Seems like it is always E* that has a problem negotiating with programmers. They have hockey fans dropping or not taking their service because of the lack of OLN. Now, they are causing women to jump on that bandwagon over removal of Lifetime.
Lifetime Ala Carte?
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E* doesn't have a problem negotiating with programmers. A few programmers have had a problem negotiating wit E*. E* has never pulled a channel unless the contract was up. E*'s prices and quality are better than most and that only stays that way if they can remain competitive. By no means are they even close to perfect. They have a horrible marketing department (cannot clearly convey their own roadmap) and their customer service is poorly informed at best, incompetent at worst. I hear all of these people complain on the E* forum about changing to D* then I go to the D* site with everybody complaing and saying they are going to E*. Unfortunately, we have to grade on a curve.
As far as Lifetime, they have clearly demonstrated they could not negotiate themselves out of a wet paper bag. Their full page ads about E* neglecting women by not carrying it borders on insulting the intelligence of the same women that they say they care about. They are a disgrace.
As far as Lifetime, they have clearly demonstrated they could not negotiate themselves out of a wet paper bag. Their full page ads about E* neglecting women by not carrying it borders on insulting the intelligence of the same women that they say they care about. They are a disgrace.
Multichannel.com updated it's article.
Lifetime-Dish Dispute May Cost Both Parties
Net Stands to Lose Fees, Ad Revenues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Linda Moss 1/30/2006
Note: This story was revised Monday, Jan. 30, and it differs from the print edition.
With EchoStar Communications Corp. threatening to permanently drop Lifetime Television from its Dish Network satellite-television lineup as of midnight tomorrow night (Jan. 31), the two parties have resumed discussions in hopes of resolving their bitter monthlong dispute.
Talks between the two parties broke down on Sunday Jan. 22. But Lifetime Television and EchoStar each said Friday they were having ongoing conversations, as they confronted the possible repercussions of a permanent breakup: that each side could lose millions of dollars, from lost subscriptions, program licensing fees and advertising revenue.
If the brouhaha — which began on New Year’s Day — isn’t settled soon, the women’s programmer will lose roughly 8.5 million Dish subscribers from its 89.5 million base. That could cost Lifetime roughly $20 million per year in license fees and ad revenues.
EchoStar, for its part, could well see a greater number of subscriber losses each month. Citigroup last Monday estimated that independent of the Lifetime spat, EchoStar’s “churn” already would be increasing by somewhere between 0.2% and 0.3% per month, as cable operators begin adding subscribers again after years of decreases.
It won’t be easy for Lifetime to reclaim those millions of viewers, if lost.
By one measure, Lifetime’s average primetime viewership in January, when it was dropped by EchoStar, fell 14%, to 1.3 million households, compared to a year earlier, according to Nielsen Media Research. Lifetime attributes January’s decrease not just to the loss of Dish viewers, but to “seasonal” softness in viewing.
Either way, the network concedes it will likely have to issue “make-good” spots to advertisers to make up for its smaller audiences. Advertising accounted for $611 million out of Lifetime’s total revenue of $837 million in 2005, according to Kagan Research.
Lyle Schwartz, an analyst at Mediaedge:cia, said the Dish drop “will probably cause a shortfall in the ratings and is going to end up hurting them financially.’’
Beyond subscriber losses, EchoStar has already taken a hit in the wallet over Lifetime. The direct-broadcast satellite provider recently did a retransmission-consent deal with Lifetime’s corporate cousin, Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.
Previously, deals for carriage of Lifetime and the Hearst stations were tied together. But this go-around, EchoStar negotiated a separate deal with Hearst, reducing Lifetime’s leverage.
But EchoStar paid dearly for that split-off. The satellite service operator agreed to pay 45 cents a month for those subscribers who receive the local Hearst channels. That license will cost EchoStar $11 million a year, according to Bear, Stearns & Co.
