Live Retailer Chat Recap - October 16, 2008

[Scott Greczkowski]

Welcome to another SatelliteGuys Live Retailer Chat Recap!

As always this chat recap is done in near realtime, but not in 100% realtime as I watch via a Slingbox and pause and rewind things so that I can grab screenshots for you.

We only cover the information that you the consumer could find out by calling your local Dish Network retailer after the chat to find out whats new. We do not discuss dealer sensitive issues, such as costs and profits.

Thanks for being SatelliteGuys members, the chat will start shortly!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Jim and Tom Welcome us to todays chat.

They run down what they will be talking about on todays chat and it looks like no national HD news.

Jim starts by talking about the economy and how it effects Dish Network. Jim says Dish is well positioned a large amount of debt was paid off, they have positive cash flow and their next large debt payment is 3 years from now. Dish is taking in more cash then they are spending.

Jim says customers will stop going to movies and out to eat and instead will stay home and watch their Dish Network service.

Jim says retailers need to find good paying customers and keep them.

Jim once again says there is no better entertainment value then Dish Network.

Jim talks about all the retailer terminations they have had and says more are coming.

He said some controls and stop measures are being put in place to stop fraud and when they are in place better new customer promotions will be coming.

Jim then talks about AT&T and how it will effect them, he says that AT&T has given them a big amount of new customers but they will continue to move on.

Jim says that the digital conversion is going to be huge for Dish and business will pick up because of it

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

They start talking about Eastern Arc. A bunch of slides are shown (see below) of upcoming cities and locals coming to Eastern Arc.

Once again Jim tells us the benefits of Eastern Arc, he says that soon markets will be moving from 110/119/129 to Eastern Arc which will allow them to add more west coast markets to the existing satellites.

Dallas is going to be moving back to Western Arc, however retailers should be installing Dallas customers on EA until October 31st. (huh?!)

Dish has another satellite launch in December, which they are looking forward to.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Tom starts talking about ESPN Full Court Basketball, it is $99 this year.

Next up some PPV events which are coming this month on Dish, a boxing match between Pavlik and Hopkins, WWE Cyber Sunday & UFC 90.

Now into new international programming, GMA Pinoy Package which is $19.99 a month and comes with 4 channels (two of them radio channels), A Pinoy Mega Pack for $23.99.

They talk about Commercial Turbo HD packages. Packages start at $39.99 for commercial customers.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Now onto Marketing, and they are once again joined by Phil Klein

They are going to once again advertise that they are the television value leader. They feel in this economy that they should focus on what a value Dish Network is.

They show some marketing material for Q4, which does not appear to have any new HD listed (hard to see though) but not a good sign (my opinion)

 

[Jim S.]

Jim says retailers need to find good paying customers and keep them.

Do these people listen to the crap they're spewing?!

What do the retailers have to do with it? Dish needs to start providing channels people want at a price they're willing to pay!

 

[VinceT3]

Dish's customer base is going fall like their stock at this rate..

 

[whitewolf8214]

charlie is so shallow he makes paris hilton look deep

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Jim and Tom are back and they tell us what a great deal TurboHD is and they want retailers to pass the word to customers that TurboHD works on ANY teleivision they dont need an HDTV to enjoy TurboHD.

Its time for the best part of any retailer chat... ITS LESLIE HARPER!

She reminds techs when setting up an eastern arc dish to peek the dish on 72.7.

She also announced that engineering has worked on a solution and when the new satellite is at the 77 degree location customers will not need to run a check switch on their receiver to pick up content from the 77 degree location.

Receivers hooked up to a Dish 1000.4 will automaticlly run a check switch at night in its nightly maintance window so when 77 is in place it will be added automatically.

Leslie talks about how USB storage has been renamed "My Media"

Next month the REAL Tech Forum returns with Mark Jackson and Dan Minnick! (Yippie!) it will air on November 10th at 9PM ET. Topics will include upcoming receivers and remotes, new and upcoming Sling Products, External Hard Drive informtation, ethernet connectivity and more. Plus live questions from customers as well. (I am so glad to see that they are not going to give us what they did last time!!)

Finally Leslie then talks about the DTVPal Plus and mentions that it has a slightly better tuner and that it MAY give you better reception.

 

[harshness]

We'll know more come November 3rd when they do their Q3 conference call.

 

[HDRoberts]

Jim says customers will stop going to movies and out to eat and instead will stay home and watch their Dish Network service.

I hope Charlie remembers this come Q3 earnings call and not blame subscriber losses on the economy.

Glad for the old tech chat. However, I wouldn't have minded if Leslie stuck around to cohost the show, provided they actually tried to provide some useful data.

 

[tawhite]

I don't know why you guys get so boned up about Leslie. I mean it's better than looking at Jim but still.

Anyway, another day of nothing from Dish!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Next up they talk about Wildblue Internet service and how great it is... Only two areas in the US with capacity issues.

They then talk about changes to qualifying customers... Nothing of interest here...

Now a special guest from the SBCA Joe Widoff the Executive Director of the SBCA. Joe tells us why he thinks the SBCA is so great for the industry. (Hey Joe... what can the SBCA do for us here at SatelliteGuys? )

Joe is trying to sell memberships to the SBCA, for only $299 you too can be a member of the SBCA.

 

[ahope577]

Does the renaming of the EHD to "my media" have anything to do with the sling tie in as the new sling catcher has a streaming feature also cunningly titled "my media" ??

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

On to question time now... this means this retailer chat is over. However sometimes there is a good question.

First question is why is there a smart card swap, Jim says that they are protecting signal integrity. Just because a customer has a cardless unit there is a smartcard slot there for upgrades like these.

I will keep monitoring things if there is something interesting in questions...

Thanks for being SatelliteGuys!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Well thats it... Another chat in the books.

 

[mike123abc]

Classic mistake in the slides... Wichita Falls is in TX, Wichita is in KS....

The Dallas market is strange, install EA until the 21st then go back to WA? One would think they would simply use line of site to choose.

I wonder how many problems they are going to generate doing a checkswitch every night. I seem to have seen a lot of issues with checkswitch. Maybe it is just the DPP44 that gets the receivers confused every now and then.

 

[HDRoberts]

So, are Dallas locals staying on 61.5 to feed the few customers that will be on Eastern Arc? I don't see how there can be more than a few hundred.

I guess no new HD until the earnings call

 

[huskerpat]

And no firm word on what they'll be doing with customers who are currently using WA and are in markets changing to EA?

I really don't want a second dish on my roof because they've changed my service.

 

[KAB]

Now onto Marketing, and they are once again joined by Phil Klein

They are going to once again advertise that they are the television value leader. They feel in this economy that they should focus on what a value Dish Network is.

They show some marketing material for Q4, which does not appear to have any new HD listed (hard to see though) but not a good sign (my opinion)

Up and to right of Phil's left shoulder, there is a Fox logo, but I can't make out the right portion of it.