Dish CEO Charlie Ergen

 

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Username: Fakeman1

Germantown, Maryland USA

Post Number: 170
Registered: Jul-08
C/P TVPredictions.com

Old news but just in case.

Charlie Ergen does not blame subscriber loss to Piracy. "Nice man"


Dish Network Speaks Out On HD, Sub Loss
The satcaster reports a loss of 10,000 net subscribers in the third quarter.
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (November 11, 2008) -- Dish Network yesterday reported that it loss net subscribers for the second straight quarter, sending company shares down nearly 15 percent on Monday.

In its third quarter financial report, Dish said it lost 10,000 net subscribers. The nation's second leading satcaster reported that it lost 25,000 net subscribers in the second quarter.

Dish now has 13.8 million subscribers, compared to 17 million for satellite rival DIRECTV.


Dish CEO Ergen.

In a conference call yesterday with Wall Street analysts, Dish CEO Charlie Ergen addressed several issues including the subscriber loss, the company's High-Definition offering and the ongoing legal battle with DVR maker TiVo.

Ergen on Why Dish Lost Customers:
"In today's environment...,obviously people are shopping for deals and customers are flipping around. They have a variety of choices. So we have to be a little bit careful about that. I think at some point in time you have to be willing to tread a little bit of water, based on the marketplace that's out there.

"There also is the other side of the market where people are going to downscale a little bit. So McDonald's is having really good numbers...because people can save money. So there is certainly a flight to saving money by consumers and we have to take that into consideration."

Ergen On Whether AT&T Partnered With DIRECTV Because Of HDTV:
(Editor's Note: AT&T, which sells satellite TV service in areas in which it does not offer its own U-Verse service, decided this year to drop Dish and sign up DIRECTV as its satellite partner; some have suggested that AT&T favored DIRECTV because it offers more HD channels than Dish.)

"I don't think HD channels would have been a factor. Obviously, not only do we have materially the same amount of channels, I think we have with the next satellite launch capacity to be a leader there. So, I don't think that would be it. Obviously we had the power of incumbency, so there has to do other motivations to make a change and you would really have to just ask AT&T those questions."

Ergen on Dish's Next HD Satellite Launch:
"Hopefully, that satellite is going to go up before the end of the year and be operational early next year. So that's kind of the final launch for us to have a complete system up there and make sure we are competitive from a local-local basis both in standard definition and High Definition television, and competitive from a total channel count in terms of number of channels and number of High-Definition channels."

Ergen on Dish's New Turbo HD Package:
(Editor's Note: Dish this year began selling an HD-only programming package called Turbo HD, starting at $24.99 a month.)
"TurboHD...got us back in the HD game (and) has been successful. Obviously with the launch failure earlier in the year, we didn't have the channel count to be competitive in the marketplace. But we do today and so I think...that puts us the back in the HD game. We really weren't in the game previously. So that's a good thing."

Ergen on the TiVo Lawsuit:
(Editor's Note: Dish recently paid $100 million in damages to DVR maker TiVo for patent infringement. However, the companies are still battling over other aspects of the case.)

"As I've said in previous quarters, regardless of the ruling, we think there's things that TiVo have that we could do together but...obviously this ruling would affect somebody's position in those negotiations, let's put it that way, good or bad."

Ergen on the Digital TV Transition:
"Well, I've been going to Washington for a long time now and I think if the new administration comes in and if they see that consumers -- that the transition is not ready and that consumers could lose their signal -- Congress is going to go out to protect consumers (and delay the transition date.)

"I mean that's their job, right? And I think, look, we are ready. I hope that it's not delayed. But it won't take too many phone calls. I would do the transition a little differently. I think to do the whole country at one time is difficult. But it's more difficult than it has to be but I wouldn't be surprised (that it's delayed). I'm not betting one way or the other."
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Username: Themangod

Post Number: 599
Registered: Oct-06
thank you for this helpful ingo

good find
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