Pegasus Plans to Leave SBCA in 2003

[Steve Mehs]

Saying it's disappointed with the direction of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association, Pegasus confirmed last week that it will resign from the organization effective January 2002.

In a letter sent to SBCA President Andrew Wright, dated July 30, Pegasus President Ted Lodge took issue with the SBCA's board decision to endorse the pending $26 billion merger with DirecTV and Hughes. "The SBCA has abdicated its true charter, and is now a captive organization," Lodge said in the letter.

"Your organization now represents the interests of two organizations, DirecTV and EchoStar, which desire to become one organization with the help of the SBCA," the letter said. According to the two sides, Pegasus will remain with the SBCA for the rest of 2002.

In response, Wright said the SBCA will be working to convince Pegasus to reconsider its decision to leave at the end of the year. "Pegasus has been a long time active supporter of the SBCA, and they have both given and received real value through their association with us," Wright said, emphasizing the leadership Pegasus has brought to the SBCA and about how good the company has been as a member.

Wright added that the SBCA is a board-driven organization and member companies set its policies. Last November, the SBCA board of directors directed the executive committee to establish an association policy concerning the merger. That committee, including Pegasus' Mark Pagon and others, met in December, debated the issue, and set the SBCA's policy on the deal.

The SBCA endorsed the merger at that December meeting.

From SkyReport (http://www.skyreport.com) (Used with Permission)

[James_F]

Don't let the door hit you and the way out!

[jrjcd]

it must be skyreports typo-this is the second time i've seen the date listed as january of 2002(in which case, better pack quick)...

keep in mind that peg is basically an uber-dealer who lucked out signing an incredible exclusionary deal with DTV way back when for certain areas of the country-but they are no way the same as DTV or echo...

all it would take to knock the sticks out from under them is for E* to change their post merger marketing strategy and just operate under the E* brand name-DTV goes into storage and peg goes down the toilet...

[James_F]

Yea, but the DirecTV name is much more valuable than the DishNetwork name. As much trouble it will be dealing with Pegasus, its much better to keep the bigger name.

[Mike500]

Pegasus has been gouging DirecTV subscribers for six years. It's about to end, and they don't like it. They fear having to deal with Carlie Ergen, who did not make the original deal between them and DirecTV. Pegasus, Serve your customers; not just your self interest. Maybe it would help, if you knew what a win-win situation with your customers is.

[jrjcd]

james, that would make sense if there were like...ah...several dbs companies out there....

after the merger, they could call it charlie's shoehorn satellite and still sell, being the only game in town...

[James_F]

But the average person knows the DirecTV name. Heck my grandmother has dish, but calls it DirecTV.. :shrug: The name is so much more valuable.

It doesn't matter, they have already chosen the DirecTV name for the company for tax reasons. Maybe the'll have two levels of service, a DirecTV high end with sports and HDTV, and a Dish lowend with supers and movies... Who knows....

[Scott Greczkowski]

Wow its almost like people calling cellophane tape, scotch tape. :D

Funny how come names stick.

Their DSS name is now almost totaly history, its rare that I hear someone call them DSS. :)

[jrjcd]

if you broadcast it, they will come....

[MarkA]

Really, you rarely hear people saying "DSS" refering to DirecTV? I hear it fairly often. Heck, there's a store in town that by the satellite receivers for DirecTV that still has one of those old "DSS" signs with the DSS name and 6" model dish in the middle, and the DirecTV and USSB names to the sides...

[James_F]

Originally posted by jrjcd
if you broadcast it, they will come....

I'm sure the investors like the DirecTV name. I'd say the Dish name doesn't hold as much value. That said they haven't merged yet so who the heck knows!

[jrjcd]

...the shadow...?????

[jrjcd]

James, it's not that i disagree with you, but if peg gets uppity and E* can solve the problem by simply retiring the DTV name as opposed to a long drawnout court battle, i suspect they may do the former...

[Mike500]

Originally posted by Scott Greczkowski
Wow its almost like people calling cellophane tape, scotch tape. :D

Funny how come names stick.

Their DSS name is now almost totaly history, its rare that I hear someone call them DSS. :)


Yeah, in England, you still Hoover the carpet.

