At Dish Dealers’ Summit, A Promise of Better Ads

Dish Network’s annual Team Summit — wherein Charlie Ergen and his lieutenants rally 3,000 or so satellite-TV dealers behind new technology, programming and promotions — seemed a bit quieter this year, blogger Scott Greckowski reports from the May 7-9 event at the Denver Convention Center.

It got off to a solid start, though, when Ergen brought out MSNBC host Joe Scarborough to Q&A him, in lieu of a state of Dish speech.

“We got to hear how Charlie got his start in the satellite business,” Greckowski wrote in a May 8 post on Satelliteguys.us. “His story is one of true American push to make it.”

Greckowski, who also blogged the event for Multichannel.com, said Dish marketing chief Ira Bahr got huge applause when he came on stage later and declared “Dish Network marketing sucks.”

Bahr pledged Dish would do better by focusing on offering more high-definition programming than DirecTV, for less money, and showed a new commercial with that message, Greckowski said.

MTV Networks later provided the entertainment: retro rockers REO Speedwagon and comedian Howie Mandel.

Mandel (who’s hosting GSN’s first Game Show Awards on June 6) engaged in several digressive conversations with people in the audience — a surprise to The Wire, given his well-known obsessive-compulsive condition. He got into one with Greckowski after asking if anyone in the audience had a pet parrot.

Despite the fun, Greckowski said attendance was down somewhat from past summits.

He said Dish made dealers happy by removing credit-check and credit-card requirements for signing up new customers, replacing them with a system involving an installation fee that covers equipment costs and a pre-payment plan. But Dish often announces new promotional discount packages at the summit, and didn’t do so this time, displeasing dealers.

A Dish Network spokesman didn’t reply to an emailed message about the summit last week.

Cablevision Sets $334.95 Cover Charge for 'Ultra’

Want the fastest broadband in the U.S.? Cablevision Systems will charge you a $300 up-front “activation fee” to get the new 101-Mbps downstream DOCSIS 3.0 service, which officially went on sale last Monday.

Actually, the total setup fee is $334.95, including the $34.95 one-time “professional installation fee” in addition to the $300 activation fee, according to the details on Cablevision’s Optimum Online Ultra service on the operator’s Web site.

Why is Ultra pricier to install than the regular tiers?

Cablevision media relations VP Jim Maiella told The Wire provisioning the DOCSIS 3.0 service requires more work to ensure it is being delivered to customer expectations. Moreover, he said, the operator is targeting the $99.95-per-month tier to businesses.

“Because most initial customers will be small and medium-size businesses, special care is taken during the activation process to ensure no disruption of service, and to confirm that wiring and computer configurations are able to support this very fast, first-of-its-kind, product,” Maiella said.

But surely some well-heeled speed freaks will drop the 300-plus bucks to get this hooked up at home.