Uplink Activity Report - 9/17/2008 1:02pm - 128 changes

[tempVAdish]

"...anticipating getting HD locals for nearly half a year..."

Norfolk, VA locals(HD) were on the slate for 2006, but due to negotiations w/ LIN, we never got them until this year. I didn't leave, threaten to leave, or jump up & down when they kept being pushed off, it's only TV. And before some one says anything about OTA, those channels aren't available to me OTA because of a LPT directly in my path to them. They are over 100 miles away & the LPT is about 2 miles away running 5KW... sometimes things just take a little longer.

 

[Bobby H]

I didn't leave, threaten to leave, or jump up & down when they kept being pushed off, it's only TV.

The "it's not important, it's only TV" argument can be turned against itself. If it isn't important, then why bother paying good money for it in the first place? If it isn't important then it's also not important if a customer switches to a different service provider when the opportunity presents itself.

 

[Laddyboy]

"...anticipating getting HD locals for nearly half a year..."

Norfolk, VA locals(HD) were on the slate for 2006, but due to negotiations w/ LIN, we never got them until this year. I didn't leave, threaten to leave, or jump up & down when they kept being pushed off, it's only TV. And before some one says anything about OTA, those channels aren't available to me OTA because of a LPT directly in my path to them. They are over 100 miles away & the LPT is about 2 miles away running 5KW... sometimes things just take a little longer.

What has upset some of the posters is that E* led subs to think the DMAs listed would be added. The question is why E* would list those DMAs unless they had signed contracts and expected the uplink facilities to be in place. This is pretty careless business practice in my opinion. E* management has been pretty screwed up the past year. They've pissed subs off with both national HD and HD LiLs and are getting clobbered by D* as a result. Hopefully they won't dig a hole so large they won't be able to climb out before they get it together. They've lost a few subs in my neck of the woods as people have moved to D* for the HD locals that E* doesn't have and haven't made mention of to date.

 

[hopton]

What has upset some of the posters is that E* led subs to think the DMAs listed would be added. The question is why E* would list those DMAs unless they had signed contracts and expected the uplink facilities to be in place. This is pretty careless business practice in my opinion.

I agree, Laddyboy!

Hemi and I are in the same DMA. (Thought we were getting it on several occassions and it got removed from the uplink on 9/17.)

The official announcement many in this thread are referring to with an actual date was in the July 10th retailer chat and the screenshot showing July 30th can be seen here: http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-ne...er-chat-recap-july-10-2008-a.html#post1440961

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread, it does say "Planned". I see peoples arguements about things happening causing delays, but this has happened to my DMA AT LEAST 3 times and I have been being told by E* that it would be here "soon" for over a year now. I have contacted the networks in my DMA to find out if there were contract disputes. I was told by some (if not all) of the channels that they already have an agreement for HD locals with E* and didn't know why E* wasn't sending them. While contract disputes are a valid delay for some DMA's, even ones that have contracts and were previously uplinked months ago not only didn't get lit, but recently got removed!

If they are experiencing issues delaying the progress, they should make an announcement as soon as they realize that they aren't making the expected target date. You can argue that it is a "plan", not guaranteed, but many people are making decisions based on the limited information E* gives us. Some have switched dishes or even subscribed to E* based on that info. Maybe I am just bitter from being strung along for so long, but it seems like a pretty poor business practice to me!

 

[Laddyboy]

It's bad business anytime your customers become upset whether it is your fault or not. People who own businesses know this and usually try their best to not overpromise or mislead. I'm curious as to the Retailer Chat info. Is this info that retailers can share with prospective customers or is it just on background for retailers? If a retailer used the info on HD LiLs to grab a customer and then couldn't deliver, that wouldn't be a good thing for that retailer or E*.

 

[Bobby H]

It would be one thing for E* not to deliver on a "plan" mentioned during a Retailer's Chat. It's another thing to list the same "plan" on the Charlie Chat, viewable by all E* customers and fail to deliver on the publicly announced plan.

Management at E* must also take into account activity in the "blogosphere." I joined this forum, as well as another notable satellite TV forum, looking for news about E* plans. Internet postings on pages like the Echostar Knowledge Base is what helped me to finalize my decision months ago to stay with E* and upgrade to one of their HD packages rather than jumping ship to D*.

If I knew E* would have this much trouble getting some new HD local channels lit I might have made a different decision. D* is adding more HD locals on a steady basis. They're also adding more HD nationals channels. The only area where I see E* holding any sort of lead is by offering all of the HBO channels in HD (last time I checked D* only had 2 or 3 in HD).

 

[mike123abc]

Given the large number of markets involved I do not see how it could be station contract issues. Especially since Dish announced the markets already, they probably already had the contracts long ago. I am thinking it is some sort of technical issue (like I mentioned previously). I want to see what they end up putting on E8. Perhaps they will not be able to run enough transponders for all the promised markets since E2 gave up the ghost.