The third satellite is mainly for the locals. In reading the investor relations kit, Charlie says basically (paraphrasing..)
"When the consumer sees a satellite system, they love the quality, they love not having to pay the cable company, they love the program guides and all of the other advantages....but studies have shown that as soon as they find out that they cannot receive local channels, they turn around and walk away."
He even states that he knows that they are taking a big gamble trying to do local markets. I personally believe that alot of people will walk away when they discover they have to have 2 dishes on their roof. I have a two dish system and I justified it because at $4.99 a month versus $10 for life-line cable, it would not take "forever" to pay off the $120 added installation fee. Its really unfortunate that they could not put the satellite in the space as the others so that they could get by with 1 dish.
If the FCC forces DISH to follow the "must carry" rules that cable has to, they will fail miserably in local. They can offer the local NBC,CBS,ABC,and FOX in 20 different cities but they cannot carry all of the independent channels PBS,UPN,and other non-major network channels of the same 20 markets.
So far, the FCC has been kind. |
