A three part review of the Dish Network 4th Quarter Conference Call
Dish Network held their 4th quarter 2007 conference call on Tuesday, February 26th. Rather than outlining their performance from last year, or going into a 2008 forecast, Dish Network execs began taking questions from Wall Street analysts immediately. Here are a few of the highlights from the call.
The first questions dealt with gross additions and operational issues, and if Dish Network had turned the corner on these issues. Charlie Ergen, CEO of Dish mentioned they had a lot of work to do in both areas. Two factors were mentioned as hurting Dish, one being economic conditions, and the second being competition, primarily DIRECTV in the HD area. Ergen mentioned Dish lacks local HD channels in many markets, so it restricts their advertising in those areas. He also feels that they are behind more in local HD programming, rather than national HD channels, where he described Dish as being “in pretty good shape.”
As far as how Dish Network is running operationally, Ergen described himself as a “perfectionist” and that the company is not running anywhere near that expectation. Two areas mentioned included answering phones and installing systems correctly the first time, to standards set by the company. He said in both areas “we’re not doing that yet’ indicating he expects further progress and improvement in operations.
The analyst from JPRG questioned how Dish would sell broadband and how the partnership with AT&T was going. Ergen broadly outlined how Dish would continue to partner to offer broadband, instead of going the route of building their own delivery network. Ergen recapped that Dish Network would begin selling service via AT&T in the former Bell South territory starting in April. Bell South previously sold DIRECTV satellite service until being acquired by AT&T.
Goldman Sachs inquired about the effects of competition, and specifically is Dish responding to U-verse by increasing marketing dollars in the areas where U-verse has been deployed. Ergen gave credit to DIRECTV and Verizon for their performance last year. “I think those two companies deserve a lot of credit” said Ergen when talking about their gross and net additions. As far as AT&T’s U-verse, he did say Dish hasn’t seen as much of an impact from as FiOS has been from Verizon. They haven’t specifically spent more money to compete in areas where U-verse has been deployed. When talking about the competition issue, Ergen mentioned that satellite still has the advantage in HD, and Dish Network will be able to compete better once they have their new satellites up later this year.
Full transcript notes available here.
Next, Part II review of Dish Network’s conference call.
2 comments ↓
I can not believe I keep falling for the lies from Dish Network.
When I signed up, they said DISH would supply all my current local channels in HD the same ones I was receiving from Comcast with full DVR capability. They said this would happen before football season. They LIED TO ME ! That never happened
After much time on the phone – THEY LIED AGAIN ! They said as a silver HD package subscriber , I could purchase the 61.5 additional dish, then I would then get all my local channels in HD. I believed them, and I scheduled the installation, and did receive some locals – except for WWMT – They lied about that one. Now I am out $85.
After much more time on the phone — THEY LIED AGAIN !!, They said I could get WWMT if I purchased an external terrestrial antenna and connected to the VIP 722 DVR True except for WWMT, They lied about that one too. Now I am also out an additional $350.00.
After much more time on the phone — They said it was most likely a bad receiver. They sent another receiver, which took two hours on the phone to activate and de-activate. Bottom line, it was not the receiver, and I think that was probably a LIE ! !
I even rented an SWR meter and a FSM. If you are not an EE, SWR stands for “Standing Wave Ration” and FSM stands for “Field Strength Meter”. Effectively I measured the signal of WWMT coming from my antenna at the connector to the Dish receiver. I have a strong signal, which means, the antenna is good, the line is good, and I am delivering a good signal to my VIP722 DVRs. Both my original and replacement DISH VIP 722s do not receive WWMT channel 3 (transmit number 2). Other signals from the same Gun Lake transmission tower are received no problem. Even my LG 42” HD TV receives WWMT no-problem.
Please notice all the BOLD LIES They told me above. I don’t expect DISH will start telling the truth any time soon. So I give up ! !
“I have a doubt who will guide on all these to us.If some issue has been comes up what would happen?is it with local channels?anyways i should give a try for it.”
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