It is an interresting article in that it possibly reveals a little of the Ergan mindset - misguided as it may be sometimes. Trouble is he misses the overall picture when it comes to HD and the DVR connection. How many times has Dish done something positive only to follow up with something dumb or fail to follow up at all.
In the case of HD, Dish while trying to jump ahead of the competition, fails to take into account the DVR factor. As I think Charlie does realize, for the most part, customers that are likely to invest in HD equipment and programming are the customers that are likely to purchase the higher programming tiers; BUT, they are also likely to be the ones that have already purchaced and place a high priority on DRVs, multiple receivers and even dual tuners.
Now these customers, prior to HD, have probably already owned at least one 5xx DVR, most likely two or a dual tuner. They also have at least a couple of premium movie packages or most likely AEP.
So Charlie tries to intice them into HD with a lot of lip service about being the "HD leader" with great plans for the near future. He even invests in a Promo to offer an HD receiver and monitor package that, at the time, can not be matched anywhere (ignore for a moment the quality factor of either unit).
What he doesen't see is that most of these customers have gotten very used to what their DVRs can do - the easy time-shifting and archiving, pausing, a much better EPG, search, etc.
Most everyone that's had DVR features for any length of time has grown dependent on them. They've changed the way they watch tv. Now Dish expects them to give all that up for a "few" "prettier" pictures ? Even if the 811 had come out with relativly few problems, it's NOT a dvr. Even in perfect working order, it's way too much of a compromise in features just to get a nice looking picture.
That leaves the 921 and I don't think we need to go there except to say that even if IT had been released in perfect working order, nowhere near the percentage of customers that Charlie is looking for would ever invest that kind of money in it. Neither will they if it's re-released as a 922 or whatever.
Dish had the jump but blew it on three fronts (811, 921 & their HD programming package). His best bet now (and it needs to start soon) is to come out with a decent HD DVR deal that no one can refuse. It's got to be something that will "shock and awe" the industry (the point being he has to keep existing customers and attract new ones right now). Couple that with an immediate increase in new HD channels along with at least one dedicated SD widescreen movie channel.
If he really wants to attract new customers with HD and understands he has to loose money in the short term to do it (like the article claims) then he needs to offer something the competition hasn't yet - more HD than anyone else without having to step backwards in the DBS features they've become accostomed too.
WaltinVt
