Emergency Retailer Chat Recap - Aug 28th

[Scott Greczkowski]

Greetings,

Welcome to the Emergency Retailer Chat Recap - This was supposed to be a chat for Dish to get dealers to call congress, however today they reached setllement with broadcasters so the call to action has been canceled for now.

Jim said that Dish Network is paying $100,000,000 to settle this suit with the broadcasters, and they have reached agreement with 800 stations except for 25 fox stations which he said walked away from negoations last week.

Jim said that the Judge needs to sign off on this agreement for it to be a done deal.

Dish Network will be requalifying EVERYONE who has Distants as part of the agreement.

Dish will be adding 10 additional local markets by the end of the year (no mention of what markets)

They spoke breifly about the TIVO lawsuit and said they have a stay and will again be apealing the ruling against them.

They also said that the engineering guys were working on software which allows DVR's to remain running while getting around the infringing part of the software.

They said end users should not be woried about losing their DVR's and Dealers should keep on selling them.

With that Jim told everyone to get back to work and to sell Dish Network. And that was the end of the chat (It was only around 10 minutes long!)

And thats your recap.

 

[bhawley]

They also said that the engineering guys were working on software which allows DVR's to remain running while getting around the infringing part of the software.

No more trick play

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I am kind of surprised that Echostar got off so cheap. didnt the broadcasters want $200 Million?

Thats a payout of about $125,000 per station.

 

[BFG]

what part is infringing anyways?

 

[Neutron]

I thought Tivo's issue was that DISH took their idea of recording to a hard drive.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

Is E* just putting up a "front" to keep the retailers selling, or did they seem genuinely confident that DVRs would not get shut off?

 

[Chris Walker]

Time to turn off the "download without my permission" on the software upgrades it seems..

 

[waltinvt]

Time to turn off the "download without my permission" on the software upgrades it seems..

Don't kid yourself. That option means very little when Dish really wants to "adjust" your receiver.

 

[HDTVFanAtic]

Greetings,

Welcome to the Emergency Retailer Chat Recap - This was supposed to be a chat for Dish to get dealers to call congress, however today they reached setllement with broadcasters so the call to action has been canceled for now.

Jim said that Dish Network is paying $100,000,000 to settle this suit with the broadcasters, and they have reached agreement with 800 stations except for 25 fox stations which he said walked away from negoations last week.

That was known early last week, so I don't know why they were going through a call to action in the first place - or why this was even so called new news.

 

[GaryPen]

The fact that FOX O&O's are the only holdout is such a blatant disregard of the FTC rules that News Corp was supposed to abide by in order to purchase D* in the first place. I guess it was only a matter of time before they used their weight as content providers to screw E* and give D* an unfair advantage.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

yes I agree Gary, News Corp needs to walk carefully here.

 

[abricko]

Greetings,

They also said that the engineering guys were working on software which allows DVR's to remain running while getting around the infringing part of the software.

This part worries me, what is the infringing part they are working on (the *media switch*) and this probably means our new features updates are going to be pushed out further (ie external drive recording with 622 and native resolution pass-through.

Booo!

 

[waltinvt]

yes I agree Gary, News Corp needs to walk carefully here.

I agree and as I said in the "distants" thread this morning ( http://www.satelliteguys.us/showpost.php?p=653613&postcount=403
(does one have to credit & link one's own post? )

Oh crap, I'll just paste it here as the other thread is probably dead now anyway.

"Direct TV is using the power of it's connection with Fox to "regain" the upper hand it it's on-going competition with Dish Network."
Now although Dish did break the law and Fox deserves compensation just like everyone else, it doesn't deserve more or inappropriate compensation and Direct TV certainly doesn't deserve any.

While Murdoch may not technically be breaking the terms he agreed to when he took over "D", I believe he's close enough to it that "E" may be able to convince the powers that be that something needs to be done.

Murdoch probably knew this ace was in the hold cards even before he took over "D" and then he padded his hand by renewing his connection with TiVo.

Charlie's no dummy. This is what he meant when he (and I'm paraphrasing) allured to "E" "not always being on top".

There's no doubt that "E" got itself (and us) into this mess but the way "D" is taking advantage of it is exactly the kind of thing that anti trust laws are supposed to prevent.

The FCC certainly isn't going to step in here but maybe congress will and that's about the only hope Dish (and any subs that support Dish) has. That's where our efforts need to be directed now and I wouldn't be surprised if that is mentioned in the chat today.

 

[Tampa8]

"will be requalifying EVERYONE who has Distants "

So, does that mean requalifying like starting out new with everyone - meaning if locals are offered no distants? Or meaning if you had them legally before the locals were offered you can keep them as long as you don't drop them? (As provided for in the law)
(Waivers/RV I would assume will be automatically requalified)

 

[Neutron]

"will be requalifying EVERYONE who has Distants "

So, does that mean requalifying like starting out new with everyone - meaning if locals are offered no distants? Or meaning if you had them legally before the locals were offered you can keep them as long as you don't drop them? (As provided for in the law)
(Waivers/RV I would assume will be automatically requalified)

Everyone will have to go through qualifying for Distants, even if you have them already.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

So each sub is paying $8 for the settlement.

Man o man, it is scary to think about a 622 software update that has significant portions of the code rewritten by Dish's programmers.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I would not be surprised if 200,000 to 300,000 current E* DNS subscribers lost their access privileges.

E* is going to have to be aggressive and enforce the regulations on this. For if they get caught again, there will be no mercy.

 

[boba]

I would not be surprised if 200,000 to 300,000 current E* DNS subscribers lost their access privileges.

E* is going to have to be aggressive and enforce the regulations on this. For if they get caught again, there will be no mercy.

I think you are being optomistic if DISH has 800,000 DNS 750,000 will dissappear.

 

[Jared Twomey]

So each sub is paying $8 for the settlement.

Man o man, it is scary to think about a 622 software update that has significant portions of the code rewritten by Dish's programmers.

Wasn't the 622 software code written by Dish's programmers
It will just mean a new bug or two, just like every update

 

[ptech]

Scott

Why did you not STICKY yourself? This thread deserves one!

Rich