Satellite TV Review

That’s right, a CEO search committee. When many people hear that, they would jump at the offer, but so far DirecTV is actually having trouble finding the “right candidate”. So much so, that DirecTV has formed a special committee. The company had enjoyed impressive growth and stability under former CEO Chase Carey, and is hoping for even greater success with a new candidate, hesitant to wed themselves to just any of the many free agents out there in this recession economy. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission filed on Monday, DirecTV said it formed the special committee on Aug. 5 consisting of chairman John Malone and non-employee directors Neil Austrian and Charles Lee. Each of the members will be paid a whopping $50,000 for their time. Considering the amount is significant for a side job that may or may not take much time, the satellite television company is encouraging that much of it be given to charity.

This comes on the heels of an announcement that DirecTV will be creating a “Interim Chief Executive Officer Short-Term Cash Incentive Plan” to award interim CEO Larry Hunter up to $1 million at the discretion of the DirecTV Board of Directors. A recent report from DirecTV stated that it had added 224,000 new satellite TV subscribers, edging out the competition significantly.

Dish Network (Public, NASDAQ:DISH) had been expected to actually lose well over one hundred thousand customers for the fiscal quarter. In a surprise announcement, Dish Network reported that they had actually experienced a 26,000 rise in new subscribers. Due to the positive news for the satellite TV giant, the Dish Network stock offering rose almost two dollars to $20.40 per share before closing at $19.30 still almost a dollar higher, in Monday’s trading session.

On a conference call with analysts,

Dish Network’s Executive Vice President Tom Cullen postulated that the reasons for this would twofold, the federal mandate for everyone to switch to digital away from the old analog system, as well as the move to Nagravision’s set-top conditional access cards, which helps combat piracy of their satellite television services. Cullen lamented the difficulty in figuring out which of the two factors was more responsible for the success due to the timing and stating the difficulty in finding out who the set-top conditional access cards affected.

“Former pirates don’t identify themselves [when they begin to pay for the satellite television services they used to pirate],” Cullen said on the call.

Cullen further elaborated on a significant third factor (which IMO may be the real reason) as this was the first full quarter during which the company was running the $9.99 per month promotional offer. Cullen was quick to write it off as the primary factor though, as he mentioned most satellite customers are paying a higher rate. But one can’t be sure that the $9.99 number isn’t what got a customer to at least glance at switching to satellite television. Especially in this economy, it would be quick to turn the heads of someone paying five times that amount for cable television that offers the same number of channels. “It has been effective in ringing the phone,” Cullen said.

It’s official. Comcast Corporation (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) has made their announcement. Comcast is now the first cable television service provider to offer HBO in high definition. This smart business move will definitely give Comcast the edge over their competitors for the millions who enjoy the HBO channel.

Derek Harrar, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Video Services for Comcast, stated:

“Comcast customers will be the first to enjoy the full HBO On Demand product in high definition, including HBO’s original programming and movies. No one does HD like Comcast, with the best and the most HD entertainment on your terms.”

This looks like a big public relations win for Comcast. Comcast further elaborates that only their customers will be able to enjoy the current HBO lineup of True Blood®, Entourage®, The Sopranos® and The Wire®  in high definition, as well as the latest blockbuster movies such as The Dark Knight, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Mamma Mia!, and American Gangster for the  Comcast HD On Demand customers.

Comcast Corporation is a cable television services provider which claims over 24 million cable television customers. As well as having over 15 million high-speed Internet customers, Comcast is one of the United States’ largest entertainment providers. Comcast’s main mission is the development, management and operation of cable systems and the delivery of television programming content.

As Todd Spangler of MultiChannel News reported, DirecTV has supposedly added 100,000 “new” DirecTV subscribers, but ATT&T only reported a net gain of 5,000 satellite TV customers. Todd goes on to suggest that this means roughly 95,000 AT&T customers switched to DirecTV away from Dish Network.

There is one other possibility. AT&T has a pretty high turnover rate, so if 95,000 customers leave every quarter, but 100,000 sign up, this would explain it as well. AT&T would of then directed those 100,000 new customers to DirecTV, their new partner, and the lost customers simply left. Both Todd’s theory of all 95,000 switching away from Dish Network, and mine regarding AT&T’s customer turnover rate, are most likely far off.

