Retailer Chat Recap - 1/14/2014

[cosmo_kramer]

This is what I would do if I were Dish and why. I would make the Virtual Joey affordable, like $3-$5. I feel this would actually make Dish more money than charging $7 because you would get more people adding more TVs. Think about it, how many people have a TV that they would like to have separate programming on but they can't justify $7 because they rarely watch it. Now it it were only $3-$5 they could see spending that much and now Dish is making money on a customer they normally wouldn't.

It makes sense to me but I may either be delusional or maybe just way too logical.

That's my point from yesterday!! Well, that, and the decision to charge the same price for a virtual receiver that's missing some features of the full receiver...

How many non-SatGuys users of the virtual Joey (Faux-ey ?) will assume that they're using a fully-functional receiver?? If I were paying the same price as a real receiver I would too...

 

[dare2be]

This is what I would do if I were Dish and why. I would make the Virtual Joey affordable, like $3-$5. I feel this would actually make Dish more money than charging $7 because you would get more people adding more TVs. Think about it, how many people have a TV that they would like to have separate programming on but they can't justify $7 because they rarely watch it. Now it it were only $3-$5 they could see spending that much and now Dish is making money on a customer they normally wouldn't.

It makes sense to me but I may either be delusional or maybe just way too logical.

That's my point from yesterday!! Well, that, and the decision to charge the same price for a virtual receiver that's missing some features of the full receiver...

How many non-SatGuys users of the virtual Joey (Faux-ey ?) will assume that they're using a fully-functional receiver?? If I were paying the same price as a real receiver I would too...

My initial prediction days ago was along the same lines: $3 for VJ, $7 for WJ, and $10 for SJ. I also mentioned that it seemed too logical for it to be true.

 

[Scherrman]

My initial prediction days ago was along the same lines: $3 for VJ, $7 for WJ, and $10 for SJ. I also mentioned that it seemed too logical for it to be true.

I have no idea what the wireless Joey will be. I know they will make a customer do the upgrade promotion to get it and renew a 24 month commitment because I'm assuming this is going to be a costly device. Most wireless devices like this are $150-$300 retail.

 

[mike123abc]

With cable you do have the option of 1 cable card to feed 4 TVs with a 6 tuner TiVo and 3 add on TiVo minis. Of course there is a large up front cost for the TiVos. When my parents, brother's family and sister's family switched it was around a 2.5 year payback to cover the cost of the TiVos verses the cable box charges.

With Dish if you buy your own equipment you still pay the monthly fees. You do not get any breaks. Dish used to advertise no DVR fees, but they eventually decided they were not getting credit for it and may as well charge.

 

[JM42]

This is what I would do if I were Dish and why. I would make the Virtual Joey affordable, like $3-$5. I feel this would actually make Dish more money than charging $7 because you would get more people adding more TVs. Think about it, how many people have a TV that they would like to have separate programming on but they can't justify $7 because they rarely watch it. Now it it were only $3-$5 they could see spending that much and now Dish is making money on a customer they normally wouldn't.

It makes sense to me but I may either be delusional or maybe just way too logical.

I agree $7 is probably not the best price point, but just don't see the hardware part being all that relevant.

Dish can still play with pricing if they want, but it's probably better done in the form of some sort of expiring discount offer. They can always choose to renew it of needed, but it's not a "rate increase" when it expires.

 

[dvrexpander]

For the life of me I can't figure out why in the world they won't come up with some newer way to run a single cable from the LNB to a new node or something to hook up multiple hoppers and the super joey. Is it that hard to understand that they are causing customers major issues when having to run a ton of cables all over a house not to mention more costs overall.

 

[3HaloODST]

Talking about the updated DISH Anywhere apps, apologizes for the amount of time it took them to get it out.

Talking about Voice Control using DISH Explorer.

They talk about availability

Super Joey - Late February, Early March.
Wireless Joey will be coming out in May around Team Summit
Virtual Joey also coming out in May around Team Summit.

What about the new Joey that's supposed to be 2x faster than Joey 1.0?

 

[dont24]

With Dish if you buy your own equipment you still pay the monthly fees. You do not get any breaks. Dish used to advertise no DVR fees, but they eventually decided they were not getting credit for it and may as well charge.

Completely agree. Why would anyone purchase a Dish receiver at full price to own, knowing everyone pays the exact same monthly fees?
$7 a month for a VJ!? Ridiculous, IMO.

 

[navychop]

What about the new Joey that's supposed to be 2x faster than Joey 1.0?

Maybe that was a software update, to better use the existing chipsets.

 

[dare2be]

With cable you do have the option of 1 cable card to feed 4 TVs with a 6 tuner TiVo and 3 add on TiVo minis.