As it stands, EchoStar has already permanently replaced Lifetime spinoff Lifetime Movie Network with another women’s channel, Oxygen. That move alone means a few million dollars of lost revenue a year for parent Lifetime Entertainment Services.
Last week, Lifetime president Betty Cohen said she’s rejected EchoStar’s latest proposals because “it was just more valuable for us in the long run to not sell ourselves short to a distributor who doesn’t understand our value.”
EchoStar says Lifetime — which has helped women rally on its behalf around the country — is “playing politics” and claims that the entertainment service initially sought what added up to a 76% rate increase, over the term of a contract, for Lifetime and LMN. Lifetime says it only asked for a few pennies more a month.
Estimating that the flagship Lifetime Television channel gets a monthly licensing fee of 20 cents per television subscriber, the loss of Dish Network distribution could translate to roughly $20.4 million in lost revenue for the year. According to one cable operator’s calculations, getting dropped from Dish is costing Lifetime $200,000 per day.
Lifetime plans to step up its efforts to regain Dish’s subscribers by getting them to switch to local cable systems or DirecTV Inc. The network will heavily promote programming debuting in the next few months, such as the new series Cheerleader Nation, which will remind Dish subscribers of what they’re missing, Cohen said.
“We will continue in different layers, and all sorts of different ways, to mobilize viewers to switch from Dish,” Cohen said. “I’m not going to share all of our battle tactics, [be]cause part of a battle is the element of surprise.”
Despite rallying dozens of women’s groups and lawmakers to its side, Lifetime so far has failed to force EchoStar to restore the network to Dish’s lineup. Two years ago, when Ergen had a similar contract dispute with Viacom over carrying its TV stations and cable channels, including Nickelodeon and MTV, public outcry got those dropped services back on the Dish lineup within days.
Earlier this month, Ergen claimed that losing subscribers won’t make him put Lifetime back on Dish.
“Why would we put something back up again [when] we’ve [already] lost the customers that watch it?” Ergen asked.
Lifetime-Dish Dispute May Cost Both Parties
Net Stands to Lose Fees, Ad Revenues
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Linda Moss 1/30/2006
Note: This story was revised Monday, Jan. 30, and it differs from the print edition.
With EchoStar Communications Corp. threatening to permanently drop Lifetime Television from its Dish Network satellite-television lineup as of midnight tomorrow night (Jan. 31), the two parties have resumed discussions in hopes of resolving their bitter monthlong dispute.
Talks between the two parties broke down on Sunday Jan. 22. But Lifetime Television and EchoStar each said Friday they were having ongoing conversations, as they confronted the possible repercussions of a permanent breakup: that each side could lose millions of dollars, from lost subscriptions, program licensing fees and advertising revenue.
If the brouhaha — which began on New Year’s Day — isn’t settled soon, the women’s programmer will lose roughly 8.5 million Dish subscribers from its 89.5 million base. That could cost Lifetime roughly $20 million per year in license fees and ad revenues.
EchoStar, for its part, could well see a greater number of subscriber losses each month. Citigroup last Monday estimated that independent of the Lifetime spat, EchoStar’s “churn” already would be increasing by somewhere between 0.2% and 0.3% per month, as cable operators begin adding subscribers again after years of decreases.
It won’t be easy for Lifetime to reclaim those millions of viewers, if lost.
By one measure, Lifetime’s average primetime viewership in January, when it was dropped by EchoStar, fell 14%, to 1.3 million households, compared to a year earlier, according to Nielsen Media Research. Lifetime attributes January’s decrease not just to the loss of Dish viewers, but to “seasonal” softness in viewing.
Either way, the network concedes it will likely have to issue “make-good” spots to advertisers to make up for its smaller audiences. Advertising accounted for $611 million out of Lifetime’s total revenue of $837 million in 2005, according to Kagan Research.
Lyle Schwartz, an analyst at Mediaedge:cia, said the Dish drop “will probably cause a shortfall in the ratings and is going to end up hurting them financially.’’
