[Guest]

EchoStar Communications Corp., the nation's second biggest satellite TV provider, reported a smaller loss for the fourth quarter than a year ago but it was a larger deficit than Wall Street expected.

It signed up 400,000 net subscribers to its Dish Network in the quarter, and ended 2001 with 6.83 million Dish Network subscribers. This month it gained its 7 millionth subscriber.

Click here to read

Nice surge today on the stock price as well.

 

[Guest]

Wonder how much of the sucking sound at Echostar was from subscribers running to gete DirecTivos?

Scott

 

[Guest]

lol....

 

[Guest]

I wonder how much free equipment and how many installer man-hours can be attributed to must-carry?

Examples... twin lnb's, sw-21's, sw-64's, renting space for Philly....

 

[Guest]

The reason for the larger than expected loss are ONE TIME write offs in Wild Blue and Starband. Wild Blue is now a totally written off investment and Starband is approaching that point.

 

[Guest]

"Wonder how much of the sucking sound at Echostar was from subscribers running to gete DirecTivos?"

Apparently not much. Subscriber additions were on a par with DirecTV. There is still a lot of buyer resistance to PVRs, especially those with monthly fees. And Microsofts abandonment of Ultimate TV doesn't help the PVR market.

 

[Guest]

"Microsofts abandonment of Ultimate TV doesn't help the PVR market."

That is a pretty misleading statement. MS did not abandon UltimateTV. I have two units and they still work great, and I expect they will for quite some time. They have discontinued new development but have pledged to keep supporting their existing customers. Similar to Oldsmobile not making any more cars, but continuing to support the ones out there.

Trust me, going from a PVR501 to UTV was like going from an old 486 to a P4. Even a UTV with no further advances kicks the 501's butt. Well worth the $10 per month. No offense, but E* is really far behind D* in PVR development and fielding, and I am one of many customers who have moved from E* to D* for that reason alone.

Karl

 

[Guest]

You might be interested in this take on UTV:

www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/...78,00.html

 

[Guest]

MS did not abandon UltimateTV.

But they will, given their track record in the pc market. You can barely get support for Win95 anymore, although the installed base is still quite large.

 

[Guest]

Ultimate TV... Ultimate Failure!!!

 

[Guest]

"Ultimate TV... Ultimate Failure!!!"

I'm sorry, but as a former PVR501 subscriber - I'll take my UTV twice every day and three times on Sunday over that single-tuner, broken-down, program-erasing, piece-of-hud 501. You may not want to buy one, but while I am currently enjoying my dual-tuner PVR, Dish subscribers can only dream of when Dish will actually release the 721. I have two UTV receivers and have never had a problem, unlike my 501. In defense of DirecTivo, it is also a great piece of equipment.

 

[Guest]

But the point of the referenced article is that Microsoft seems to be making an orphan out of UTV.
It wasn't so long ago that the Dishplayer was touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then MS ashifted its support to the back burner. It will be interesting to see if you feel the same way about UTV a year from now.

Like just about every dot.com that had a business model based upon a subscription, PVRs are not making it from a business perspective. Even Tivo is on shaky financial ground. Every false start or abandoned product lessens consumer confidence in PVRs. Microsoft's attitude is hurting, not helping, the PVR industry.