| moderator | Thanks for joining us today. We would like to welcome your questions. |
| wtkflhn | So Mike. What's is new, this month? |
| Mike_Mountford | Hi. The last couple of chats I've forgotten to mention that we now sell consumer electronics, HughesNet high speed internet, Verizon cell phones and Verizon high speed internet for laptops & desktop computers. |
| Mike_Mountford | Also, we are on the verge of getting Golf turned on and following behind that should be G4, Sprout, and Style. |
| hughy | Is Golf channel available yet? |
| Mike_Mountford | We are so close on Golf, I would have to check with our technical wizards. |
| Lobo | Any idea as to when will the Turner channels leave analog? |
| Mike_Mountford | I think around the end of the year, but I"m not positive. This is really old information...but I believe that's when their transponder lease expires. |
| marke64 | Is there any word on Spike, FX, and ABC Family? |
| Mike_Mountford | We're working on Spike. Hopefully that should be soon. |
| Mike_Mountford | Our plan is to replace the TV Land feed that we are uplinking with Spike. Therefore, our customers can view TV Land on HITS, which is already there now. |
| Lobo | WGN? |
| Mike_Mountford | Not sure about WGN. I'll have to contact them. Thanks for the reminder. |
| dillrand | Hi I would like to know if there are plans to provide more Hi def like discovery. I do not mean movie channels. |
| Mike_Mountford | That's something we dont' really have any control over. It's really up to the programmers and unfortunately most are using 264 QUAM for HD signals and the 4DTV/HDD 200 is not able to receive those signals. |
| wtkflhn | Soapnet is avaible on Hits. Any chance on that? |
| Mike_Mountford | There is a chance, although our relationship with Disney has not been real strong lately since they pulled ESPN away from us. However, we will try. |
| julieblanc | Mike is the holdup with WGN tied to the KTLA acceptance? |
| Mike_Mountford | Not as far as I know. |
| cowboy | IPTV? |
| Mike_Mountford | We're waiting to hear from the receiver suppliers. It's very frustrating to me and our technical folks, because we just can't seem to get attention to this project at this point and time. |
| Mike_Mountford | We're not giving up, but it's just been very slow going. |
| marke64 | Is there any chance of getting ION tv? |
| Mike_Mountford | I've never heard of ION TV. Do you have any contact information? |
| Mike_Mountford | If we can find out who to contact, we'll give it a try. |
| julieblanc | Has Cnn decided when they're going digital? |
| Mike_Mountford | No, not that we are aware of. |
| wtkflhn | Thanks Mike. We're hanging in there with you. Must be nice to get up in the morning and know you have a nice chalanging job waiting for you. |
| Mike_Mountford | Well...it is. There are also other challenges as we go along. |
| Mike_Mountford | We just found out that ION TV was formerly PAX TV. The last time I knew PAX did not have a 4DTV compatible feed which we could access, but we will look into it further. |
| marke64 | All I know about ION is that it is on Dish Network channel 181 |
| Mike_Mountford | Okay, that makes sense. Thank you. |
| dillrand | Is there any manufactures planning to produce a 264 QUAM reciever? |
| Mike_Mountford | Not a consumer version. We have a lot better chance of getting an IPTV receiver built for the C-Band market. |
| julieblanc | A long while back the Primetime used to have west coast feeds from Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Is there any interest in west coast feeds of networks now? |
| Mike_Mountford | We have the Denver feeds...which are really the only economically viable alternative at this time. |
| ric | mike your phone sales people are rather pushy now trying to sell me tv and cell phone service when i made it clear i was not interested i had to hang up on them thought you should know if i cant afford programing why would i buy a tv |
| Mike_Mountford | Well I'm sorry to hear you can't afford programming. We try to make sure that all of our customers know what we have available, therefore, I believe that sales person was doing their job. Maybe they were over-agressive. If that is the case, please respond to me directly (mmountford@allamericandirect.com) with their name and we will do some retraining. Sorry this happened. |
| ric | when is the ota converter box due out for coupon redemption |
| Mike_Mountford | We don't know an exact date but we've been hearing May/June/July type of time frames. We will update you as soon as we know more. And hopefully we won't do it in too pushy of a way. |
| Mike_Mountford | :) |
| marke64 | Is there any word on TBN and the other religion channels on w5? |
| Mike_Mountford | No. That's my bad. I have not had the time to contact TBN, but I am now again putting it on my priority list. |
| onionscd | I'm sure a lot of us are concerned with what was perceived as a negative report on IPTV last chat. Is it still gloomy, or is there good news? |
| Mike_Mountford | Is no news good news? If so, then YES! Unfortunately I am frustrated, I was frustrated last chat and I guess that came through. But really nothing negative has happened...just nothing positive either. |
| moderator | Do we have any other questions from the room? |
| julieblanc | Keep up the good work! |
| Mike_Mountford | Thank you very much |
| ric | thanks mike i have my coupons but the expiration date is fast approaching never heard if there was pass through for the antenna input for another recievr? |
| Mike_Mountford | It's one digital converter per TV. As for the coupons, all I can do is guess, but I think the government will extend the expiration date if supply is not available. |
| onionscd | What is the official number of C-Band subscribers, according to your figures? |
| Mike_Mountford | I dont' know the exact number but it's somewhere slightly over 50,000 at this time. |
| onionscd | Lots of people are hoping IPTV will stop the bleeding and at least maintain the number of subscribers. For myself, it is difficult to maintain when there is no ESPN available... |
| Mike_Mountford | I totally agree. That's why I've worked real hard to try and get and IPTV receiver and programming for it. That's why I get so frustrated that things aren't moving as fast as I'd like. On a good note...the number of subscribers has pretty much been maintaining at slightly over 50,000 for the last 6 months or so. So we're not experiencing the attrition we were over the last 5 years. |
| Mike_Mountford | I would sure like to encourage everyone if they have not already, to go to http://www.callnps.com/signup.htm to sign up for our C-Band Newsletters. They are very informative and hopefully interesting. |
| Mike_Mountford | Also, I would encourage you to check out www.AllAmericanDirect.com, our web site for all the other products which we carry. We definitely have some GREAT variety ranging from Toshiba, LG, Panasonic, etc. and some GREAT prices! Let me know what you think. |
| onionscd | We all appreciate your efforts. |
| ric | mike i wanted to compliment your doning these chats and being a stand up guy for the cband market place over the years |
| wtkflhn | That's because us diehards are hanging in there with you, Mike! |
| Mike_Mountford | I appreciate it all. Thank you very much and have a wonderful month. Talk to you in May! |