What’s going on at Dish Network?
- August 20th, 2008
- 9 Comments
Listen. We’re not in the game of financial advisory — even though we do know the game — but when Dish Network drops like an Olympic weightlifter, we take notice.
Shares of Dish Network Corp. fell sharply Wednesday after an analyst downgraded the stock due to concerns about the satellite TV operator’s weakening business.
It’s worse…
In the second quarter, Englewood, Colo.-based Dish reported a net loss of 25,000 subscribers, the first in the company’s history.
Oh boy, and worse.
Dish also faces risk from its ongoing litigation with Tivo Inc. Tivo has accused Dish of infringing patents for its digital video recorders. Dish lost the initial case and an appeal but it is countersuing.
There was a time when Dish Network led the race to HD, had the very good hardware, and simply a rock’n price. What’s happened since then? Dish still has a great lineup, good hardware, and a competitive price.
So what is it then? Really, we are asking. What’s Dish Network doing that simply isn’t keeping subs around anymore? Lineup, price, hardware, logo, availability….let us know in the comments.
YiQIn (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Never had dish the only reason I have cable is it was free with broadband.
My opinion is that with Cable tv/broadband and the increase in fios and DSL tv/internet Dish has more competition than they can handle. I never want to have to use a dish for net access all the early attempts were poor performing.
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Ben (Who am I?)
3 months ago
Ill tell you about my experience.
Their customer service is garbage in my experience. Make their lost subscriber number 25,001. We just cancelled our service two days ago we were so fed up with them.
Their service and hardware were great. Never had any issues with that. But when they are trying to charge me $200 because one of their employees entered data wrong in the computer I get upset. I get more upset when I have to ask for a supervisor 5 times to get to someone high enough that can look at my hardcopy paper work.
We were already calling to cancel and the six people we had to talk to sealed the nail in the coffin. They were rude and refused to believe that the error was on their end until we got someone that could look at the actual paperwork.
Good riddance Dish.
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James
3 months ago
It’s connected to housing foreclosures. Plane and simple! People who are loosing their home cancel satellite service.
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ajadoniz (Who am I?)
3 months ago
We’re Dish subscribers and we were thinking of going with DirecTV or just canceling our shit altogether. Reasons: Price is an issue during “these” times. It rains often over here and the signal sucks.
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Jamie
3 months ago
Might have something to do with the fact that you can get all the channels for free if you invest in some FTA gear and know how to use it.
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Archeon
3 months ago
Dish is the poor man’s DirecTV. Everything about it is sub-standard compared to DirecTV and the company seems to be run by idiots who barely understand their own technology.
Any number of google searches will turn up articles on how the head of Dish is battling with someone over something.
There’s a good look at the problems here in a USA today article…
http://www.usatoday.com/money/media/2008-03-19-ergen-dish-network-echostar_N.htm
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bfos7215 (Who am I?)
3 months ago
I’ve had TimeWarner, Comcast, DirecTV, and I’m now on Dish.
The cable companies were the worst. I was satisfied with DirecTV, but the prices for HD-DVR functionality were insane. I’m now on Dish’s HD-Only programing + locals and I’ve never been happier with any other service. It’s by far the cheapest package, yet best, package I’ve ever add (minus Sunday Ticket). It almost feels like we’re stealing from Dish. Maybe that’s why they are losing money.
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Josh (Who am I?)
3 months ago
I had Dish for 12 years and had no problems with their service. It was much better than Comcast and the service was inexpensive compared to cable. One thing that I didn’t like were the SWEET deals new subs were getting compared to the ones I could get. The reason I stopped service with Dish is that I moved to a new house and want in on these deals. Also, U-Verse is rumored to start in my area shortly.
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bfos7215 (Who am I?)
3 months ago
We got our sweet DISH deal and we didn’t even have to sign a service contract. Yet another reason to choose DISH over DirecTV. It’s an option you have with either service, to not sign a contract. But, not signing with DircTV results in a major financial hit.
We looked in to U-Verse which is available to us. But, not being able to watch or record two HD shows at once is a deal breaker for us.
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