This past weekend 20+ SatelliteGuys members were lucky enough to spend two hours with Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen and Senior Vice President of Programming Eric Sahl. Those folks lucky enough to attend got to hear from these executives totally unscripted, totally honest, 100% uncensored and totally open to our questions.
Why did these guys open up to us? Because they trusted us not to post details of this private meeting on the Internet. TRUST COUNTS.
As you might have seen recently we gave our readers another SatelliteGuys First Look with our “Premiere Review: The DirecTV SWM LNB.” SatelliteGuys staff member Jason Crandall known as “Masterdeals” wrote this review. The review was based on his own findings in testing out the LNB for over 3 months.
The decision to release our review was made after we received word that DirecTV HSP’s now were getting inventories of this amazing LNB. In posting this review we did so without violating any of the rules of the testing program.
It seems as though another website was very upset at us posting our review before they posted theirs and these folks filed a complaint with DirecTV about our review. Here is a portion of this complaint to DirecTV for your review.
Third and most concerning to me is the fact that DirecTV is not only approving DBSTalk’s draft reviews of the product but DirecTV has also requested that edits be made to their review before they would approve it! (And in case your wondering I have this in writing, I am not just talking out my butt here.)
My question to the entire satellite community is how can the folks at DBSTalk call their review a review is it is essentially a review written by DirecTV? From where I sit all of DBSTalks credibility has been shot out the window as it appears they are nothing more then corporate puppets for DirecTV!
Jason’s review for SatelliteGuys was his own heart felt review, which I felt was really well done. Yes it did contain a mistake where Jason noted that the first SWM switch was a 5 port switch when it was actually an 8 port switch.
I have also seen that a number of folks over there are upset that Jason mentioned that you can diplex with the SWM LNB. While you can indeed diplex with the SWM LNB it is NOT recommended or supported by DirecTV. What I find funny about the folks upset about Jason mentioning that it does work with diplexing is that these same folks who are complaining are also the same people who have posted in the private field test forum at DBStalk that they too are diplexing using the SWM LNB.
Jason’s review also contained a few small spelling mistakes, but you know what I liked it. That review was Jasons true feelings about what he feels is an excellent product.
It also appears that that a number of folks are saying that I was the one who wrote the review. This is not the case at all; I unfortunately do not have a SWM LNB. Nor not until recently did I know that Jason was one of the lucky folks selected to test this LNB.
Since CES SatelliteGuys has started building a great relationship with DirecTV, and I have been in contact with DirecTV yesterday and I can see this relationship growing.
I have asked DirecTV for equal access to everything that DBSTalk has access to, and it is something they are working on making a reality for us.
Our philosophy here is we just want to provide our readers and members the satellite industry information they want. I understand that not everyone wants to read SatelliteGuys and would rather get their information from another site and I have no problem with that, but I also understand that folks would rather get their satellite information from one place, and that place is SatelliteGuys.US. And because of that I will take any action that I must to insure that the information is made available to our members.
I am sure a number of folks will say that my words and actions could cause an end to the CE program; I personally don’t see that happening. Sure DirecTV can take their ball and go home but that wouldn’t help anyone. The CE program is an excellent program and for the most part has been well run, Earl did a great job in getting things running. SatelliteGuys has been happy that we have been getting into the CE program and we will continue working to expand our role to make the CE program better for all.
Now I should note that I am working on a few exciting things and honestly I would like this work to include DBSTalk and their members on some of the things I am working on. Honestly the folks at DBSTalk are not bad guys, in fact I have enjoyed working with the DBSTalk guys at places like CES. We just have a different way of doing things, and ultimately that may not be a bad thing. We need to start working together. I fully understand this and have no problem with this. But for to work then both sites need to cut the crap (and I will be the first to admit we are not innocent either.)
To do this it is going to take work and most importantly trust.
I will do what I can to make this happen, but this is a two way street. I can see some exciting things happening for both of our sites if we work together.
I know that some folks will say how can you want to work with these guys after what I posted earlier in this message. If you know me, you know I always tell it like I see it. I felt I needed to show our members what’s really going on behind the scenes. Yes what happened might not be pretty, however the way I look at things I am the kind of person who would rather look ahead then look back at the past.
The way I am looking is forward and I can see some amazing things coming down the line and that should be exciting for all satellite technology lovers out there. So today I offer the olive branch, lets both move on forward and ahead together. All the parties involved know how to reach me, lets see where we go together.
Now in closing let me make a promise to all the SatelliteGuys member, no matter what happens SatelliteGuys will continue to tell you the latest satellite news, rumors, talk and information. We will continue to call it as we see it, and when we review things the review we post will always be our own words. You have our word on that.
Trust us… Trust Counts!
Why did these guys open up to us? Because they trusted us not to post details of this private meeting on the Internet. TRUST COUNTS.