The reality is probably somewhere in the middle: A mixture of customers leaving AT&T, new customers signing up,  and old customers switching over to DirecTV.

A federal judge in Texas has scheduled a July 28 hearing regarding TiVo’s request for nearly $1 billion in contempt-of-court sanctions from Dish Network.

The U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas last month ordered Dish to disable roughly 4 million DVRs and pay TiVo over one hundred million dollars in damages plus interest, after ruling the satellite TV operator’s workaround was infringing on TiVo’s “Time Warp” patent.

In the Texas court, Dish argued in a motion to suspend proceedings on TiVo’s sanctions demand that any additional proceedings were “no longer appropriate” given the stay order by the appeals court. Judge David Folsom denied that motion Tuesday.

It goes to show that when a big corporation sues another they play hardball. Considering Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway settled with Dish recently in a relatively high-profile case for $6 million, a mere pittance of the punishing $1 billion TiVo is asking as sanctions over “contempt-of-court” which makes that $6 million (for things which are arguably worse such as deceptive business practices) look like child’s play.

Definitely takes the thunder out of Jack Conway’s win to have this so soon after the settlement.

Dish Network recently settled with the Kentucky attorney general (Jack Conway) to pay $6 million for the states involved in the investigation and as restitution to customers. Why exactly? It’s mostly involved with “deceptive business practices” which can be any number of things. Apparently people being called on the “Do-Not-Call” list are especially upset with Dish Network.

Dish Network, as is typical of most big corporations, has made a deal in which it basically admits no wrongdoing and pays off the attorney general so it’s kind of a win-win for them. The AG gets some publicity and a win, and Dish Network “resolves” the dispute. The customers who don’t get as much as they wish they should of out of the settlement are the only losers, but it is definitely better than getting nothing.

And here’s some information for those looking for the particulars of the settlement.

REGARDING CUSTOMER REFUNDS:

Unresolved complaints sent to DISH Network or the Office of the Attorney General since January 1, 2004 are eligible for the restitution program. If a consumer filed a complaint during this time period, DISH Network will notify consumers that they are eligible for the restitution program by mailing a claims notice to those consumers.

Additionally, consumers can file a complaint with DISH Network or the attorney general’s office by December 14, 2009 to be considered for the restitution program as long as the complaint is about activity that took place within the last 2 years.

Consumers who are not satisfied with the company’s offer of restitution may choose to file a claim to be decided by a third-party claims administrator. Questions or complaints regarding the refund process can be addressed to: DISH Network, L.L.C., Dispute Resolution Team, P.O. Box 9040, Littleton, CO 80120 or by e-mail at CEO@dishnetwork.com.

To file a consumer complaint with the Office of the Attorney General, visit www.ag.ky.gov or call the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-888-432-9257.

Haven’t gotten around to the site in a while, but that should change. I’ll be resuming coverage of the DirecTV and Dish Network competitive situation in the satellite TV market, maybe even try to cover some foreign services.

Being aware of how users may end up on this page, hopefully no one is looking for how to restart their satellite TV box, since it really should do that automatically and everyone should have a proper power surge protector in place.

Satellite television has the best prices in the television services market. Cable’s 60 channel packages usually run about $40, whereas Dish Network often runs 60 channel special at half that price, around $20, and DirecTV usually has a similar plan at around $30 per month. Competition is always good for the customer. In satellite television, competition is fierce. That means that within the television services industry, there is a ripe market for the customer to play hardball and get a great deal.

First step, go to each website for satellite services, visit the various authorized dealers, and find the packages that look best. Make notes of the price, channel selection, any premium channels offered, and the number of TVs each package supports, usually 2 or 4, as well as any other features from the respective companies.

After figuring out which company is offering the better deal, it’s good to give the competition a call. Mention the price, premium channels, or anything else missing from their package, that the competitor is offering. Ask them to beat their offer, not just match it. It may depend on which customer service representative answers.

Both DirecTV and Dish Network offer great rates that obliterate regular cable’s prices. But between the two, Dish Network seems to be cheaper on average usually by around $10. At the same time DirecTV is highly rated for customer service and other features. By negotiating a price match by DirecTV, it might be possible to get the best of both worlds.

