Charlie Ergen making a move for Sirius XM

TSS Taylor

TSS Taylor

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Oct 9, 2008
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Ehilbert1 said:
I know its been a big deal here about the prices going up. I'm just wondering if any of you have Dish Network. They've raised prices again as most cable and satellite companys do. The only problem is they've raised their packages by as much as $10 a month. Some are $5 a month and some are $8 a month. I have DirecTV and they raised prices on each package by $3 and thats it. I'm not saying that by Dish buying SiriusXM they would raise the prices way up like that,but you have to look at their track record. If people hate the prices going up by $2 and the loss of online streaming now just wait. Dish has really raised their prices and they took a way a lot of HD channels that were included in the HD package(Voom Channels) and didn't lower the price of that package when they took them away. The grass might not be greener if they were to buy them out.
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If companies are not turning a profit with the service or product they are selling they have to change something in order to do so. Dish Network if I'm not mistaken is a big value like Satellite Radio, especially when compared to some other packages like Digital Cable.
 
J

Jon

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TSS Taylor said:
If companies are not turning a profit with the service or product they are selling they have to change something in order to do so. Dish Network if I'm not mistaken is a big value like Satellite Radio, especially when compared to some other packages like Digital Cable.
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Charlie Ergen is also a big stickler for keeping costs in line, he's lost a few services like MLBEI because their asking price was entirely too high. And he's also been in a few disputes (as has DIRECTV and cable) with local stations on transmission fees, a few of which he's actually won. As much criticism as he gets from subscribers for being cheap, it means more cost savings in the long run, which is exactly what satellite radio needs.
 
Ehilbert1

Ehilbert1

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TSS Taylor said:
If companies are not turning a profit with the service or product they are selling they have to change something in order to do so. Dish Network if I'm not mistaken is a big value like Satellite Radio, especially when compared to some other packages like Digital Cable.
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I'm not trying to put Dish down. I've just seen on other message boards(DBStalk) were people are really really pissed. A $10 increase is huge. I used to have Time Warner and they nickel and dime you to death.
 
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xan_user

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One thing I like about dish is when a station tries to raise its fee and or shove extra channels down charlies throat, often he says no. The station is replaced with a screen saying this network is trying to raise fees, and dish rather not have the station then pass on unfair price hikes. Usually after a few weeks the stations backs off on the fee and we get the channel back.

I also have one dvr that covers all my tv's I can watch any of my recorded show in any room with a tv and the rf remote goes through walls like a charm. The other guys would charge me for a box in each room and i couldn't wacth all my recorded shows on any tv.

Is charlie a saint? No.
Are prices going up? Yes.
I just prefer how dish operates and for the $ I feel i get good value. better than the alternatives anyway.
Who knows maybe Echo can save SirusXM?
 
drdroo

drdroo

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Charlie Ergen is a self made man in a big way, especially in the satellite industry.

Echostar had a successful bid and purchase of basically coast-to-coast 700mhz spectrum back in the auction last year. Those SiriusXM repeater sites are probably extremely well thought out locations which could be used to install 700mhz gear for his future plans. That's what makes the most sense to me. Obviously keeping the existing SiriusXM servic would make sense as well.

Verizon, AT&T, EchoStar Biggest FCC 700 MHz Auction Winners

Charlie is big on the money aspect of business, always has been. Dish is not THAT far from DirecTV's subscription count (I believe they're within a few million) and Dish doesn't do nearly as much advertising as DirecTV does. For instance, DirecTV has a lot of money wrapped up in Best Buy, Circuit City, they've done ads on Papa Johns boxes, etc. Dish basically relies on the Internet, local dealers, and Radio Shack/Sears. Overall, this model has worked for him, except in recent times where customers churned out. He will win those customers back, ultmately, and in the meantime they still make a profit.

I believe I said previously on SBS that this would actually be a pretty ideal situation. I actually thought they'd make a play for Sirius instead of Sirius and XM merging.
 
drdroo

drdroo

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Ehilbert1 said:
I'm not trying to put Dish down. I've just seen on other message boards(DBStalk) were people are really really pissed. A $10 increase is huge. I used to have Time Warner and they nickel and dime you to death.
Click to expand...

The largest increase I saw was 8$, and that was on DDA. As it goes, they're giving me a 3$ credit until the end of 2009 for my DDA, which brings my increase to 5$. This is the first time I've seen an increase I think in about 3 years. Meanwhile they've added a buttload of HD. I'm not thrilled about paying more but 5$ is pretty minor in the swing of things.

Don't get me wrong, increases are a bummer, but my local cable company (Time Warner) has plans that START at about 60 bucks.
 
Scott Greczkowski

Scott Greczkowski

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This is all starting to add up now.

The last time I talked to Charlie he was like his mind was elsewhere, I tried talking to him about his Echostar and Dish Network products and he didn't really know anything going on. This told me that Charlie was working on something else, as he normally knows h is product. And I knew whatever it was had to be big.

Now I think I got an idea what it is.

Charlie is no dummy.

Charlie will do best for him and his company, however I feel that he would have zero regard for Sirius shareholders. Thats the only thing that scares me.
 
X

xan_user

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All these corps that do nothing but look out for shareholders/wall street are one of the many reasons our economy is floundering.

The customer is just another line item on the income side of a spread sheet, nothing more.

Sure capitol is needed for launches, but in the end the customer pays the bills.

When did "the customer is always right." turn into,

"How can we bleed our loyal customers more to increase shareholder dividends?"

edit; fwiw, i think Charlie does better than most CEO's at balancing the shareholders greed with customer service and product value.

also satellite has had to spend a lot lately to comply with the da guberments switch to HD. All those locals they must carry are now taking up way more bandwith to deliver, just so we can watch our local news and weather. To me that justifies the rate increase, not that i get anything more but I don't see Carlie winning a battle with the FCC. (im sure he'd love too)
 
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Jon

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I've got nothing but good things to say about Echostar, cost effective, the only TV provider with an HD-Only package (or packages I guess it is now). There have been a few channel changes that have upset me a bit (Smithsonian HD) but nothing that would make me want to drop it.
 
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MichaelC

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Oct 14, 2008
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If this comes to fruition, it'll be interesting to see if Echostar markets it as a separate service.....or if they'll try to tie it into Dish somehow (like a bundled package, where if you subscribe to Dish you can get satellite radio at a discounted rate, etc.)....or if it'll be a combination of the 2.
 
M

MNXMFan

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Oct 24, 2008
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This is the beginning of a hostile takeover, not Echostar buying equity.

If they buy up 51% of the debt load, then they can refuse to negotiate and force Sirius XM into bankruptcy. Thats the play here. Then, they buy the company up for pennies on the dollar, and wipe out shareholders completely.

I'm not sure what the market doesn't understand about this. Again, they are buying up the debt, not the stock. Regardless of whether the FCC allows it or not is irrelavent. If the FCC doesn't allow it, then Echostar could just use it as a writedown, or they could find another buyer.

The DOJ might be interested, however.
 
drdroo

drdroo

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The satellite TV merger wouldn't work for several reasons. This has already been discussed a lot. I agree that it still probably wouldn't go through.

For those of us who don't give a crap about HD Sports Packages (for instance I'm a Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics and Redwings fan generally, but I'm alright with watching Bruins too), DirecTV is expensive. Their customers pay for those packages most of the time even though they don't have the specialized packages.

DirecTV has itself to blame., They want to continue exclusivity on the NFL Sunday Ticket, for instance, and everyone suffers.

Choice is a great thing, I agree. I would never be a DirecTV customer ever again, for many reasons.
 
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