Do they think only Spanish-speaking people are interested in soccer? I guess they haven't been reading their email lately.
I would like to know what the ratings breakdown is between the Spanish and English sides for GolTV. I do know that the La Liga ratings for the Hispanic market are excellent. I would guess that La Liga and the Bundesliga attract a fair number of English speaking viewers, while the rest of the leagues probably attract very few.
It does seem like the Spanish speaking bloc is what the two sides are negotiating for with the English speaking viewers being treated as a sort of afterthought. The Setanta thing and the fact that the message from Dish to GolTV viewers is in Spanish on both the Spanish and English channels seems to be designed to keep Spanish language viewers in place during negotiations (and English speakers be damned).
I think you are right in your assessment of Dish and its dealings with Lifetime and VOOM. If GolTV were gone gone, the channels would be dark. Dish has to know (and if they didn't I'm sure GolTV would let them know) that Setanta (even if it were permenantly free which it isn't) would not be a substitute for GolTV, so I think the free preview is sort of a signal to Dish Latino subscribers to "hold tight and excuse us for the inconvenience".
If it takes Dish the same month period it took them with Lifetime to resolve this, it will cut things pretty close. That fourth week is when defections will really start to happen (although if you were stuck early in a contract you may try to wait it out) amongst La Liga fans. My guess (and this is pure speculation) is that the start of the Bundesliga won't be that critical to the dispute being solved.