Beyond subscriber losses, EchoStar has already taken a hit in the wallet over Lifetime. The direct-broadcast satellite provider recently did a retransmission-consent deal with Lifetime’s corporate cousin, Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.
Previously, deals for carriage of Lifetime and the Hearst stations were tied together. But this go-around, EchoStar negotiated a separate deal with Hearst, reducing Lifetime’s leverage.
But EchoStar paid dearly for that split-off. The satellite service operator agreed to pay 45 cents a month for those subscribers who receive the local Hearst channels. That license will cost EchoStar $11 million a year, according to Bear, Stearns & Co.
As it stands, EchoStar has already permanently replaced Lifetime spinoff Lifetime Movie Network with another women’s channel, Oxygen. That move alone means a few million dollars of lost revenue a year for parent Lifetime Entertainment Services.
Last week, Lifetime president Betty Cohen said she’s rejected EchoStar’s latest proposals because “it was just more valuable for us in the long run to not sell ourselves short to a distributor who doesn’t understand our value.”
EchoStar says Lifetime — which has helped women rally on its behalf around the country — is “playing politics” and claims that the entertainment service initially sought what added up to a 76% rate increase, over the term of a contract, for Lifetime and LMN. Lifetime says it only asked for a few pennies more a month.
Estimating that the flagship Lifetime Television channel gets a monthly licensing fee of 20 cents per television subscriber, the loss of Dish Network distribution could translate to roughly $20.4 million in lost revenue for the year. According to one cable operator’s calculations, getting dropped from Dish is costing Lifetime $200,000 per day.
Lifetime plans to step up its efforts to regain Dish’s subscribers by getting them to switch to local cable systems or DirecTV Inc. The network will heavily promote programming debuting in the next few months, such as the new series Cheerleader Nation, which will remind Dish subscribers of what they’re missing, Cohen said.
“We will continue in different layers, and all sorts of different ways, to mobilize viewers to switch from Dish,” Cohen said. “I’m not going to share all of our battle tactics, [be]cause part of a battle is the element of surprise.”
Despite rallying dozens of women’s groups and lawmakers to its side, Lifetime so far has failed to force EchoStar to restore the network to Dish’s lineup. Two years ago, when Ergen had a similar contract dispute with Viacom over carrying its TV stations and cable channels, including Nickelodeon and MTV, public outcry got those dropped services back on the Dish lineup within days.
Earlier this month, Ergen claimed that losing subscribers won’t make him put Lifetime back on Dish.
“Why would we put something back up again [when] we’ve [already] lost the customers that watch it?” Ergen asked.
No more "Dump Dish" on Lifetime's homepage. MAybe the rumors that it will be back on tomorrow are true.
My wife received an e-mail just last night:
"Dear Lifetime Member,
Miss your Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network? Get them back now, so you can catch the premieres of "For One Night," starring Raven-Symoné, and the new reality series "Cheerleader Nation." We'll give you $200 too!
Check out this exclusive deal from Lifetime and DIRECTV!"
Etc...
"Dear Lifetime Member,
Miss your Lifetime and Lifetime Movie Network? Get them back now, so you can catch the premieres of "For One Night," starring Raven-Symoné, and the new reality series "Cheerleader Nation." We'll give you $200 too!
Check out this exclusive deal from Lifetime and DIRECTV!"
Etc...
Huh?
http://www.lifetimetv.com/
I am looking straight at the front page of Lifetimetv.com, and right in the middle is a Dump Dish Ad, suggesting you send an Email Card to your friends. And according to the Lifetime message boards, the members of the message board are recieving email suggeting they switch to Directv, and they will get $200, and a free DVD(no I did not mistype DVR). I don't think they have kissed and made up yet.Sparkman said:
http://www.lifetimetv.com/
Changed my Mind!
I am so mad at Lifetime!! They have enough money to do a smear campaign against Dish NetWork. In the beginning I was mad at Dish, and then we changed to Direct TV.......but we had not cancelled our Dish since it was paid for through July. We went back to DTV, and after comparing the two, we like Dish better! Of course I miss Lifetime/LMN, but as time goes on I see that Lifetime has very low integrity and that they really don't care about their women viewers.
