SDTV can view them. These receivers are eligible for the goverments $40 coupon program, in fact the TR in the TR40 stands for Transition and the 40 in TR 40 means $40 coupon compliant.
They then showed the new Dish Pro Plus 33 Switch, which can do 3 orbital locations and feed 3 receivers. It needs no power inserter and its not trunkable.
Leslie and Mark went off stage so Rex introduces us to Carl Vogel, the president and Vice Chaiman.
Carl urges retailers to stay focused on the customer.
Dish Network has the fastest growth in pay tv.
And unlike Direct TV, Dish has been owned and run by the same company since birth, while DirecTV gets sold off every few years.
Dish is the leader in HDTV and Dish will continue to be the leader in HD.
Carl tells us that in October 2007 the Program Access law will expire and how important it is that congress renews this act.
Next out come Eric Sahl, VP of Programming and Bobby Billman VP of marketing.
They talk about Local Marketing.
Then they talk about the NFL and how Dish offers more football then cable at half the price of Digtal Cable.
NFL Network is in Dish Networks Base package.
The then say what better way to have a football fan show his dish and his team pride with Dish Covers by DishSkinz, which are a plastic cover which attaches to your Dish. (These are great I have two of them already!)
They talk about Nascar.
They talk about PPV and mention that they are close with deals with Sony and Fox to offer their libraries on PPV and VOD.
They will be launching Showtime and Stars Subscription VOD service later this year.
They talk about Dish Online and mention remote DVR programming.
They then announce Cinemax HD is launching today (when they announced it the channel was already available for about 45 minutes, I was happy to see this one!)
They announced upcoming HD Local Cities
Anchorage, AL 6/7
Juneau, AL 6/7
Fairbanks, AL 6/7
Honolulu, HI 6/7
Birmingham, AL - This Summer
Oklahoma, OK - This Summer
Wilmington, ND in SD this Summer
Next up come Jim Defranco and Erik Carlson, who talk about Dealer stuff and issues. They tell retailers how to get a customer and keep a customer.
Some things of interest to you the consumer are as follows:
Dish DVR Advantage is changing on June 1st.
Credit Card Auto Pay will no longer be required
No 18 Month commitment is requires
In addition AT 250 will be available with Dish DVR Advantage for $59.99
In addition they are simplifying the premium packages with Dish DVR Advantage.
So if you have Dish DVR advantage with AT 200 for $49 a month you can get premiums at
2 Premium Service for $20 more
3 Premium Services for $30 more
4 Premium Service for $40 more
And in a way to upsell you to AT250 for $59 a month you can get premiums for...
1 for $10
2 for $20
3 for $30
4 for $40
And plus you can add HD to any of the above for only $20 more a month.
With that they wrapped up and introduced Al Gore, who gave a great (and funny speach) If he acted this human when he was running for president he would have won the ellection.
And that wrapped up the General Assembly.
Now I am headed down to the Expo Floor and will be takinig LOTS of pictures.
Stay Tuned. And again thanks for your continued support!
digiblur's note: If you are going to quote this message, please refrain from quoting the entire message. 
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