Charlie Speaks of Disapointment

[Scott Greczkowski]

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/031111/1417001393_1.html

 

[dmodemd]

Ahhh... so thats why he swept the whole HD thing under the rug last night. The last two chats he was all proud "we will be THE LEADER in HD!" ..--SPECIAL HD CHARLIE CHAT--. Now he's like.. "oh yeah, those receivers, they'll be out next month... NEXT QUESTION!"

 

[Bill R]

As I have said before, Charlie is running the engineering department too lean. He needs to take some of that $3.2 BILLON in cash that Echostar has and invest it in things that will results in better, on-time products (i.e bugfree on introduction). He needs to pay and treat his engineer better and he sure needs more of them so that they don't have to continue to work 60 hours (or more) a week.

 

[rad]

Charlie's disappointed, what about his customers when they issue statements like:

DISH Network will further strengthen a high-definition product line that currently includes the popular model 6000 with the release of the DISH Player-DVR 921, available by the end of October. The first-of-its-kind high-definition digital video recorder (DVR) will carry an MSRP of $999. It will feature a 250-gigabyte hard drive capable of recording up to 25 hours of high-definition video or up to 180 hours of standard-definition content, or some combination of both.

and they can't make their dates. This was from the 9/5 press release and we're still hearing vague dates like 'sometime in December' with a maybe thrown in for good measure.

Charlie and company need to get a good swift kick in their stock portfolio, make them feel a little pain. Maybe then they will fix their engineering department so they stop marketing substandard hardware that's late, lacking features, and bug ridden.

 

[Guest]

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=DISH


Dish is down almost 5 bucks today

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Listening to the Chat now.

I want some of what Charlies smoking.

http://biz.yahoo.com/cc/7/36077.html

 

[rtt2]

NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters) - EchoStar Communications Corp. (DISH) shares fell to a five-month low on Tuesday, a day after the No. 2 satellite broadcaster posted slower-than- expected subscriber growth at its Dish Network service.

The company, facing pressure from new services at cable companies and from archrival DirecTV, said delays in deliveries of high definition television products would mean it misses out on the holiday season boost in consumer spending.

"We clearly missed all of September and I think for the most part we're going to miss the holiday season," said Chief Executive Charlie Ergen, who blamed himself for the short fall during an analysts on a telephone conference.

"Even if you get the product out in the next three weeks ... you get a little bit of it, but I don't think we're going to get too much bang there," Ergen said, adding that EchoStar was distracted by its failed efforts last month to buy bankrupt satellite maker and operator Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (LRLSQ) .......

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yeah those 811 and 921 software engeneers we doing a hell of a lot of work trying to acquire Loral

 

[rad]

Yeah those 811 and 921 software engeneers we doing a hell of a lot of work trying to acquire Loral

The DirecTV deal must have also been a big distraction to them.

Maybe this is the kick in the rear that Echostar needs to make some changes in how they've been doing their engineering/manufacturing. At least we can hope it will.

 

[Randy_B]

Ergen said, adding that EchoStar was distracted by its failed efforts last month to buy bankrupt satellite maker and operator Loral Space & Communications Ltd. (LRLSQ)

I am sure Charlie is a HUGE micromanager. Hint to Charlie, get out of your engineers nickers and let them do their jobs.

 

[minnow]

"...As the company has grown, it has become slower in its general execution, an official said. "People have become a bit complacent..."

Yeah, no kidding ! E*'s customer service attitude is a reflection of management's attitude and direction. Arrogant and ambivalent come to mind.

 

[rad]

I listened to the Chat and one thing that I have to say for Charlie is that he admited that the CEO messed up and should have kept a closer eye on the hardware front. Frankly it's kind of refreshing to hear a CEO say it was his fault vs. the usual blame spreading that goes on in most CEO/COO offices where everything else is to blame except them.

 

[Sparkman]

Is anybody else but me bothered by this statement: Citing program costs, EchoStar said there was the possibility of dropping some programming. I don't have DISH for them to drop programming! If this keeps up, when the Grade B grandfathering ends 12/31/04, I'll be out the door so fast it won't be funny!

 

[rad]

I guess it depends on the channel(s) that they're talking about. I remember that ABC Family wanted a big bump in their charges but the rating numbers were going down. Does it make sense to have everyone pay more for a channel that less and less people are viewing.

Maybe Dish can come up with another package, the America's Top Loosers Package. All channels that are asking for more money and declining ratings are put there, if you want it you can pay for it.

 

[bradleys]

Charlie and Michael S (programming) have complained in the past about the price that some channels were charging. I seem to remember that they had threatened to cancel some in the past. The problem is that they (we) have to pay for those channels as part of our package.

It makes sense that the channels want to be included in basic packages. That way they get paid based on 9 million subscribers rather than the tens or hundreds of thousands they would get if they were a la carte.

It gets even worse when the channel owners insist on bundling the channels together. "We'll be happy to give you the 'All Academy Award Winning Movie Channel' as long as you also accept the 'All Regis Philbin Channel' and the 'All Tom Arnold Channel', each at the same $3.00 per total subscriber per month price."

None of the above makes this situation "OK", of course, but sometimes things aren't "OK". I can't help wonder if DirectTV has similar problems, but they're just not as CHATty about it?

There are easily 100 channels that Dish could delete that wouldn't bother me at all. They'd better not touch my favorites, however ...

 

[Guest]

Charlie's Disappointment

As a former employee, I am not in the least bit surprised by the financial results for the quarter, or for the failure to deliver the HDTV technology in a timely manner. The senior executives in that company are still running the show like they are working out of Charlie's garage and continually "think small". How will they deal with this situation? OK, so Charlie says "its my fault." big deal. They'll do what they usually do fire some mid-to-low level manager and a couple of flunkies, bring in their senior exec to brow beat and threaten the employees that are left, then work them 60-80 hours a week to fix a problem they created.

Until Charlie and his close knit, dictatorial management team begin to behave like real managers, expect this type of performance from the company.

 

[James Long]

There are easily 100 channels that Dish could delete that wouldn't bother me at all. They'd better not touch my favorites, however ...

Now if we could get all 9 million subscribers to decide on the same channels ...

BTW ... All services are having pricing problems with program providers. I believe there is too much pre-packaging and demands by the providers (carry all my channels or carry none offers, and demands to be in AT50).

JL

 

[dmodemd]

Problem is those channels cost dish $0 so nothing saved.