[jrjcd]

you hoover things in america, you might end up finding electronic listening devices in the house...lol

[James_F]

Originally posted by jrjcd
James, it's not that i disagree with you, but if peg gets uppity and E* can solve the problem by simply retiring the DTV name as opposed to a long drawnout court battle, i suspect they may do the former...

We'll see, they'll have to weigh the costs of the litigation vs the costs of marketing a new name.

[jrjcd]

costs aren't that sunstantial when you have no one to compete against...lol

besides-just get rat shack to foot the bill with howie and teri explaining things to the great unwashed...

[James_F]

Originally posted by jrjcd
costs aren't that sunstantial when you have no one to compete against...lol

Digital Cable?


besides-just get rat shack to foot the bill with howie and teri explaining things to the great unwashed...

What they heck are you talking about? :confused:

[RichW]

I predict that the new echostar will invent a brand new trade name. You guys over-estimate the value of the DirecTV trademark. Just look at the cell phone business as an example. Verizon and Cingular have no problem with name recognition.

[jrjcd]

well, e* saves a lot of money having rat shack pay to advertise that DTV is now dish network and all the wonderful goodies you used to see on DTV are now on them(howie long and teri hatcher have been their spokepeople for several years-the "great unwashed" is an old generic phrase used to describe average people on the street)

cable, analog or digital, despite the repeated mea culpas by charlie and the chocolate factory, is not the "real" competition in this context-as far as cable competition goes, at this point, we go back to the "charlie's shoehorn satellite" post for all it's relevancy...

rich makes a good point, as around here, verizon used to be GTE and Cingular used to be SWBell wireless before the name changes(heck-my mobile company-Voicestream-is about to change their name from something nifty sounding to "T-Mobile"-how lame is THAT???-but i suspect it would impact their business much)

[James_F]

Originally posted by jrjcd
cable, analog or digital, despite the repeated mea culpas by charlie and the chocolate factory, is not the "real" competition in this context-as far as cable competition goes, at this point, we go back to the "charlie's shoehorn satellite" post for all it's relevancy...

How do you figure? Anything that keeps people from purchasing satellite tv is a competitor.

Dish doesn't have the money to invent a new brand. They are leveraged to purchase DirecTV so they must take advantage of every opportunity. Why invent the wheel when DirecTV is already and established brand?

[jrjcd]

i'm not saying they should or shouldn't-all i'm saying is that it would be an easy way to resolve the peg question if peg decides to become too big for their britches..and i guess my dad is a competitor because he thinks paying for TV, be it cable or satellite, is idiocy(he's 82, btw, and didn't own a color TV until well into the eighties-the one he has now only has a 20 inch picture-he has this thing about reading books being a better pastime)...the comment about my dad was intended as humour, just to be clear about it before anyone says anything...

in any event, this is all i have to say on this subject, as i am repeating myself at this point-you are probably right, james-they will keep the DTV tag...

[markh]

If I remember the way it was going to go is that Echostar was going to be merged into Hughes with Hughes being the surviving company. Then the name was going to be changed to Echostar.
I think it has to be done that way for GM to get it's money out of Hughes tax free.

Charlie said on a chat or in an interview that the sat service was going to be called DirecTV. Name recognition and all that. I don't think Pegasus will just give up if they call it Dish instead, at least not as long as they stand to gain from being there. I wonder how other NRTC affiliates will react to this?

At least according to the guys at the local Radio Shack( independently owned and run by guys who know what they're doing) the local NRTC guys are good to work with but one county over is Pegasus territory. They told me Pegasus = Bad News

[Chuck W]

Originally posted by markh
If I remember the way it was going to go is that Echostar was going to be merged into Hughes with Hughes being the surviving company. Then the name was going to be changed to Echostar.
I think it has to be done that way for GM to get it's money out of Hughes tax free

I don't think so. In simple terms, Charlie will roll Echostar into Directv(kinda like Directv buying Dish), but Charie will become owner and CEO of the company, which will use the Directv name because of brand recognition.

[Geronimo]

There was already an official announcement on the corporate and tade names to be used.

The Pegasus claim is only partly based on the use of the Nme DirecTV. Persoanlly I don't think it holds water. But it does show you the flaw in the "natioanl pricing" statements.

[James_F]

DirecTV will be the surviving company (for tax reasons), so it doesn't matter what they call it, Pegasus will try and mess it up...