March 12 Retailer Chat Recap

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yesterday Dish Network held a retailer chat. Unfortunately I forgot about it and when I found out it was on the chat was almost over. Because of this I had to wait for a replay to be aired.

So now I am watching the replay and reporting items of interest from this retailer chat.

I apologize for the delay in getting this retailer chat recap up, but the good news is not much of anything to report.

The show opens and they start talking about Team Summit. A bulk of the first half of the show is dedicated to Discussing Team Summit which is Dish Networks big retailer event which will be held this year in Denver.

From there they go and talk about channel launches, and start with HD local cities which have launched in February. Jim says in about 90 days there will be a bunch more HD local launches and a few of them will be simulcast on both Eastern Arc and Western Arc however no list is given.

They then go over the national HD channel launches. Jim says that they are looking at serveral HD expansions over the next few months. Then a slide is shown is the next wave of HD channels coming (all the Viacom channels). Jim says more national HD is coming.

After that they switch to talking about marketing (nothing really exciting here)

They then talk about DSL and Wildblue sales... again nothing important here...

Dish Network will be updating their website for retailers (about damn time!) so that it support IE 7, Firefox, Safari and Netscape. Currently the website only worked correctly with IE 6, so this is a major step forward!

They then talk about dealer fraud.

From there they talk about the Smart Card upgrade going on. Whats interesting is they say they can not send smart cards to PO Boxes. May 1st is the deadline for upgrading commercial accounts. Some services such as adult and premium will be switched over to the new security within the next few weeks. The complete switchover will be done by the start of Q3.

From there they go to commercial sales talk then into questions which then wraps up the show.

 

[Fiveft20in]

Whats interesting is they say they can not send smart cards to PO Boxes.

Funny - they sent my smart cards to my PO box.

 

[Lt Disher]

Whats interesting is they say they can not send smart cards to PO Boxes.

And yet, they seem to have no problem sending bills to the PO Boxes.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The PO box thing might just be for retailers as they are shipping them boxes of smart cards, not just envelope containing 1 or 2.

 

[HDRoberts]

They then go over the national HD channel launches. Jim says that they are looking at serveral HD expansions over the next few months. Then a slide is shown is the next wave of HD channels coming (all the Viacom channels). Jim says more national HD is coming

Well, that's specific

Viacom is a nice start, but since they have the bandwidth, they need to match DirecTV with FX, Speed, and Fuel. They also need to get with Rainbow and set aside the Voom debacle long enough to get IFC and AMC. Unfortunaltey, from what he has said about Fisher, Dish won't sign a contract with someone suing them.

Also, why never any talk about some new SD channels? Logo, Sprout, American Life, etc.?

 

[Fiveft20in]

The PO box thing might just be for retailers as they are shipping them boxes of smart cards, not just envelope containing 1 or 2.

Duh. That makes sense.

 

[M Sparks]

Funny - they sent my smart cards to my PO box.

Me too. There's no USPS home delivery where I live, they would have to FedEx or UPS it.

 

[billymac]

That's not good. Erie, PA isn't on any of those lists, even though it was in the March list on Charlie Chat.

 

[jerryez]

I see they moved Tucson,AZ from soon to April 1st.

 

[nelson61]

. Jim says in about 90 days there will be a bunch more HD local launches and a few of them will be simulcast on both Eastern Arc and Western Arc however no list is given.

I'm guessing that would fit in with the arrival of E1 at 77W (16 transponders for US) which is scheduled for May 22 (FCC filing).

 

[b0471@kzhosting.com]

So much for Sioux City in March. What can be so difficult about just turning on the stations they promised? Is there something about the scheduling that I'm missing.

 

[KE4EST]

Thanks for the re-cap, haven't had time to watch.

 

[Laddyboy]

So much for Sioux City in March. What can be so difficult about just turning on the stations they promised? Is there something about the scheduling that I'm missing.

I think some of the holdup may be getting the infrastructure in place for some of the PoPs and comm links to the uplink center. It only takes one contractor not meeting schedule to set your own plans back. I don't know this for a fact but it seems unlikely carriage contracts would be the issue since I doubt E* would announce anything unless they had some, if not all, contracts signed for the market. They put the Indy locals on a Conus beam on the old 129 just to get them up. That has to be temporary. I would guess they did that because Indy had been told years before they would get their locals only to be disappointed.

 

[b0471@kzhosting.com]

Thanks

 

[djjenkins]

I see they moved Tucson,AZ from soon to April 1st.

Oh My Gosh!!!! I have been waiting for so long! Hope they actually pull through!

 

[dishcomm]

Me too. There's no USPS home delivery where I live, they would have to FedEx or UPS it.

Ok let me get this straight. The US Postal Service deos not deliver to your area?
This I gotta hear about. Please elaborate.
I know of only one town where USPS delivers mail to the PO and the residents pick it up there. This is a very very wealthy community and the people guard their privacy closely. In fact Fed Ex and UPS are required to drop packages off. Thye may NOT deliver to a residence. Homes have no addesses. Emergency authorities have detailed data for proper response.
http://www.icitydata.com/city/Alpine-NJ

 

[Hall]

I've heard of these areas.... You simply have to have a PO Box. Instead of the mail coming to you (or your home), you have to go get your mail.

 

[mleland]

Ok let me get this straight. The US Postal Service deos not deliver to your area?
This I gotta hear about. Please elaborate.

Look up zip code 96137 on your favorite map site. This is for Westwood in the far north east part of CA. You will find there is a post office in the town of Westwood. If you live within easy walking distance(all of town) you have a free #1 size PO Box at the Post Office. There is NO local mail delivery. I happen to live in another town about 2 miles away and we have a rural route(contractor) delivery.

In my case I choose to have a PO Box. The rural route drivers are not known for using their brains. More then once I had boxes or large envelopes left in the snow(near the mail box at the street) instead of delivered to my door as they are required to do in bad weather. UPS and FedEx does deliver to my house and they have yet to leave packages where they can easily become wet.

 

[Claude Greiner]

The PO box thing might just be for retailers as they are shipping them boxes of smart cards, not just envelope containing 1 or 2.

Im pretty sure its the boxes of smart cards since the 700 cards I received came Via Fedex andI had to sign for it.

All other cards come regular mail...

 

[justen]

Rural areas!

Ok let me get this straight. The US Postal Service deos not deliver to your area? This I gotta hear about. Please elaborate.

Any number of rural areas have post office box only delivery. If you search using usps.gov, it can tell you whether or not the area falls into that category (try 26209, for Snowshoe, West Virginia, for example, although it's a peculiar example).

My mother lives in an unincorporated area in West Virginia which now has rural route delivery (but previously was post office box only). She is "served" by three different zip codes, one (where she actually lives) with no delivery to her, another that is the closest post office (for her post office box), and a third that is the "delivery" post office (for her star route/rural route/"highway" contract box which she pretty much refuses to use). It makes FedEx, UPS, and (formerly) DHL delivery a nightmare, too, because the addressing has changed every few years.

You still following me? Needless to say, she received her smart cards via her post office box.

justen