Questions for the November Charlie Chat

What issues would you like to see discussed on the next Charlie Chat. What questions would you like to ask. Post them here.

When will IFC/RC finallly be split? And why didnt it happen on 4/1/01 like Charie said. I know the reason, I just want to hear him say it.

Steve

You guys add "goodlife TV", & the rest of the MTV themed music video channels? Add more Audio channels like Talk Radio formats and old time Radio stations in Stereo and not the crappy Mono feeds. "The we are in negotiations is getting old".....

Charlie Chats are only there because Charlie loves to put himself on TV and says his usual share of Dish propaganda. He probably stares at his bathroom mirror and marvels how good he looks on TV. Give a guy 5 minutes on TV and he would say anything. The bad thing about the Charlie Chats is that its a show that only Jerry Seinfeld would love. Its the only show on Tv right now that is about nothing. This is a show that would put the sleeping pill makers out of business. Want to sleep? No need to take the pills.....just watch those boring Charlie Chats. There now......feel better??? (SNORE!!!) Ahhhh instant relief :D

Charlie Chats are so predictable too:

1)Its time to chat with Charlie. Oh no...there's a pic of Charlie with his eyelids shut....Gee...I guess Charlie Chats puts him to sleep too. Hes so tired rehearsing "Were in Negotiations". Oh darn....Charlie's awake. "Honey, wake me up in the morning.....Im getting sleepy already and he hasnt even spoke a word....the power of Charlie......SNORE!!"

2)Time to see Jim Ferguson interview himself. Hey wait...Jim is actually sweating being asked questions by himself. Now this is classic TV.

3)Charlie announces that 123 new shopping channels get added to the lineup soon. "Honey, I am sure Charlie has a channel that will sell those Yoko Ono and William Shatner Cds you long want". Hey.,..Charlie has the Torture Channel. Yes....who needs National Geographic Channel and the sports channels when I can get Weird Al Yankovic selling Silly Putty for 100 bucks. Thank you Charlie....youre the best!!

4)Charlie takes questions from the audience. Here's a question:

Question: Charlie, I think you are so awesome. I have a question. Can I have your autograph and Jim Ferguson's and Britany's too??? I watch all your showings of Chats and the Tech Chats. Youre the best!!

5) Charlie then announces that he will have new foreign channels soon. He then states that to those who wants sports, go to Dish. Dish has plenty of sports. I see.....let me tune to Fox Sports Detroit. Hey....its blacked out. Thats so cool. Its the Phoenix Suns versus the Pistons in the dark. But no sound...I can imagine whats going on.......ahhhhhhhh. Its Dish night at Auburn Hills and nobody came. Now thats more like it. :D

6) Charlie then has his traditional monthly giveaway. Its Turtle Wax night and whoever answers the quesion right about "Who is Tanya Memme?" Oh thats right....nobody got that right. Guess that means Charlie keeps the Turtle Wax all to himself. Charlie gives himself the high five.

7) Charlie announces that the next Charlie Chat will be live from the ring of WWF Monday Night Raw with a live audience of 20,000 WWF fanatics. Now.....I wonder....The Dudleys versus Charlie and Jim Ferguson.....Gotta tape that on DirecTivo.

Of course...this is my opinion.....I could be in negotiations with myself too. :D

Can you tell us how to shop for a TV? :rolleyes: :

Would you be willing to please, PRETTY PLEASE WITh SUGAR ON TOP!!!, be willing to fix the BLINKO TS (u is deliberately missing) on the DISHPLAYER?!?!?!!?!? Or else give me a 501. Free.

My (sorta funny, sorta serious) question to Charlie.

Will you be providing KY Jelly to all your customers who you screwed over who have a Dishpplayer?

Charlie (and Dish Employees) please understand, for the most part the bugs DON'T BUG ME! The problem is MY WIFE DONT LIKE THE BUGS and I AM THE ONE WHO HAS TO DEAL WITH HER when her show does not record!

Scott

How about competitively pricing the upcoming 721 with the currently available directivo? With the current prices of $348 for the directivo ($99 + $249 sub fee) a price of $499 or $599 is going to be difficult to justify for 2 tuners and a 120 gig hard drive.

How about offering an upgrade program for current owners of a 501 - say $199 to upgrade to a 721 from a 501?

When the 721 comes out, how about reducing the price of the 501s - say to $199?

How about letting us either connect a 2nd drive to our 501s or letting us upgrade the drive to something significantly larger than 40 gig?

How about taking the tech forum out of the hands of the marketing department and putting them back in the hands of the tech department where it belongs?

Will the 921 be capable of receiving OTA HD channels without an adaptor module? If not, how about making an 8vsb v.2 (or whatever you'll call it) that doesn't make so much noise with its fan?

How about opening up the manufacture of dish equipment to other electronics manufacturers?

Will the 721 have 2 outputs than can be active simultaneously - i.e. will I be able to watch one program (live or PVR'd) and spool another program (live or PVR'd) to a vcr? Or spool 2 different programs to 2 different vcrs?

