| NPS Owner Chat Transcript for June 16, 2008 | |
| Mike_Mountford | Hello everyone. welcome to another exciting chat. |
| Mike_Mountford | Does anyone have any questions for me? |
| marke64 | Hello Mike. Is there any word on the Spike TV transition? |
| Mike_Mountford | No. I need to get back to that. I thought everything was moving along, and I took a week's vacation and obviously it hasn't happened. So I will get back on that one. |
| Mike_Mountford | Now I remember what happend. We went through the pricing and we decided not to add anything to the absolute digital package because the price is getting too high for our customers to bare. So, we want to be able to add it in other packages, and Viacom is requiring that it be in Absolute Digital for us to carry it. |
| Mike_Mountford | So, we need to do some more work on it...bottom line. |
| Foxman | Why did all of those channels move to W5? Did the old satellite go out? |
| Mike_Mountford | No, the old satellite didn't go out. It was just a contractual issue, I believe, between Hits and the Satellite owners. I also think that Hits wanted to be on Cband transponders insted of KU-band |
| raceday | how much are the rates going up july 1st |
| Mike_Mountford | It's all over the board. Most things are staying at the same price. However, where we needed to, we raised the prices but kept that to the least possible increase that we could do. |
| Mike_Mountford | Most of our programmers have gone up in price and we've added many service to packages such as Absolute Digital and Digital Essentials. |
| Mike_Mountford | So just that you all understand. there are 3 major components and effect the price. the first is the price that our suppliers charge us. The second is additional programming added to a package. And the third is the total amount of subs left in Cband. As that number goes down, obviously we need to cover our cost amongst the other customers. |
| raceday | will any of the G3 channels ever be in like a pick 5 package like years ago |
| Mike_Mountford | We already have a Pick-10 package. I'm not sure if any of those channels are on G3 off the top of my head. but that's about the best we can do. |
| raceday | None of the G3 channels are in your pick 10 maybe you can change that may increas sales |
| Mike_Mountford | Well, probably the reason none of the G3 channels are in Pick-10 are because of contractual obligations. In the old days we were not subject to so many contractual requirements. |
| Mike_Mountford | The services that we have in the Pick-10 availability are ones which we're able to put there. |
| Mike_Mountford | We would like to put more. Yes, it would be good for the customers. but if our suppliers prohibit it, we can't do it. |
| marke64 | Is there any word on TBN or WGN? |
| Mike_Mountford | TBN, I still need to follow up with. WGN is pretty much off the board for now. They want to be in Absolute Digital and at least in Absolute Digital. And as I said before we are not going to add channels to Absolute Digital because it's driving the cost up too high. |
| Mike_Mountford | We will continue to negotiate with WGN and hope to get them to allow us to put them into another package. |
| Foxman | I know you don't have any say in this Mike, but do you know if the 922's guide will ever be moved from G1? I have some neighbor's trees growing that are about to shield me from G1. |
| Mike_Mountford | I don't have any say in it and I don't have any knowledge of it. But my guess, with the # of Cband customers and continued decline that we will not see any movement there. So cut your neighbor's trees down. :) |
| Foxman | I'll tell him Mike TOLD me to do it! :} |
| Mike_Mountford | That's ok. Just don't use my last name. |
| Mike_Mountford | Actually, my first customer in 1983 did exactly that so he could get a look angel with his Cband dish. Then he told his neighbor, who was away for the summer, that the tree got a disease so he did it to help him. And that's a true story! |
| Foxman | I've also been on C-Band big dishes since 1983. A Lot has changed |
| Mike_Mountford | Yes it has. |
| moderator | Are there any other questions from the room? |
| raceday | is tv land moving to w5 |
| Mike_Mountford | TV Land is already on W5. So, you should be able to watch it from either location. If that's not the case, let me know. |
| marke64 | What about fxreal, foxBS, Style, Sprout and G4 being added. |
| Mike_Mountford | Style, Sprout and G4...I had the contracts done, signed, on my desk and ready to mail out. And after we finished the price increase I sent them an email that we could not agree to put those services in Absolute Digital. Same reason I described above with WGN, etc. If there is a way we can put them in other packages, we will. Right now we're concentrating on building a solid W5 package (which is actually Digital Essential today). And we'll try to put them there. |
| Mike_Mountford | I had a dialogue with the Fox rep about the FX and Fox services, but all of the sudden she dropped off the face of the earth and we couldn't get anything done. I'll make another attempt. |
| raceday | w5 tv land dont work |
| marke64 | Mike, I get a not subscribed message for TV Land on W5 |
| Mike_Mountford | Okay... I'll try to figure that one out. |
| Mike_Mountford | Thank you very much everybody for participating today. I look forward to our next chat. |
| Foxman | Thanks Mike. Keep up the good work! |
| dgwfarmer | |