Uplink Activity Report - 12/17/2008 4:02pm - 54 changes

Dish is waiting for (fill in the blank) to add more national HD.

-tp space
-contract negotiations
-industry trade show
-february price increases
-charlie chat
-earnings report
-retailer chat

The excuse just moves from one thing to the other.

You forgot "Compelling Content";)
 
As I have said before, Charlie is not going to add any more National HD until after the first of the year, since he would have to provide them to the HD Absolute customers. He wants the HD Absolute customer to switch over to one of the more expensive HD packages. So, he has to have some desired HD available that is not in the HD Absolute packages or we will not change. I will never change. I have all I need, I am not paying $20 more per month for a few more HD channels. He can kiss my A** before I will change.

I've said it before too, which is why I "made the bet" that those TMP channels were for Showtime. They are they only HD channels that wouldn't cost Charlie $$$.

But it's a little more basic than "wanting them to switch over to a more expensive package." Simply put, I believe the "HD Absolute" package was created with absolutely NO forethought. It's as if they never thought there would be more than 35 or so HD channels available. So they priced it too low and were stupid enough to promise you "every HD channel".

It's not a carrot to try to get you to switch. It's simple economics. Your package has become unprofitable, and as a result, they can't afford to give ANY of us new channels, because they made a stupid promise. Adding an HD feed of an existing channel costs them little to nothing to provide for those of us with SD packages. But for your package, it costs a lot. Do you know that out of your $20, about $5 of it is going to ESPN alone?

So enjoy your penny pinching package, and thanks for ruining it for the rest of us. ;) Can't wait for Jan 1st to scrape you HD leeches off my back.
 
No big national stuff until after Ciel-2 comes online in the next few weeks.

All of this nonsense about not bringing new national HD online has to be due to a lack of contracts on the part of Dish. Ciel-2 might bring additional capacity, but they've pulled down MPEG4 HD channels here and there and added HDPPV channels here and there; so it seems that the capacity is there, but the channels aren't available.

It seems to me that 'up to' means that Dish was hoping to have more channels under contract by the end of the year than what they were able to negotiate.

Any thoughts?

I am leaning more and more to the following theory:
DISH has more HD waiting in the wings, but does not want to publicly commit until they know Ciel2 is ready to rock and roll. Once they are certain of Ciel2, they will start a slow roll on HD to fill those reported HD slots. Hopefully once Ciel2 is operational they will move toward a big jump in HD offerings.

Cheers,
Red
 
You are missing the point that EchoStar 5 at 129 is dying, and Dish has no spares in orbit.

If Ciel-2 fails to replace EchoStar 5, then Dish would have to use every last scrap of space at 110/119 just to move the existing channels at 129 there.

Only when they know Ciel-2 is fine, can they add new channels.

There's no point to miss. :)

You are certainly entitled to your opinion, which is all your statements are. They are suppositions. You are creating scenarios that advance your position that it's everyone's fault but Charlie's that we don't have more national HD. I have no problem with that. But presenting that position as fact is another matter.

As I said, there has been absolutely no evidence presented that bears on the issues of whether or to what degree Ciel-2 is failing or what Dish's plans are in case it does fail. Face it: Ciel-2 has been rumored to be failing for more than a year now. If Dish was worried they wouldn't have a place to put channels they wouldn't have made any of the national HD launches they have over the last 12 months. And now that AMC-14 has gone by the boards, following your logic we wouldn't expect more national HD even if Ciel-2 grew wings.

My opinion is that Charlie is going to continue to try to squeeze as much out of providers as he can even if it means not launching new national HD and losing more subscribers. If he gets the contracts he wants they'll go up, regardless of Ciel-2. If not then they won't.
 
Hey, new HD for me today. Not that I ever watch the CW... speaking as a Showtime subscriber, I would very much enjoy more Showtime HD soon.
 
We know for a fact that the Echo5 momentum wheels have failed, and they are using precious rocket fuel to maintain attitude. At 148 they can let it cone all over the place and spray broad ocean areas with slates, and that will satisfy the FCC to keep their licenses.

So I'm with kstuart and others in thinking that a lot depends on Ciel-2. However, transpoders are free right now on both 129 and 61.5, so they could add something if they wanted to. Why nothing? :confused: I think they should throw us a bone and put some new channels on the uplink, even if they're not yet available. It would give us on Satelliteguys further pause before we flee en-mass to DirectTV.
 
We know for a fact that the Echo5 momentum wheels have failed, and they are using precious rocket fuel to maintain attitude. At 148 they can let it cone all over the place and spray broad ocean areas with slates, and that will satisfy the FCC to keep their licenses.

