Moody's raises Echostar

[John Corn]

http://www.forbes.com/newswire/2003/04/22/rtr946630.html

The competitive landscape also serves to constrain the ratings somewhat, as well as a more positive ratings bias. While Moody's believes that EchoStar will continue to benefit competitively from its position as the low cost provider of pay television video services, the company will find itself under increasing competitive pressure in portions of its national footprint as ever larger cable multiple system operators (MSOs) complete their system upgrades and more aggressively market a bundled service offering including digital video, high speed Internet access and, in certain areas, telephony. While Moody's believes that EchoStar will remain dominant at the entry level for video service, it will increasingly find itself having to compete for high end subscribers that will be necessary to grow subscriber cash flows and improve the economics of its current business model.

[Mark L]

I don't see why such a big deal is made out of Echostar possibly not being able to compete for the "high-end" subs in the future? People who want the best of both worlds will just do like I do currently, sub to Dish for television and sub to Time Warner for Road Runner. I get superior television to cable this way, and internet only cable can offer. How would this be too difficult for someone to do? I don't think Dish(or DBS in general) will have any problems competing with digital cable for the high end subs.

[Chris Freeland]

Originally posted by Mark L
I don't see why such a big deal is made out of Echostar possibly not being able to compete for the "high-end" subs in the future? People who want the best of both worlds will just do like I do currently, sub to Dish for television and sub to Time Warner for Road Runner. I get superior television to cable this way, and internet only cable can offer. How would this be too difficult for someone to do? I don't think Dish(or DBS in general) will have any problems competing with digital cable for the high end subs.

Except that many cable tv companies offer big discounts when one bundles cable tv and cable internet service. Comcast Internet here in Chattanooga is $15 per month cheaper when bundled with cable tv then when it is sold without cable tv service. E* and D* will not be able to compete with this unless they can do a workable satellite internet service at a competitive price.

[Jacob S]

And thats what Dish is going to try to do at 121, am I right?

[dbronstein]

Originally posted by Chris Freeland
Except that many cable tv companies offer big discounts when one bundles cable tv and cable internet service. Comcast Internet here in Chattanooga is $15 per month cheaper when bundled with cable tv then when it is sold without cable tv service. E* and D* will not be able to compete with this unless they can do a workable satellite internet service at a competitive price.

Not really, because cable still gets creamed by satellite on reliability and customer service. I have AT&T internet (now Comcast) and they offer $10 off if you get cable TV as well, but they'd have to give me the TV service free before I'll switch back. I used to have them and the service just flat out sucked. There were outages all the time, and any time you called it was an hour on hold (literally). That's why I got Dish in the first place. The only reason I got the cable modem is it's my only broadband option since I can't get DSL.

Dennis

[BobMurdoch]

To say nothing of those shrill Emergency Broadcast System Test breakins they always seemed to do in the middle of my shows.

The ONLY thing I miss is local info on the Weather Channel and Philadelphia locals (here in Central NJ I got both NYC and Philly locals, but Satellite says I ONLY qualify for NYC)