Echostar Earnings Call Confrence Recap.

end of conference....

charlie in answering the last question mentions that competition is the main reason for the churn rate being higher.
 
Just how does wall street see E* and D* getting together in a merger? A merger has already been shot down once!
 
gpflepsen said:
Just how does wall street see E* and D* getting together in a merger? A merger has already been shot down once!

If I remember right It got shot down because it would have became a monoploy at the time... They both would be able to argue successfully that with the telecoms going with video over fiber that there would be no monopoly as there is growing competition from them and that would be the only way to survive.
 
gpflepsen said:
Just how does wall street see E* and D* getting together in a merger? A merger has already been shot down once!
That was three years ago...the competitive video landscape is rapidly changing with the addition of the Telcos, IPTV technology, and providers being able to offer a discounted Triple Play (video, broadband, voice). It will be hard for the FCC/FTC to deny a merger should both companies be losing money and marketshare.
 
Didn't the merger decision center about the need to retain competition between two satellite companies? I still don't see the difference between then and now. Many areas of the US are still without the ability to get video over anything but satellite.
 
Sean Mota said:
Charlie in answering the last question mentions that competition is the main reason for the churn rate being higher.

I think that competition can account for some churn but another reason behind DISH's higher churn numbers is their overseas call centers. ANYONE that has had to deal with them knows what I mean. I have yet to have an acceptable experience when dealing with them. DirecTV had the problem several year ago and finally learned that their customers don't want to talk to people in India (or where ever). I wonder how long it will take DISH to figure that out?
 
gpflepsen said:
Didn't the merger decision center about the need to retain competition between two satellite companies? I still don't see the difference between then and now. Many areas of the US are still without the ability to get video over anything but satellite.
Unfortunately, it costs a pretty penny to build those birds and keep 'em in orbit...not to mention the cost of programming, customer acquisition, etc. In years past, cable has had a monopoly (I'm not going to argue semantics) in almost all areas; there simply was no cable competition. This is rapidly changing. How much of the video market will the Telcos gain over the next few years? How much of this will come from cable? How much will come from DBS? It's anyone guess...but the Telcos are investing heavily so you can be assured there will be winners and losers.

In the best interest of citizens, is it better to have two bankrupt or unprofitable DBS providers or a single viable DBS service that can compete with cable, the telcos, and others? Personally, I think D* and E* will eventually merge but that's just my opinion. I think they will focus on serving rural customers and providing services to others via DBS and IPTV. Over the past 10 years, E* and have collectively just managed to keep their heads above waters. There have been no Exxon like profits and the forecasts is even murkier now that cable competition is heating up...that's why all the Wall Street pundits are sold on an E*/D* acquisition/merger. As much as I enjoyed the V* DBS service, when the money decided it was time to shutdown VOOM - it was time to shutdown VOOM. The same is going to happen with E* and D* if they aren't making money.
 
Bill R said:
I think that competition can account for some churn but another reason behind DISH's higher churn numbers is their overseas call centers. ANYONE that has had to deal with them knows what I mean. I have yet to have an acceptable experience when dealing with them. DirecTV had the problem several year ago and finally learned that their customers don't want to talk to people in India (or where ever). I wonder how long it will take DISH to figure that out?
Some of the recent reviews I've read on call center/helpdesk outsourcing suggests the cost savings are much smaller than many company execs had hoped to achieve...somewhere along the line of 15%. The cost of losing valuable customers and having to pay huge unemployment taxes...priceless!:cool:
 
Another large reason for the churn is curtesy of their Audit Department. They actually scared off a good number of good paying customers.

Way to go Dish.
 
E* has now gone from a growth industry to a mature one. The battle now will be to retain current customers and try to upsell them higher programming tiers. Given how E* has treated good high paying customers with the audit team tactics, the introduction of bullsh*t fees, the competition coming from the phone companies and not to mention the ability for cable to bundle phone, internet and TV service at a significant lesser amount than one can buy individually, I don't see much if any continued growth in this company.
 
Dish probably scared off more people with the audit department than what they would have gained by doing what they would hope to achieve. In other words they probably lost more money than they gained by doing the audits.

IPTV will change television. Dish and Direct will have to figure out how to offer this through the traditional satellite service. If compression can improve enough then they can do a lot more things with the bandwidth that they have now. If they do not figure out how they are going to be able to offer their own service then the same thing will happen to them as what happened to C-Band.
 
To put it bluntly, with a combination of luck, timing and blunders by the competition, Dish managed to get a foothold in the DBS business but they have since exceeded their ability to manage and grow within the constraints of their current infastructure.

IMHO it would take a complete transplant of managment, from the ceo on down for them to be able to survive against serious competition. Why DTV isn't seriously taking advantage of this is beyond me but if they (DTV) or another big company (Verizon) ever do get serious, Dish could be in trouble.
 
Dishs' salvation would be to let ATT buy them and then they could easily do both the internet ,broadband video and regular sat video tv. This would save Dish as a sat business but they would probably lose their name and Charlie wouldn't be allowed to run it anymore. This would be a last resort since Charlie doesn't want to sell and lose control. Maybe a better partnership with ATT that uses the new home zone receivers that ATT came out with. They seem to be just like the 622 with internet now. Something will have to change or sat tv in the future will be relegated to the rural areas only like C-band used to be.
 
waltinvt said:
To put it bluntly, with a combination of luck, timing and blunders by the competition, Dish managed to get a foothold in the DBS business but they have since exceeded their ability to manage and grow within the constraints of their current infastructure.

IMHO it would take a complete transplant of managment, from the ceo on down for them to be able to survive against serious competition. Why DTV isn't seriously taking advantage of this is beyond me but if they (DTV) or another big company (Verizon) ever do get serious, Dish could be in trouble.
nahh E* is not in trouble(yet) because their main competion is d* ..they are trying to charge 10 bucks for a "baby" channel(baby first), wanna charge 25 bucks for a first run HD movie..have absolutly no MPEG4 Hd recorder..took a viable product (TIVO) and replaced it with garbage(r15)..etc etc.. Verizon is ATLEAST 10 years away from really being a threat(they are also trying to sell off less populas portions of their phone network(ie upstate new york and the new england states) ATT isnt serious about fiber yet, they have a lote of area's where it would be cost prohibitive to put fiber in. Cable companies still $uck especially cablevision they lure win with cheap deals while existing customers cant participate (triple play)....charlie will be in business for many many years to come
 
Wireless Internet is growing ever popular being offered in areas that have not seen broadband before. The next five years will probably prove to have a lot of accomplishments in the areas being offered the service. Once most people have access to broadband they will be able to access IPTV. IPTV is the wave of the future.
 

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