Charlie Ergen Speaks Tonight
It’s been a tough few weeks for Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen but tonight Charlie gets to say his peace to those who should matter most to Dish Network, his customers.
Charlie Ergen will hit the airwaves tonight for his quarterly “Charlie Chat”. The Charlie Chat will air live tonight at 9PM ET on Dish Network.
Charlie has a few fires burning that have a number of current customers very upset with the nations number two satellite service. And tonight’s chat might just add fuel to the fire as Dish will be having a special “Fox” feature tonight including a visit by Fox and radio how Glen Beck. The issue that has many hard core customers upset is that Dish Network added both Fox News and Fox Business in High Definition, however these channels are not available to Dish Customers subscribing to their new Turbo HD (HD Only packages).
The backlash of not having these two new Fox HD channels not made available to HD only customers has caused a major uproar in the online communities. TO make matters worse Fox News was made available to all Dish Customers last month, but HD only customers had it taken away last week as Fox News was up in a special “Free preview” mode.
It will be interesting to see if Charlie discusses this matter tonight on the show, and it will also be interesting to see if Charlie gives hints at other FOX channels that customers have been begging for in HD including Speed Network HD and FX HD.
Tonight’s chat will be Charlie’s last chat to ease customers concerns until June so we can only hope that he gives customers some guidance of what Dish is doing.
On last March’s Charlie Chat, Ergen gave viewers a list of national high definition channels that were coming to Dish Network soon, however now more then a year later the channels that were mentioned are not yet on Dish Networks lineup. Those channels announced a year ago include AMC HD, BET HD, CMT HD, IFC HD, MTV HD, MoreMAX HD & VH1 HD.
Will Charlie continue to hold the HD carrot hanging over the customer’s heads with talk of what is coming “soon” or will he give them real details.
We will find out tonight at 9PM ET on Dish Network channel 101.
BTW if you haven’t read it yet, I invite all reader to check out this weeks MultiChannel News cover story by Mike Farrell who is asking the question, Is Dish Broken?
http://www.multichannel.com/article/189591-Cover_Story_Is_Dish_Broken_.php
Satellite Radio Notes
I am saddened to report that NiceMac has pulled the plug on its entire StarPlayr project for Sirius XM radio.
As you might remember I was quite excited about the news that StarPlayr for the iPhone was about to be released via the Apple iTunes store. The StarPlayr would have allowed subscribers to Sirius XM to enjoy the satellite radio service on their iPhones.
Early last week NiceMac announced that Apple denied the application for the iTunes store which put the iPhone application in limbo. Shortly after this news came out rumors surfaced that Sirius XM was working on their own official Sirius XM iPhone application, and this application would be free, while StarPlayr was going to cost around $12.
Last night NiceMac updated their website and announced that they have decided to discontinue the StarPlayr project altogether.
Not only does this affect the unreleased iPhone application, but also support for the Windows Mobile version as well as the Windows version of the software as well.
The rumor going around about the demise was that someone from the Howard Stern show happened to get their hands on a beta version of the iPhone application and went on the air talking about how good it was. This in turn got the attention of Sirius XM who hired another company to make their official iPhone client. In turn word is that things got ugly and lawyers got involved and thus was the end of the StarPlayr project altogether.
It’s a shame, this was the best satellite radio application ever made.
Speaking of Sirius XM on Friday the plug was pulled on two XM channels. The channels which were removed were WLW the popular AM radio station known as “The Big One, and the other station removed was “National Lampoon Radio.”
The decision to remove these channels however was not made by XM, instead the plug was pulled by Clear Channel who controls the bandwidth used for those channels.
Clear Channel also shook up the XM talk radio lineup; they eliminated a number of repeats and added new shows such as Rick & Bubba and The Jason Lewis show. A full lineup of shows can be found at XMRadio.COM.
Dissatisfied customer commented:
Anyone get pricing on their TurboHD and a promo rate from their agent for the first 6 months then when your bill comes they refute it? And on top of that tell you the TurboHD isn't for new customers even tho you picked it up off their website?! I think they feel they can screw you, the customer, and get away with it. I'm starting a writing campaign and intend to get the word out. Anyone else out there with the same problem?
Patsy commented:
Charlie has rude employees that cut you off if you try to use facts for your information while speaking with them. They even tried to get my social security number which is illegal, we as seniors have been instructed never give our social security number to anyone on the phone. Also wanted a credit card number before they would speak with us about connecting to Dish Network. Why? Suppose you don't use credit cards. We are senior citizens and still write checks to pay our bills. We have worked very hard all our lives and paid cash for everything we own. We don't have a worth of billions as Charlie but at least all our homes, automobiles and all our assets are paid for and our net worth is approximately 1 million and some of us even more. His employees have insulted an entire community with their attitude. So we will all continue to use our antennas or maybe Direct TV.
More for Less commented:
charlie ergens greatest excuse is always:the provider wants too much money so we regret that we cannot give dishnetwork clients this channel!!but be one day late on your dish bill and see if he doesn't cut you off and charge you $25.00 for late payment!!14 million clients x an average of about $100.00 per month considering both residential and business clients. residential packages range from $10.00 to $73.00 per month and commercial from $136 to $300.00 not including universities or hospitals w/frame multiconnections.do the math people and i remind you this is monthly!! bill gates gave my wife $250.000.00 in projectors PC'S and laptops for her school library here in puerto rico because hes so wealthy and has created a program for the poor!! charlie ergen is greedy and absolutely inconsiderate.i myself provide free PC services for the poor everyweek as a tythe!!
Patricia commented:
I\’m sick and tired of the DISH NETWORK and KATU fight in Oregon! We can\’t get ABC, what is going on? We have been with Dish for over 10 years but if this doesn\’t get settled and we get KATU back, we will quit Dish.
Sandman commented:
I agree, this is nothing new.
Taffy commented:
Someone needs to ask him when he\’s gonna stop treating his employees like slaves and stop all the turnover at his company so they have a motivated work force which translates into more satisfied customers!! Also when is he going to get his customer service back on track and back in the US!
larry dothan al commented:
charlie better has some news when new hd will be added.i\’m waiting on the mlb channelor some channels worth watching.
Islandguy43 commented:
Tonight Charlie can make his subs happy for once and all, by adding the HD Channels in a specific timely scheduled manner,the online community has been whining about for better than a year. NO new news, means grow your churn and open the floodgates as we jump ship.
Gary commented:
Dish sucks, I can\’t wait until my contract is up so I can get directv. They have more hd and the MLB network.
digiblur commented:
Hopefully Charlie realizes the news from the Charlie Chat won't be just to the viewers but also to all the other tech news websites.
I don't think they need another application for XM/Sirius listening for Windows Mobile as they already have a few of them out there. It is unfortunate that iphone users can't get one for themselves
james commented:
Dont forget Charlie also mentioned adding spike hd too