As you might have seen recently we gave our readers another SatelliteGuys First Look with our “Premiere Review: The DirecTV SWM LNB.” SatelliteGuys staff member Jason Crandall known as “Masterdeals” wrote this review. The review was based on his own findings in testing out the LNB for over 3 months.
The decision to release our review was made after we received word that DirecTV HSP’s now were getting inventories of this amazing LNB. In posting this review we did so without violating any of the rules of the testing program.
It seems as though another website was very upset at us posting our review before they posted theirs and these folks filed a complaint with DirecTV about our review. Here is a portion of this complaint to DirecTV for your review.
I have a few problems with the statements made in this complaint to DirecTV, first I am told that there was no non disclosure agreement required by anyone in these tests, thus there was no violation there. Secondly again we waited until the product was released before posting our review.
Third and most concerning to me is the fact that DirecTV is not only approving DBSTalk’s draft reviews of the product but DirecTV has also requested that edits be made to their review before they would approve it! (And in case your wondering I have this in writing, I am not just talking out my butt here.)
My question to the entire satellite community is how can the folks at DBSTalk call their review a review is it is essentially a review written by DirecTV? From where I sit all of DBSTalks credibility has been shot out the window as it appears they are nothing more then corporate puppets for DirecTV!
Jason’s review for SatelliteGuys was his own heart felt review, which I felt was really well done. Yes it did contain a mistake where Jason noted that the first SWM switch was a 5 port switch when it was actually an 8 port switch.
I have also seen that a number of folks over there are upset that Jason mentioned that you can diplex with the SWM LNB. While you can indeed diplex with the SWM LNB it is NOT recommended or supported by DirecTV. What I find funny about the folks upset about Jason mentioning that it does work with diplexing is that these same folks who are complaining are also the same people who have posted in the private field test forum at DBStalk that they too are diplexing using the SWM LNB.
Jason’s review also contained a few small spelling mistakes, but you know what I liked it. That review was Jasons true feelings about what he feels is an excellent product.
It also appears that that a number of folks are saying that I was the one who wrote the review. This is not the case at all; I unfortunately do not have a SWM LNB. Nor not until recently did I know that Jason was one of the lucky folks selected to test this LNB.
Since CES SatelliteGuys has started building a great relationship with DirecTV, and I have been in contact with DirecTV yesterday and I can see this relationship growing.
I have asked DirecTV for equal access to everything that DBSTalk has access to, and it is something they are working on making a reality for us.
Our philosophy here is we just want to provide our readers and members the satellite industry information they want. I understand that not everyone wants to read SatelliteGuys and would rather get their information from another site and I have no problem with that, but I also understand that folks would rather get their satellite information from one place, and that place is SatelliteGuys.US. And because of that I will take any action that I must to insure that the information is made available to our members.
I am sure a number of folks will say that my words and actions could cause an end to the CE program; I personally don’t see that happening. Sure DirecTV can take their ball and go home but that wouldn’t help anyone. The CE program is an excellent program and for the most part has been well run, Earl did a great job in getting things running. SatelliteGuys has been happy that we have been getting into the CE program and we will continue working to expand our role to make the CE program better for all.
Now I should note that I am working on a few exciting things and honestly I would like this work to include DBSTalk and their members on some of the things I am working on. Honestly the folks at DBSTalk are not bad guys, in fact I have enjoyed working with the DBSTalk guys at places like CES. We just have a different way of doing things, and ultimately that may not be a bad thing. We need to start working together. I fully understand this and have no problem with this. But for to work then both sites need to cut the crap (and I will be the first to admit we are not innocent either.)
To do this it is going to take work and most importantly trust.
I will do what I can to make this happen, but this is a two way street. I can see some exciting things happening for both of our sites if we work together.
I know that some folks will say how can you want to work with these guys after what I posted earlier in this message. If you know me, you know I always tell it like I see it. I felt I needed to show our members what’s really going on behind the scenes. Yes what happened might not be pretty, however the way I look at things I am the kind of person who would rather look ahead then look back at the past.
The way I am looking is forward and I can see some amazing things coming down the line and that should be exciting for all satellite technology lovers out there. So today I offer the olive branch, lets both move on forward and ahead together. All the parties involved know how to reach me, lets see where we go together.
Now in closing let me make a promise to all the SatelliteGuys member, no matter what happens SatelliteGuys will continue to tell you the latest satellite news, rumors, talk and information. We will continue to call it as we see it, and when we review things the review we post will always be our own words. You have our word on that.
Trust us… Trust Counts!
Trust is a big deal when things are talked about in private! It is good that he is trusting you and some of the guys that were there with this information, it could be a test to see if he can trust you!! Keep up the good work, we will be listening! 
