Dish Let's It Rock in Denver

Today Dish Network held it’s general assembly for its retailers at its annual Team Summit event in Denver, Colorado.

And from what I heard from Charlie Ergen and his staff was music to my ears. A lot of what I heard announced today at Team Summit I have written about here in “The Satellite Dish”

Charlie Ergen came out and instead of giving the retailers a PowerPoint presentation he instead was interviewed on stage by MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program host Joe Scarborough.

Charlie was the first to admit that Dish was not operating as a world-class company but was making changes to turn Dish Network into a true world class company.

Charlie gave his vision of the blending of satellite television with the Internet. He believes that in the war of PC versus the television that the television will win. He sees the television being the centerpiece of most people’s homes.

Charlie went on to talk about high definition and admitted that Dish dropped the ball on HD. He said that all changes today and that as of today Dish Network is once again the HD leader.

Charlie mentioned that their award winning Slingloaded ViP 922 DVR was going to be their first attempt at merging Satellite Television with the internet together.

More music to my ears was when Ira Bahr the Senior Vice President of Marketing came out. One of the first things out of his mouth was how they need to build on the Dish Network brand.

He then said how they need to let people know more about Dish Network and not that they are just the low price leader. He then showed a commercial which had two TV’s showing the same channel one was on Dish Network and the other one was showing DirecTV. It said both were showing the same thing and looked the same, but one cost a lot less. It was a good ad, but still not what’s needed. I believe that Beyonce singing half naked in the DirecTV ads will sell more satellite subscriptions then this Dish commercial ever will.

But he did mention many of the marketing weak points, which has been aggravating me for years now and that put a smile on my face. At last they appear to have a clue.

Another highlight was the announcement and launch of 5 additional HD channels today. Dish launched Speed Network HD, FX HD, Logo HD, MAVTV HD and Fashion Television HD. In addition Dish Networks Senior Vice President of Programming Dave Shull announced that Dish Network would be adding MSNBC HD in June plus a new exclusive CMT concert series that will air in HD on Dish Network channel 101.

I have been critical of Dish Network and their marketing and programming over the past few months, but am delighted that finally they appear to “get it.”

When Dish Network’s earnings come out on Monday I do not expect them to look as good as DirecTV’s did yesterday. However based on what I have heard today it appears that the times may be changing. (And in a good way!)

Have a great weekend everyone!