So I'm with kstuart and others in thinking that a lot depends on Ciel-2. However, transpoders are free right now on both 129 and 61.5, so they could add something if they wanted to. Why nothing? :confused: I think they should throw us a bone and put some new channels on the uplink, even if they're not yet available. It would give us on Satelliteguys further pause before we flee en-mass to DirectTV.

I don't think you're being unreasonable: as I say, no one here knows for sure to what extent, if any, the 129 satellite issues are bearing on the addition of new national HD. It certainly is possible they are playing some part but I seriously doubt, and certainly there is absolutely no evidence to support, that it's preventing Charlie from doing what he otherwise would as regards adding channels.

Let's face it: if it wasn't Ciel-2 it would be something else.

BTW: love your avatar. :)
 
I don't keep up with AK and HI stuff but didnt they just add quite a bit of HD to those spotbeams or maybe it is they are not available yet.
 
Satellite failure results in less space to add channels. This could be using this in their favor to buy more time to negotiate contracts until new satellites are launched. The ones that give them the best deal gets on the newest birds first.

Dish may not want to add channels just for them to be taken down and still have to pay the providers and have angry customers cancel because their channels got taken away.
 
I don't keep up with AK and HI stuff but didnt they just add quite a bit of HD to those spotbeams or maybe it is they are not available yet.

Not available yet. They were UPLINKED over a month ago. They did something similar with USAHD and SciFiHD. We could see the channels in our EPG, but weren't able to order or receive the 2 channels for well over 6 months.
 
Dish is waiting for (fill in the blank) to add more national HD.

-tp space
-contract negotiations
-industry trade show
-february price increases
-charlie chat
-earnings report
-retailer chat

The excuse just moves from one thing to the other.

Well said. And the erratic corporate behavior continues.
However, we're guaranteed more hyped cutesy package names with price increases.
 
Dish is waiting for (fill in the blank) to add more national HD.

-tp space
-contract negotiations
-industry trade show
-february price increases
-charlie chat
-earnings report
-retailer chat

The excuse just moves from one thing to the other.

Dish Network has never said any of those things.

You are just quoting Satellite Guys members .

Dish Network has never given any explanations or reasons for not adding a channel, at any point, in the last 12 years. ( When asked about a specific channel, the response is always "we are in negotiations".)

It's amazing how people here hold Charlie responsible for not doing things that Satellite Guys members say ! :rolleyes:
 
Dish Network has never given any explanations or reasons for not adding a channel, at any point, in the last 12 years. ( When asked about a specific channel, the response is always "we are in negotiations".)

In post http://www.satelliteguys.us/1618499-post2.html you might want to listen to the fle "possible additions.mp3". There Charlie does sound like he's not wanting to put up channels with a lot of upconvert content but wants channels with 24x7. At least that's what I take away from it.
 
6381(29) - KCWE [MPEG4 HD] added to Echostar12 61.5W TP 09 Area 8 beam (NA)(Kansas City, MO)
6381(29) - KCWE [MPEG4 HD] added to EchoStar5 129W TP 04 ConUS beam (NA)(Kansas City, MO)

Wow they added our local CW Channel here in KC. Of course it isn't lit up yet and the analog is really their HD version they just adjusted the Aspect ratio to be 4:3. Also this Monday, a couple days ago. KCWE turned off their Analog broadcast and supposedly are the first broadcast station in the country to shut off their analog and only go digital, so this may be the reason Dish is looking at adding it.
 
6381(29) - KCWE [MPEG4 HD] added to Echostar12 61.5W TP 09 Area 8 beam (NA)(Kansas City, MO)
6381(29) - KCWE [MPEG4 HD] added to EchoStar5 129W TP 04 ConUS beam (NA)(Kansas City, MO)

Wow they added our local CW Channel here in KC. Of course it isn't lit up yet and the analog is really their HD version they just adjusted the Aspect ratio to be 4:3. Also this Monday, a couple days ago. KCWE turned off their Analog broadcast and supposedly are the first broadcast station in the country to shut off their analog and only go digital, so this may be the reason Dish is looking at adding it.
Same thing in New Orleans. Fox8 turned off their analog monday and they are now digital only. I think somewhere in Carolina shut off their analog about a month ago, so i dont think your station was the 1st.
 
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Uplink Activity Report - 12/18/2008 5:42pm - 2 changes

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Uplink Activity Report - 12/17/2008 6:07pm - 5 changes

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