Satellite News Page
Pegasus®, A Horse Story With Wings That Keeps On Going!
Pegasus found themselves again at the center of controversy at the WCES 2002 in Vegas. Mark Pagen found himself at odds with the Mr. Ergen on an SBCA panel.
All the news this January was not bad for Pegasus. Since their very high churn rate figures, by some accounts to be double the industry average, began to surface at this summers SBCA convention Pegasus has taken important steps to cut churn. First about the only program for new customers that Pegasus is promoting is their "Digital One Plan", a program where the customer rents the equipment. Digital One is about the only plan where the dealer can make a reasonable return on his sale. Pegasus executives said that this program was cutting churn.
Churn has been just one of the problems Pegasus has experienced with their senior partner DirecTV.
Pegasus is the largest operator of DirecTV in N.R.T.C. owned rural Zip Codes. As reported on this site, Pegasus has had major problems with subscriber churn. Add to that the on going battle with DirecTV® over everything from activations in each others territory, to the legal question of just what exactly does Pegasus and the N.R.T.C. own. Does Pegasus have full rights to sell all DirecTV programming in their Zip codes or just the DirecTV programming that was on the DBS-1 (DirecTV-1) bird? The bitterness between DirecTV and Pegasus seemed to boil over at last summer’s SBCA trade show in Nashville. Even the roll out of the Pegasus Express (Hughes) satellite Internet service has not gone nearly as well as Pegasus had expected. About the only good news heard from Pegasus lately was their being awarded several satellite slots for Ka band service. This presents lots of interesting possibilities.
Pegasus has made an effort to try to stem their churn of customers in
recent weeks. In a positive
direction, Pegasus is pushing their revised “Digital One Plan”.
This plan is a rental plan that locks the customer in for a year and
offers the customer basically a good deal.
The plan also pays the dealers quite well.
Almost all new customers are being activated under this plan.
On the other hand Pegasus has made it difficult for dealers who buy
product under the equipment buy down program. Formerly any receiver that was
activated was eligible for buy down. Now,
any dealer that uses buy down equipment for a second receiver or replacement
receiver is charged $130 by Pegasus. The
lone exception is PDOP where a second but not third receiver is eligible for buy
down. Try getting $149 for a second receiver, as Pegasus recommends, after
customers have recently seen entire systems for sale in discount stores for $79
or less. Any receiver that remains in the dealer inventory
for over 60 days is also charged back $130.
In other words Pegasus has made it difficult and financially perilous for
their retail dealers to sell under any program other then Digital One.
The Merger or Buy Out or Whatever
The important fact here is that DirecTV will be the surviving brand name.
It took Mark Pagon CEO of Pegasus, about one nanosecond to jump on that
announcement. In a statement on the
Pegasus web site Mr. Pagon said “Pegasus holds the exclusive right to provide
DIRECTV in our geographic areas. As
was the case when DIRECTV acquired PrimeStar
® we expect the new DIRECTV resulting from the merger of EchoStar and
Hughes will fully and
completely honor the terms of our exclusive rights.”
Is Mr. Pagon saying that present Dish Network
customers who reside in Pegasus territory will become Pegasus customers
when and if they are rebranded as DirecTV????
Stay tuned, things will get very interesting. The only sure thing is that a bunch of lawyers will generate lots of fees. Will the new EchoStar/DirecTV treat Pegasus with the respect of a fine flying horse or try to crush like just another horse fly?????
911 Aftermath Plagues Satellite Reception in some areas
Electronicsinventions' phone have been ringing with callers from the east coast asking "Why are we having problems receiving C-Band 4 Ghz. satellite programming". It was commonly believed that airports simply "turned up" their radar. We have learned that there are up to six Awacs airborne radar planes monitoring the skies over major east coast cities. Those with spectrum analyzers report that the radar is simply overloading the LNBs on the antennas. This is affecting not only individual home "Big Dish" satellite viewers but commercial C-Band viewers whose business' requires monitoring of these signals.
