Dish sheds 102,000 subs and reports a Profit

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A few things to note:

1. Dish is profitable, Echostar is not. The "profits" are not really there. Sats did have a few one time write offs totaling about $650m. Charlie is just moving money from one pocket to the other.

2. 102k is not really a meaningful number. What segment of customers made up that number. Were they all minimum subs or are they losing the big subs? 102k subs that were late payers and unprofitable would be a good thing to get rid of, 102k of AEP+HD+ subs would not be good.

3. Dish is losing customers while other companies are gaining them. It is not just the economy, Dish is losing its competative edge.

  1. True, and especially considering that Dish's net income of $217mm doesn't even come close to outweighing Echostar's $690mm loss, regardless of one time expenses.
  2. It is only meaningful in that it is negative at all. Judging it against the industry (which is really the only relevant way to look at statements like these), Dish should not have lost subscribers.
  3. The economy didn't do it; incompetent management did.
 
I am in on the earnings call now which starts in a few moments.

DISH Network will host its Fourth Quarter and year-end 2008 financial results conference call today at noon ET. The dial-in number is (800) 616-6729.
 
Come on Charlie.... "In response to our large loss of subscribers, we will be launching numerous HD channels this week, including the remaining Fox channels, Viacom channels, Comcast channels, Showtime channels, and even the Rainbow channels IFC and AMC." YOU CAN DO IT!

Instead, we will probably hear hims say (again) that HD isn't a big factor, because few care about more HD.:( That's pretty much what he said 3 months ago.
 
They go straight into Q&A

1st question is about the card swap and Tivo lawsuit.

Charlie says they are more then half way through and should be done by mid year. They are also working on a next generation smartcard which will replace this one (has N3 been broken already?)

On to Tivo Charlie thinks that ruling will take several months.

Question about Sirius... Charlie says a lot was written about it most was true. Hey says he has nothing against Mel Karmazan. He said it was a great financial opportunity and saw it as a great business much like Dish Network.

Question on Sling, Dish sees it as a feature not a product. Thinks this placeshifting is good for copyright holders and is being done correctly. Charlie says the 922 will be coming out this Summer (what happened to Spring Charlie?) :)
 
Question about box swapouts.

Charlie says Dish's ballance sheet is good. Charlie says he has the best video product out there and he thinks they will chose dish over their compeition (huh why is DirecTV Plus customers and your down customers?) He said customer service is not as good. He says marketing and installs are too complicated.

He said Dish's goal in 2008 was to stop getting worse.. (huh?!) and he is now working on getting better.

He said their product is to complex for people to want to do business with them.

Question about $9.99 deal, are the phones ringing.

Charlie goes to the big picture and says that with the loss of AT&T will be a negative, but also a positive. (huh?!)
 
On Tivo, if the judge rules that Dish must shut off the DVR's what is Charlie going to do?

From the big picture Dish will be doing business with Tivo. He would be doing business with them today but they have an honest disagreement. The judge will more then likly make a ruling which will set the ground rules going forward. Dish and Tivo have a lot in common.

(Charlie has been attending the Chase Carey speech school, with a lot of UMMMs today) :)

Charlie says he would need to see the Judges ruling before deciding how to move ahead.

On to next question. What can you do to reverse the downword trends of new subscribers.

Charlie says that from a marketing perspective that they are second tier compaired to their competition. (How many YEARS have I been saying that Dish Networks marketing sucks...) :)

Charlie says consumers are downsizing their costs and that is a good thing for them (dish). (I dont see how its a good thing.)
 
Question about Univision... Charlie sais occasionally they have some programmers go off the air. Costs could be going up 4 to 8%. Charlie says rates shouldnt be going up since there is no inflation

Question on VOOM and the lawyer says they are in discovery phase.
 
Charlie says they base successs on the call rate of customers, if they are not calling in then they are doing a good job... (Hey Charlie.. the reason they are not calling you is because your operators don't speak english and come to SatelliteGuys to get support for your product!)

Charlie again hits home that this year he wants to get better.

There over about 1 million AT&T customers on Dish Network.
 
Charlie says they base successs on the call rate of customers, if they are not calling in then they are doing a good job... (Hey Charlie.. the reason they are not calling you is because your operators don't speak english and come to SatelliteGuys to get support for your product!)

Charlie again hits home that this year he wants to get better.

There over about 1 million AT&T customers on Dish Network.


AMEN . . . hey Charlie, pay SatelliteGuys for technical support considering their problem solving is probably around 90% successful (10% require house calls) and 100% in understandable language!
 
Question from a private investor.

He hs Charlie fumbling for words. :) Question was when is money going to be going back to the shareholders.
 
In viewing your comments lately Scott I must say I'm curiously impressed with what appears to be your epiphany of sorts regarding Charlie and Co.
 

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