With Dish if you buy your own equipment you still pay the monthly fees. You do not get any breaks.

As I said earlier, only because of a government mandate. Cable doesn't provide cheap cable cards out of the goodness of their heart.

 

[rglore]

Dish wants the additional outlet fee to be the same, doesn't matter wether it's a receiver, Joey, second receiver output or virtual Joey. The Super Joey doesn't fit since it's also a Hopper expansion device. A good solution would be a onetime fee for the additional tuners and then the standard $7 a month outlet fee.

 

[TheKrell]

As I said earlier, only because of a government mandate. Cable doesn't provide cheap cable cards out of the goodness of their heart.

True. What Dish should do is issue a cable-card version of the Hopper to really annoy the cable companies.

 

[3HaloODST]

Maybe that was a software update, to better use the existing chipsets.

Well, the Wireless Joey will be getting a 900MHz chip, I think the regular Joey will also be fitted with this chip, in comparison to the current 400MHz Joey 1.0.

 

[mike123abc]

As I said earlier, only because of a government mandate. Cable doesn't provide cheap cable cards out of the goodness of their heart.

Since Dish and DTV are really 2 of the largest cable providers they should be moved under the same conditions of cable. I know they are secretly fighting tooth and nail to avoid having to have a cable card like access.

I am also at a point in my life and viewing (mostly OTA) that I could do without cable. I realize that I might be living in the golden age of OTA right now and it could all go away in a few years.

 

[dare2be]

Since Dish and DTV are really 2 of the largest cable providers they should be moved under the same conditions of cable. I know they are secretly fighting tooth and nail to avoid having to have a cable card like access.

Totally agree. The chances of that though are next to nil. The corporate lobbying machine was nothing back when cable card was first introduced, compared to now.

 

[MikeD-C05]

This hasn't been the model that other companies have employed. Cable companies used to charge punitive prices for CableCards where there was no significant hardware and no software involved. DIRECTV charges the same fee for their Genie subscribers to use third party televisions, media players and consoles rather than the outboard DIRECTV box.

Software is where the ongoing cost is and development has to happen on both the server and client ends so I don't expect the pricing model to change any time soon.

I thought that DIRECTV charged the same additional receiver fee for their 3rd party tvs . I said as much a page back in this thread.

 

[MikeD-C05]

It has a lot to do with sticker shock. If your an airline and you raise every ticket $50 because fuel costs have skyrocketed over the last 5 years, you will probably get a lot of customers that either won't go or might drive if it is a jump ball on distance. Rather than do that they keep the tickets down and tack on $25 per checked bag at the door where you are less likely to change your plans. Dish advertises low package prices, but they have high fees especially if you are a multi-TV household. They get you in the door with the low price package and then when you find out how much the fees are you are less likely to change your mind. You don't usually see anything in their advertising about THEIR OWN fees. Yet they need these fees to remain profitable because their other costs keep going up.

I couldn't agree more and have said as much in different posts in different threads every since they announced more FEE increases. It is bad enough to be hit with the annual extortion from the Content providers, but to get hit on top of that by DISH for their own made up ,charge it because we can FEES, is totally not acceptable. This double teaming will just cause double churn .

 

[Jim S.]

Since Dish and DTV are really 2 of the largest cable providers they should be moved under the same conditions of cable.

In fact, it would make even MORE sense for satellite companies to be forced to provide access to arbitrary receivers. They are, after all, using the government-controlled radio spectrum. Cable, on the other hand, is using private infrastructure, so I don't even see how their business is any of the government's business at all. So if the government can interfere in something they should have no right to interfere in, they should certainly be interfering in something they DO have the right to interfere in!

 

[mike123abc]

In fact, it would make even MORE sense for satellite companies to be forced to provide access to arbitrary receivers. They are, after all, using the government-controlled radio spectrum. Cable, on the other hand, is using private infrastructure, so I don't even see how their business is any of the government's business at all. So if the government can interfere in something they should have no right to interfere in, they should certainly be interfering in something they DO have the right to interfere in!

Cable uses public right of ways to string their cables... So, essentially you have cable using public right of ways and DBS using public airwaves. Both should be force to adhere to a cable card device of one kind or another. DBS is definitely past the new competitor that needs to be nurtured phase with DTV being the largest provider and Dish being #3! The days of DBS claiming they are new upstart and should not have to adhere to standards like cable cards or the upcoming IPTV standard should be over.

 

[navychop]

So the government dictates more and more, controls more and more, and there is no independent action. Everything goes thru government committees for approval. And NOTHING gets done. There is NO advance.

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