Today should tell the final decision about whether Lifetime will return to Dish, and I will be glad when it is over! Although Dish added Oxygen, I find it to be a horrible channel with nothing I want to watch on it. I am not interested in sex talk programs, and I am not a lesbian, so nothing there interests me on that channel. (Nothing against lesbians, its just I am not one so am not interested).
I have enough VHS tapes and DVD's to try to fill the void when I have time to watch a movie.
The good thing about all this mess is that it led me to this forum. I have learned a lot and found many resources through this place.
I am so mad at Lifetime!! They have enough money to do a smear campaign against Dish NetWork. In the beginning I was mad at Dish, and then we changed to Direct TV.......but we had not cancelled our Dish since it was paid for through July. We went back to DTV, and after comparing the two, we like Dish better! Of course I miss Lifetime/LMN, but as time goes on I see that Lifetime has very low integrity and that they really don't care about their women viewers.
Today should tell the final decision about whether Lifetime will return to Dish, and I will be glad when it is over! Although Dish added Oxygen, I find it to be a horrible channel with nothing I want to watch on it. I am not interested in sex talk programs, and I am not a lesbian, so nothing there interests me on that channel. (Nothing against lesbians, its just I am not one so am not interested).
I have enough VHS tapes and DVD's to try to fill the void when I have time to watch a movie.
The good thing about all this mess is that it led me to this forum. I have learned a lot and found many resources through this place.
New channel
Well he has Halmark Movie Channel, up and ready to go on 187. It is just not viewable by subscribers yet(Thanks to Tony's page). Something tells me that will replace the Lifetime Movie, and Oxygen will replace Lifetime.jeffwtux said:
Scott Greczkowski said:I have a feeling this may be pointless tommorow.
What are you hearing Scott? The wife was a little irritated at no wife-beating movie last night, I am hoping they get something worked out.
Last night I got word from one of my insiders that Lifetime would return to Dish Network tommorow. (Only the main Lifetime Channel would return)
TNGTony also reported hearing the same thing from one of his contacts.
Since then I have heard nothing, so will it happen or not? That I am not sure.
If I were Dish I would have told them to F off, especially after the email I got today where they offered to give me a free 4 room DirecTV setup, A protable DVD player and $200 to dump Dish and go with DirecTV.
TNGTony also reported hearing the same thing from one of his contacts.
Since then I have heard nothing, so will it happen or not? That I am not sure.
If I were Dish I would have told them to F off, especially after the email I got today where they offered to give me a free 4 room DirecTV setup, A protable DVD player and $200 to dump Dish and go with DirecTV.
If lifetime is returning
why in the world would they send out those emails to switch over to Directv to their Lifetimetv.com members last night and this morning????? Of course with the other things that Lifetime has done, who expects logic at this stage?
why in the world would they send out those emails to switch over to Directv to their Lifetimetv.com members last night and this morning????? Of course with the other things that Lifetime has done, who expects logic at this stage?
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I figured they were making progress since we haven't seen any new slanderous press releases in the past week. I guess Lifetime is upset that Dish doesn't want LMN anymore so they feel it's justified to try to get people to switch to Direct where they get revenue from 3 of their channels instead of just 1 from Dish now (we assume).
boogerbear said:
Trying some last minute pressure to get Dish to take LMN too. I don't know about others, but my wife is upset about channel 108 and 108 only.
This has to be chalked up as a massive blowout victory for Charlie and a crushing defeat for Lifetime. They demanded Charlie take 3 channels and now he will only take 1, probably at a lower cost than the 1 channel before, and I doubt there was very much customer loss. This will be Charlie's greatest victory. We can all just hope that the Superbowl is a little more competitive than this was.
If I am not mistaken, isn't the only reason LMN was added to begin with was because Hearst FORCED them to take it in a retrans deal a few years ago?
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