Dish and Fox Making Up?

[mitchflorida]

Dish like most of the cable/sat providers are having problems retaining customers as the subscriber base starts shrinking. That isn't even new news. Dish's net profit average per sub is around the $7 mark I believe. So the loss of a sub is a loss of $84 of profit or thereabout.

Just to point one thing out. In 2013, dish averaged $4.74/sub/month. That's after all expenses. That is net gain. Assuming every customer is worth the same value, Dish is LOSING a net gain of just over $5M(this is based on that dumbassery statement by Tim Carry from Fox). Considering they made a net gain last year of around $806M, and adding on additional services and customers, even with the high cost acquisition rate, Dish is still coming out profitable. And if you want to claim stock holders are going to base their decisions on customer subscriptions, then more subs with contracts(and even no contracts on Sling TV), means more happy stock holders. This is not the case, but based on what you said, these are the holes you need to fill before spouting off about this. Look at the entire financial report, not just one or two numbers. You might be shocked that the folks who get paid to analyze them and make company wide decisions... Might actually know what they are doing.

You folks seem to live in a fantasy world where each of Dish's 14 million customers contribute exactly $4.74 a month in profits. Some long-time customers with premium programming and sports packages and many receivers are very profitable, making $80 or more a month. The short term, new customer isn't profitable at all, and won't be for at least a year or two. It certainly isn't a matter of one size fits all. There are some very lucrative customers, some who barely break even, and some who don't pay their bills who cost Dish lots of money.

The Fox News viewer who cancelled tend to be older, wealthier, paid their bills in timely manner, and were real cash cows for Dish. Lets stop pretending that each of dish's 14 million customers are equally profitable for Dish. I would also like to see how those figures are arrived at. Sure, after all the fat salaries of Charlie and the suits at Corporate HQ are paid, there is relatively little "profit" for the shareholders. But that is all very much by design, and is how many big corporations are run, to enrich the executives. And thus report lower profits to the shareholders or the taxman.

 

[lparsons21]

Lots of assumptions there with no facts to back them up. How do you know they are subscribed to higher levels? Not only that, you don't actually know how many cancelled at all. Hell, I doubt anyone actually does because those that dropped Dish during this did not all drop it because of the FNC/FNB dispute.

I would think E* would have a pretty good idea, but beyond that it is just wild-ass-guessing with the slant applied that makes you happy!

 

[mitchflorida]

People canceling were indeed asked why they were leaving, so Dish knows exactly who cancelled and why. I even got a special email from them. Dish won't release the information until February 20th, so let's hold judgement until then.

Peace.

 

[lparsons21]

People canceling were indeed asked why they were leaving, so Dish knows exactly who cancelled and why. I even got a special email from them. Dish won't release the information until February 20th, so let's hold judgement until then.

Peace.

If you're expecting to see how many actually cancelled over Fox in the February report, you're gonna be disappointed I suspect. Actually I would like to know how many cancelled because of FNC/FNB myself because as much as you are convinced it was huge, I'm equally convinced it wasn't.

 

[AZ.]

If you're expecting to see how many actually cancelled over Fox in the February report, you're gonna be disappointed I suspect. Actually I would like to know how many cancelled because of FNC/FNB myself because as much as you are convinced it was huge, I'm equally convinced it wasn't.

Well I terminated with Dish on 12/30/14....Went to direct....Made sure they knew it had nothing to do with the Fox dispute...But she just rambled on about negotiations as I repeated it had nothing to do with Fox....So it wont even be accurate from my dealings...They couldn't even get the boxes sent to the right house in the right state! sigh

 

[patmurphey]

LMFAO....

That is the funniest thing anyone has posted in a while.

Right! That's why it's such a bad idea to try and get new customers.

 

[SatboyZ]

Man I am so glad Fox is back...http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/18/media/fox-apologizes-for-anti-islam-comments/index.html

 

[JM42]

Just to point one thing out. In 2013, dish averaged $4.74/sub/month. That's after all expenses. That is net gain. Assuming every customer is worth the same value, Dish is LOSING a net gain of just over $5M(this is based on that dumbassery statement by Tim Carry from Fox). Considering they made a net gain last year of around $806M, and adding on additional services and customers, even with the high cost acquisition rate, Dish is still coming out profitable. And if you want to claim stock holders are going to base their decisions on customer subscriptions, then more subs with contracts(and even no contracts on Sling TV), means more happy stock holders. This is not the case, but based on what you said, these are the holes you need to fill before spouting off about this. Look at the entire financial report, not just one or two numbers. You might be shocked that the folks who get paid to analyze them and make company wide decisions... Might actually know what they are doing.

The stock discussions are all rather pointless. Unless there has been a change I missed, the way Dish stock is structured the only stockholders with a class that matters are Charlie and few friends. Everyone else can huff and puff, but all they can really do if they don't like things is sell. The idea he isn't aware of the short term implications is laughable. Charlie is no doubt keeping his eye on the longer term.

 

[Stargazer]

If Dish's stock tanked, then Charlie would not be worth so much anymore. He owns the majority share of the Dish stock and that is why he is worth billions. His net worth is mostly in the stock, not cash in the bank. If he got real worried then he would sell out or sell a lot of his shares. He wants control that is why he keeps his shares in Dish above 50 percent.

If someone is not under contract then Dish has not lost $800 for that subscriber as they were able to retain a lot of that money back through the contract period. If someone is under contract then they retain an x amount per month plus the money they will receive due to contract termination plus get the receivers back lowering their loss on that customer. In addition to that, they will lose the potential of what they could have received if the customer would have stayed.

 

[MikeD-C05]

www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/18/did-dish-network-win-the-dispute-against-fox-news.aspx

Looks like DISH got a good deal.

 

[empiretc]

www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/01/18/did-dish-network-win-the-dispute-against-fox-news.aspx

Looks like DISH got a good deal.

A lot of "ifs" there

 

[mitchflorida]

I see that, to the people posting here, Charlie can certainly do no wrong!

We shall see how the DISH stock reacts next month when they report all the drops and credits given in the Third Quarter. Dish will not report the January damage until May, but at least we will get a rough idea. I will check back with you on February 20th with the Dish earnings results and the stock price afterward.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I will agree with that article and it matches what I have been hearing.

FOX went back to DISH to make a deal. Remember they were not talking at all.
FOX Dropped the requirement for DISH to pay more for a FOX Sports 1 when FOX Sports 1 is not part of this contract.
DISH paid the price they agreed to before the dropped FOX News.
DISH lost a lot less customers then they expected and I am hearing it is WAY below the 90,000 that FOX estimated.

Sounds like a win for DISH to me.

Of course I guess its a win for the fans of FOX News as they got their station back, and ultimately that is the most important thing.

And with that we will close this one since the talk has gotten so far off topic. Its time to go watch TV.