At any rate, to get the best deal for the customer, it will take a hardball approach in which the company feels they may lose the customer to the competition. Sometimes the sales rep who answers the phone might not want to play game, that’s fine, the customer can always try again tomorrow or for a different rep, but don’t overdo it. Yet don’t be afraid to get the best deal either. As with anything in life, if you call two plumbers or merchanics out to fix something, and tell them only one is going to get the job, prices seem to magically drop to a fraction of what they originally were.

Some might call it unfair, or not be up for that level of negotiations. That’s fine too, after all satellite tv is still drastically cheaper than cable, with a wider selection of channels. The price per channel is often half that of cable, depending on the promotions.

Still using cable? There are many reasons to switch to satellite TV, and DirecTV in particular. First, most cable companies experience outages for their television services in the 4% range, clearly unacceptable. With DirecTV, that rate is cut down to only 1% which is one of the best, if not the best for stability in the industry. The chances of the television feed going out when watching  in the middle of the super bowl, are four times less with satellite television in general. That example is a bit extreme, but there is a far greater possibility of it with cable. Almost every cable user can recall a time in which the cable service had an outage, so the event is not some unpredictable rarity.

Another reason is channels. DirecTV has the best channel selection around, with their ultimate package offering quite possibly the largest selection in the market. Special promotional deals from DirecTV often add in premium channels. DirecTV offers many packages ranging from having more than 100, 150, 200, or 250 channels. For the most part, DirecTV offers a cheap satellite tv service, with one of the best customer service teams around, factor that in with one of the largest selections of channels in the industry, and they are an obvious choice when comparing them against cable television services.

On price, however, competitor Dish Network, however, does usually offer cheaper deals. Dish Network often dips a good $10 a month lower than DirecTV on many packages, depending on the authorized dealer. It’s important to note how many TVs each package offers to support. Regardless, DirecTV is competitive and very reasonable. Upon researching Dish Network’s rates, give a call to DirecTV and ask them to beat Dish Network’s offer or else they’ll lose a potential customer to a competitor. DirecTV usually obliges and may even offer a better rate than Dish Network, especially if the customer insists on a better rate, not just matching. It’s definitely worth a try, and what’s the worst that can happen? Maybe a refusal. At that point, a customer could call again for a different sales rep if they’ve run into a less accomodating rep on the phone. As with all things in life, persistence is key.

In conclusion, DirecTV offers the best selections of channels around, coupled with low prices, lowest outages in the industry, great customer service, and a willingness to please the consumer. Special promotional deals are always available.

Sounds simple enough. Some might say to just pick up the phone and call. This, however, might not be the best approach. Above all, with some research and patience, it may be possible to get a special deal, greater discounts, or given a greater number of channels.

First, the research. It’s a good idea to check with the various DirecTV and Dish Network authorized dealers and their websites for what their rates are. Note the prices, how many TVs it allows, the channel selection, as well as any premium channels offered.

Next, compare the packages. Don’t just buy whichever package looks best, but compare between the two satellite television services which packages from both of them look best. Both companies tend to offer a wide selection of channels at very low prices, but it’s good to also note how many TVs each package supports, which may be harder to find. Usually there are different prices for supporting 2 or 4 TVs. Overall, it seems Dish Network tends to run cheaper packages. Once determined which one is better, it’s time to give the competition a call.

Finally, the negotiation. See if the competition won’t one-up their competitor. Dish Network and DirecTV are both highly competitive companies that don’t want to lose a customer to their rival. Either one may be willing to sweeten the deal and give a special offer to a potential customer that they are about to lose to the competition. This is where the research comes in handy. Mention how the other guy is offering a better deal, getting into the specifics that are better, and if they are interested in obtaining a new customer, they will often pull out a special deal. This same principle can be applied to almost anything in life. For example, a tip learned from ancestors passed, when needing plumbing done, calling out two different plumbers to the area and telling only one of them they will get the job, has helped cut bills tenfold. The same can apply to anything. Getting two or more seperate companies to come out and recognize someone as a potential customer that could be lost to their competitors always leads to a price war between the two that will benefit the consumer.

Ultimately, eventually whether the special rate is received or not, after researching and negotiating, the best possible deal will be found. Generally being a little more pushy may get them to budge, but if not, then the potential satellite tv customer has already determined which package is best for them.