The Ad's Must Be Working

Those “Why Pay More?” ads you see on DISH Network must be working, a few weeks ago DIRECTV made an ad which ran on their website which parodied the ads. But it seems these ads have hit a nerve with DIRECTV as yesterday they filed a lawsuit in the state of New York at the US District Court in Manhatten.

The case which is case number 10-CV-1138 claims that DISH Network is running false advertising. In the filing DIRECTV states, “the featured DirecTV package does not offer the ‘same programming’ as the advertised Dish Network package– in fact, it offers much more.”

The ad in question is one that can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGXPw3WyvXQ in which a spokesperson has people from the street compare service from two providers. Its the old PEPSI challenge. When the participants picked which one they liked the pricing between the two companies was shown. One participant is asked “Why would you pay more?” and replies back “I’m a dummy.”

According to the complaint “The clear―and false―message of the WHY PAY MORE advertisement is thatconsumers can get the same programming, channels, and quality from Dish Network that they can get from DIRECTV, and it will cost only $39.99 from Dish Network, while it costs $63.99 from DIRECTV.”

DISH Network was quick to fireback at DIRECTV’s lawsuit with a statement from Tom Cullen who is the executive vice president of sale, marketing and programming for Dish Network.

“We are pleased to compare our programming and prices to those of DirecTV. We stand by our claim that our programming, such as ESPN and Discovery Channel, is the same as their programming, and more importantly, that our customers realize significant savings over comparable programming packages from DirecTV.For new customers, DirecTV’s promotional programming price actually doubles in the second year of a required two-year commitment. It is ironic that DirecTV, which the Attorney General of Washington cited as ‘standing out for providing some of the most deceptive advertising of any company,’ is now taking issue with DISH Network’s legitimate comparisons.”

The only think I can say that is if DIRECTV is this upset by these ads then the ad campaign must be working.

DIRECTV needs to watch themselves as I find a number of their ads highly misleading. Look at all the ads advertising all this HD that they don’t have yet.
This one is going to be fun to watch play out in court. I might even have to head up to Manhatten to watch this trial in person.

DISH to Remove RFD-TV?

RFD-TV bills itself as “Rural America’s Most Important Network” and soon it might be billing itself as an outcast from the DISH Network lineup.

Yesterday the rural television network sent out an email to its viewers letting them know that the network could be off DISH Network as soon as February 15th.

In the letter RFD-TV founder & president Patrick Gottsch write the following…

“Despite every effort on RFD-TV’s part over the past year to try to renew and expand the current agreement to keep RFD-TV on DISH Network for many more years to come, one relatively new person at DISH, who obviously does not understand and/or has no respect for rural America, has blocked these efforts and done everything possible to undermine our obtaining a new agreement.  Earlier today, RFD-TV received new demands from this DISH representative that, among other things, would have required RFD-TV to now donate $500,000 per year to the DISH Team Summit.  Ridiculous. 

In good faith, RFD-TV has offered everything it has available to stay on DISH Network, including  “free” carriage of RFD HD and RURAL TV to add more rural programming to DISH, stock in the company, and major marketing support for DISH through all our rural partners.”

In his email he goes on to tell viewers to contact Charlie Ergen and Sr. VP of Programming Dave Shull directly, and even goes as far as giving out their direct email addresses and phone numbers for viewers to complain.

I find his email disturbing (not only because he gave out Charlie and Dave’s direct telephone numbers) , RFD-TV is a very popular service in rural areas. And I over the last day I have talked to a number of rural DISH Network retailers who tell us RFD-TV is one of their most widely requested channels.

I also find it concerning that DISH Network is requiring RFD-TV to donate a half million dollars to its annual retailer pep rally known as Team Summit. Dish must be making a killing on that dog and pony show, if they want to get a half million out of RFD-TV I wonder what they are asking channels like HBO and SHOWTIME for. Not to mention that they charge retailers $250 or more to attend the event.

I will be the first to admit RFD-TV is not for everyone, but it does offer good old country programming that just makes you feel good. This is one channel I would hate to see removed from the Dish Network lineup.

XStreamHD Talk Tuesday!

You might have heard lots of talk of a new satellite company called XStreamHD. What is it? How much will it costs, what’s involved with getting their service… Well all those questions will be answered on Tuesday night when XStreamHD CEO George Gonzalez joins me on my radio show on Tuesday night at 7PM Eastern Time!

George will also be taking listeners questions live and on the air! I invite all my MultiChannel readers to call in and chat with the CEO of XStreamHD live!

I am also excited about this show as it will be the first one to be broadcast live nationwide on satellite via the Access America Radio Network!

You can tune in and listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/satelliteguys. In addition you can listen live via satellite from Access America which can be found at Galaxy 19 Ku-Band Transponder: 23 Polarity: Vertical (V) Frequency: 12.115 MHz Symbol Rate: 22.425 FEC: 3/4 Audio PID 1794 E. There is also streaming audio available at http://www.sattalk.us/pb/wp_e6d32fb5/wp_e6d32fb5.html.

I hope you get a chance to tune in! Have a GREAT weekend everyone!