The answer is simple, and expensive. Enter the Microwave Filter Company. They have been solving C-Band interference problems since the days of ATT's ground microwave towers, which since have been largely replaced with fiber. These folks that can be found at <http://www.microwavefilter.com> have created a bandpass filter, for a price. For about $550 users can buy their filter will solve the problem. Users tell me you have to use the 7832D filter, a PLL lnb won't do the job. If you live in the effected areas you will either have to get a filter, or try so shield the antenna which may not work, or wait and hope the problem goes away. We haven't heard of anyone digging a hole with a bulldozer and placing the dish in it to hide it from microwaves yet like the did in the early days of satellite but microwave interference is back as a problem for the 911 generation on the East Coast.
For rurther information on the AWACS go to ; http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/E_3_Sentry__AWACS_.html
SBCA Trade Show Stirs Controversy but is a Success
The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association returned to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville for their annual convention and tradeshow. This event for dealers and industry professionals took place August 2-4, 2001. Although attendance figures are yet to be announced, the show seemed to be fairly well attended. The trade floor seemed to be well populated with dealers for all three days. The 50,000 square foot floor was not elbow to elbow with dealers like years ago, but it was far from empty. The satellite industry has changed and the SBCA trade show has changed with it
The Opryland Hotel, where the show was held, was a disaster for many attendees. Years ago the facility was great but it has grown into what Skyretailer.com called the "Biosphere from Hell". The inside is a mass of gardens with narrow fake brick paths, steps and stairs and no logic to layout. Everyone seemed to have trouble finding their way around. Even with cell phones people had trouble finding each other. If you are disabled, you are in real trouble. This place certainly must be in violation of the spirit if not the law of the Americans With Disabilities Act. That is probably why there was a lot of construction going on. They now charge for everything from parking to "facilities". I am surprised that there wasn't a charge for the chlorine smell that permeated the air. At the rear loading dock there was a continuous stream of cars whose drivers were asking "where do I part for the Titanic Exhibit", or "Where do I park for the medical convention". One guard told me all he could do was send them to the back of the complex and hope they could find a parking lot with space to park. Inside people were lined up at the wrong doors waiting for the busses to take them too the HBO party" . A description such as "go to the Delta Portal was of little help. Maps were of little help. What next? Equip attendees with On-Star? This place is out of control! Next year's trade show will be in Las Vegas, after that who knows.
The SBCA said good bye to their President Chuck Hewitt and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Andy Paul. Andy Wright, SBCA Vice President will assume the position of acting President, and is a candidate for the President. Many industry leaders praised Mr. Wrights abilities and the consensus of opinion on the floor seemed to be that he was the right person at the right time for the job. His abilities on Capital Hill are well known in these times when the industry faces legal challenges. We believe that Andy Wright should be awarded the Presidency of the SBCA, he IS the right person for the job.
DBS Players do Battle at Convention
It did not take long before the battle between DirecTV and Pegasus came to a boil. It was not that long ago that Pegasus Chairman Mark Pegan announced that they had an agreement where Pegasus dealers could install satellite systems in DirecTV territory and vice versa. The business would be transparent for the dealers. This arrangement has now become unraveled. It began a few weeks ago with DirecTV and Pegasus filing suit against each other over alleged violation of their programming sales agreements. Now their dealers have been dragged into the battle. In a letter to dealers DirecTV said they would no longer allow dealers to install equipment purchased from their distributors in Pegasus territory. These problems boiled over into the convention. In a press conference, DirecTV's Chairman Eddie Hartenstein was quick to lay much of the blame for DirecTV's churn problems on Pegasus. When asked about the high churn rate and low new subscriber accusation rate he pointed to Pegasus who seems to be adding few if any new subscribers. When pressed on the high second quarter churn rate figures which worked out to over 22% on an annualized bases, Mr. Hartenstein said that the "real" churn rate was 1.7% per month. He said the second quarter figures included some 100,000 PrimeStar customers that were dropped.
EchoStar's Chairman strongly criticized DirecTV for causing many of the problems in the industry. He said that due the large numbers of pirated DirecTV systems, Dish Networks sales were being hurt. Charlie said that the letter that DirecTV sent out to its customers warning of prosecution for signal theft was wholly inadequate. Mr. Ergen called for DirecTV to improve their security, and to stop paying big retailers like Wal-mart and Blockbuster on equipment sold rather then activations. When asked about Mr. Ergen's charges by ElectronicsInventions, DirecTV's new President Roxanne Austin, and Chairman Eddie Hartenstein were quick to take issue with Mr. Ergen's charges. Mr. Hartenstein said that Blockbuster required all customers to sign up for programming with a credit card and that their systems were professionally installed. He also indicated that they would do something about Wal-mart cash and carry sales. As for the what might be done to stop modification of the easily defeat able cards, and if the H data stream would be shut off improve security, Mr Hartenstein turned to their head of signal security who said that the problem would be taken care of "sooner then later".