How about adding a tagging system to the interface so that multiple PVR'd events can be tagged and deleted, or watched sequentially?

How about adding slow motion controls to the 501, 721, 921?

How about upgrading the interface of the 501 so that it looks the same as the views of the 721 interface that we've seen?

How about not putting advertising on the guide screen of the 721?

How about assigning someone or a team to officially participate in this forum and at DBSForums to provide us a direct communication link with the people we need to talk to at E*? Call the position the Internet Liason Officer, and fill the position with a technical person that can answer the difficult questions that we have.

How about uncompressing the signal enough that the picture looks good on televisions larger than 27"? In the last tech forum they forgot to mention that when looking to purchase a television, you really don't one larger than 27" otherwise you'll be disappointed with the picture quality.

Have you been asked to remove the arabic channels or censor them in any way by the US government? If so, what was your response?

How about locking down a definite date for the displayer fixes, and for the added 501 features? In the professional world there are deadlines that are public knowledge that have to be met, even if it means working more than 40 hours per week. How about setting some deadlines and holding your staff to them by telling *us* when they are?

Is there any possibility of improving the overall picture quality in the coming year? Or maybe a package of videophile quality channels that could be purchased for a nominal extra fee...for those of us who would like "laserdisc picture quality with CD sound!" - Hey...that could be your marketing slogan!

It seems to me DBS in general, and E* in particular has been lacking in anything exciting for us consumers. Yep the merger or sale of DirecTV makes for good press and forum discussions, but the glamour of DBS is fading.

At least DirecTV added some new channels recently. How about giving us exisitng subs something to cheer about again.

rlw, good points, but on the DirecTV side the UltimateTV and DirecTIVO are VERY exisiting while Dish Network has basically gone the cheap and crappy route with the Dishplayer and the PVR-501.

I'd like to see Dish Network bite the bullet and get a new Dishplayer ala UltimateTV or even a DishTIVO in the works.

Their attempt to keep everything inhouse is now hurting them.

Just think on todays earnings call, Charlie Ergen said that Dish is the leader in PVR technology.

I guess Charlie never used a Tivo. Or perhaps he does have a Tivo and one of the tech drew a 501 on the Box to fool him.

Scott

A reminder to those with questions. Along with discussion of the issues here, be sure to use the E-Mail address Echostar has setup specifically for the Charlie Chats. That E-Mail is: CharlieChat@Echostar.Com

WHEN WILL THE DISHPLAYER BLINKOUTS BE FIXED?!?!?

Can we all return these buggy dishplayers for a complete refund. You guys can have them.

Will he give a straight answer? only if someone who gets thru asks

How can anybody expect quality PVRs when the CEO believes in sack lunches and staying at Hotel 6?? Its simply a reflection on the CEO that the hardware is buggy. Think of what life would be like if there was a ED merger.

1. Charlie, since my birthday is on the 14th and I don't have any more seperate WCW shows to watch, could you add America One TV so I can catch my XPW and all of the other cool stuff they offer?

2. When are you planning on making an America's Top 200? I know it's inevitable, but I was wondering if you could give a timeframe. I know that since must-carry is kicking it, it will delay things. Do you think that you'll be able to create that package to compete with digital cable in a year or two?

3. (IF DISH WINS D* BID) How are you planning on packaging our new channels? You said on a former Charlie Chat that ALL current D* programming would be on the merged service. Will Trio and Newsworld be in AT100? How will all of this work out? Are you keeping the PPV sports packages?

4. Last but not least, I know that this is almost an unheard-of channel, but I did some investigating and it looked very good. It's called Varsity TV. It looks VERY cool, and I would really like to get it. Can you look into it?

Think the chat will get postponed because of the merger?

I dont think it will be postponed but the majority of the Chat will be about the aquisition of D* and there will be alot of questions about it. Can wait!!

Steve

How will the merger, if approved, affect the outstanding issues with Young Broadcasting and carriage of their Nashville, San Francisco, and Los Angeles outlets?

Which platform will survive and when might we expect to see solid timetables for customer conversions? Or is this going to be used as an opportunity to switch ALL subs to an as-yet undeployed new technology?

"How will the merger, if approved, affect the outstanding issues with Young Broadcasting and carriage of their Nashville, San Francisco, and Los Angeles outlets?"

DirecTV probably has made a long term contract with Young Broadcasting, maybe over 5 years. Echostar-DirecTV would probably use this contract until it expired, but after thats over, they'd probably need to renew it, and need to come to retransmission.

How will the merger affect the competition between cable and DBS?

What do you plan to do to protect rural subscribers?

Is there any room left for c-band in rural areas or do you see the continued decline in that service?

Will E* give current Dishplayer owners some kind of special incentive to upgrade to the 721.
$499 is too much for someone to spend after they have suffered with the Dishplayer for a couple of years.

FYI, I've e-mailed all of the questions here to CharlieChat@Echostar.Com.

And I have it on good authority that the group producing the Charlie Chat is watching this thread for questions to address during the show. So, if there's anything else you want to ask, post it here and send it to charliechat@echostar.com