[Todd Humphrey]

Here is a link to our press release

http://www.dbsinstall.com/dbsinstall-merger-statement.htm

 

[Richard King]

I am a dealer who is for the merger. Not because of the business it will bring me, but because I think it is the best thing for the customer. I have no idea if my business will increase or decrease post merger. By the way, I have never heard of the above organization and can only wonder how many members they have.

If a merger is approved, it is strongly thought that Echostar will slowly eliminate the independent retailer and installer, leaving consumers no choice of what to get or who to get it from.

This will happen eventually with or without a merger. I am amazed the independent dealers (myself included) have lasted as long as they have.

Charlie Ergen, C.E.O. of Echostar, has made statements that in the event of a merger NO current DISH customer will need to have their DBS equipment changed. A statement was also made that Echostar would adopt the DirecTV brand name. The only conclusion you can make is, Echostar will replace the over 15 million current DirecTV receivers with equipment that is labeled DirecTV, but will actually be Echostar's DISH platform.

I have heard no such statement from Charlie or anyone else at DISH. I have heard that no decision has been made on a surviving platform several times. The move to retain the DirecTv name is an obvious business decision since that name is better known than Dish Network. Your stated "only conclusion" is not the only conclusion.

We wonder why the local networks for Burlington, Vermont were added to DISH networks local station line up. Burlington Vermont is the 90th largest market in the county. When currently serving only 40 U.S. markets why skip to the 90th. Could it be that Echostar is trying to influence Senator Patrick Lehey of Vermont? Is this an attempt to influence the chairperson of the judiciary committee to secure his support? We do not know, but it raises questions and concerns for us.

Vermont has one of the highest DBS penetrations in the US. Serving the whole state makes sense simply because of the penetration. As for influencing their Senator, this sounds like a smart move on their part. Swing the consumer by providing locals, swing the Senator by serving the consumer. I don't understand why this would "concern" you.

 

[lee635]

DBSinstall?????

Looks like a new webpage. Let's just see if anything on that bugger changes in the next few months.

What no message board?

 

[Todd Humphrey]

RK401,

Thankyou for your comments.

Mr.Ergen did indeed make those statements on a Charlie Chat very soon after the merger was announced. They may have changed thier first action plan, but they are not telling us a thing. Don't you think the public has a right to know what will happen after a merger, before the goverment hands over all the public DBS braodcast band full conus slots to one company?
We do.

As far as Vermont. The population of the Burlingtom DMA is at least 1/2 that of much larger cities that do not have local channels. From a business standpoint I would think that you would offer networks in larger market were you did not have the market penitration. This would result in far more new activations.

www.dbsinstall.com is a consumer website with tech tips, glossary, FAQ's and a list of all our members. Soon web site visitors will be able to sort though the list by zip and product or services each member provides.

The members of dbsinstall.com visit the companion site of www.dbsinstallsupport.com. The member site features a forum and after the Las Vegas convention we will begin our online educational program, knowledgebase, co-op shopping service and many more services. Our current membeship is 188 companies and we add 2 to 5 a day.

I invite you to visit, look around and see if we have anything to offer you.

Have a nice day.

Todd Humphrey

It takes no skill to be the cheapest

 

[John Corn]

Very nice site Todd, I was over there looking around and registered. :righton:

 

[Nick]

"It takes no skill to be the cheapest"

Richard, was that a cheap shot - - or just a poor choice of tag lines?

 

[Richard King]

Mr.Ergen did indeed make those statements on a Charlie Chat very soon after the merger was announced.

Having watched every dealer chat since day one, including all after the merger was announced, I can recall no such statement. I can however, recall many statements that the decision has not been made as to which way the hardware decision will go.

Don't you think the public has a right to know what will happen after a merger

Not if such decisions are still undecided. There was an announcement a while back that DTV was "parting ways" with NDS and developing their own incryption system. If in fact they come up with a system that works better, is secure and is owned by them, why would Dish make a public announcement that they were going to keep their system before the new DTV system is released to see if it remains unhacked?

 

[Richard King]

Richard, was that a cheap shot - - or just a poor choice of tag lines?

I don't take that as a cheap shot at all. After all, that is one statement in the above comment that I agree with. Additionally, anyone with that philosophy wouldn't be able to take "cheap shots". They would leave that to the "cheapest".

 

[Mike123abc]

Well it does not look like a combined E* will have the market cornered forever. Looks like at least 2 other DBS companies want to enter the market. While they may have the current DBS orbital slots for CONUS, there is still the KA band which has a lot of slots with CONUS available.

Also you have to remember that bandwidth rules are something the FCC makes up (yeah I know some international treaties). They could for example let a C band slot turn into a DBS slot. The C band satellite could be replace with a high power satellite that transmits with DBS power on the C band frequencies allowing small dish C band reception.

I know it is unlikely and there would probably be all sorts of problems with it both technically and politically, but the point is that if it becomes a problem, the "exclusive" lock on CONUS that ED* would have is not 100% exclusive, enough pressure on the FCC and suddenly new solutions would emerge.

I think the main concern is that no other company would bother to compete. After the merger there will be an established company transmitting on 130+ transponders with LIL to all markets. All the easy fruit would be picked and unless you had big bucks to launch a few satellites all at the same time it would be really hard to compete.

 

[Richard King]

I love it when idle speculation is passed off as fact.