If one thing came out of the show it was a consensus among all that this next year would be one of change. DirecTV will probably be sold. The SBCA will have to place more effort and find more funding for the industries legal battles. If there was one thing said at the show that summarized where the industry MUST go, it was a statement by a dealer who said that the industry "must stop fighting among themselves and focus their attention on the real enemy, Cable".
On a Positive Note
The dealer, who at times seemed to be lost among the industry infighting, was there. Some even spoke of this as the "year of the dealer". In a time of high churn, the industry seems to be realizing the true value of the full service dealer who sells, installs and takes care of the customer. The SBCA was able to sign up a number of dealers for full membership in their organization. The surprise at the show may have been at a very small booth almost hidden at the back of show floor. This booth was manned by a group of men and women in red shirts from the Professional Satellite Dealer's Association. These dealers had a couple of computers on their tables, where they showed all that wandered by, their message board covering all aspects and concerns shared by satellite dealers. With over 900 dealers posting to these boards, it is easy to see why there are hundreds of messages posted each day. There seemed to be a continuous stream of people signing up for the message boards as well as joining the PSDA. The message board can be found at http://www.dishretailer.com and the PSDA at http://www.psda.org .
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Spring Solar Storms
By now most followers of the satellite industry are aware that April was a bad month for at least three satellites. Telstar 6, Galaxy 3R, and EchoStar 6 all experiencing damage.
Mid April marked the peak of the solar storm cycle. During these storms the sun releases waves of charged particles sending them straight toward earth orbiting satellites. Telstar 4 suffered a "solar anomaly" on Sunday evening, April 22nd. Satellite viewers, including the ElectronicsInventions dotcom monitoring station, noticed pictures from the bird fade out to snow then come back a few minutes later as the satellite rocked back and forth. This process repeated every few minutes as ground controllers fought to regain control of the satellite. Fortunately the problem happened during the local news hour so ABC was able to get their affiliates switched to other birds for the evening network programming. As for the seven or so "adult channels",,, well who cares! It has been learned that Telstar 4 lost its primary processor. The backup cpu failed to come on and the entire satellite had to be rebooted and then pointed toward the Earth, a process that was not completed until the next Day.
Galaxy 3R experienced a failure of its spacecraft processor unit, spu, at 2:40 P:M: on April 21st. PanAmSat, who is VERY experienced at handling satellite problems, had G3R back in service in about two hours. PAS-4, which serves the Indian Ocean region, experienced a similar problem in November 1998. G3R is a Hughes, now re-badged as a Boeing 601 satellite, a bird that has experienced a lot of problems. It is commonly known that the 601 uses a tin plated switch. In outer space these switches are especially prone to growing "fingers" which can close circuits and cause all kinds of problems. It is not completely clear whether the solar events caused the primary cpu to fail and switch to the secondary spu or whether it was the switch just "doing its thing"
"Massive Transponder failures on EchoStar 6", "Transponders 2, 8, 9, 12 dark" were some of the messages being flashed across the Internet between Dish Network dealers. Customers were calling their dealers asking what was going on. It seems that on April 12th a "Solar Anomaly" hit the flagship of EchoStar's satellite fleet, EchoStar 6. Within a matter of hours EchoStar's ground control technicians at Cheyenne had their bird back up to full operation. ElectronicsInventions dotcom has learned that there was damage done to the bird. EchoStar technicians believe that the satellite was hit by one or more micrometeorites. It is believed that E6 was hit in its attitude control system. More specifically E6 has a hole causing a propellant leak in or near one of the thrusters. When the thruster was fired, ground control observed unexpected movement of the bird. Ground control was able to compensate for this problem and in a matter of hours restore E6 to full operation. In a parting shot the storm appears to have done minor damage to one of the solar panels of the bird. E6 was built with a capacity of 120% of needed power capacity from its solar panels so there will be no effect on the operation of the bird.
EchoStar 6 is back in full operation and expected to experience no lasting operating problems from the solar event.
5/02/2001