IT'S OVER THIS SUMMER... consider this on you FTA purchase
Facts Onwhatsleft
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Good news is we have almost a year of free TV, bad news is it will be over summer of 2006. You might want to divide the numbers of months left into your FTA cost to find how much a month you pay for TV. (i.e. $275 /14 = $19.64/mo)
Dish Network is on track for a completion of their full smart card swap by late summer of the year. Dish Network, a wholly owned subsidiary of Echostar Communications Corp. is the United States second largest direct to home satellite provider, servicing over 11 million American homes. Last summer Dish Network introduced a new smart card, dubbed the "Nagra 2" or "Yellow Card" in their battle to curb their runaway piracy problem.
The new smart card is the second generation of conditional access security for Echostar's Dish Network, which has had a rampant piracy problem since 1998. A number of previous card revisions had been introduced, but they had not succeeded in putting a damper on the piracy problem.
In fact, a drama-packed civil court proceedings is still being fought in the United States. In it Echostar and Nagra allege that the Dish Network piracy problem was initiated on behest of News Corp., which ironically now holds controlling interest in Dish Network's competitor, Directv. The suit revolves around a former Directv pirate distributor, who Echostar alleges became an employees of News Corp.'s conditional access division, News Datacom and later was contracted to compromise the Nagra security system, which was still secure at the time despite News Datacom's version for Directv, which was hacked less than 6 months after their operation. Echostar further alleges that News Corp. was instrumental and provided financing to distribute the Echostar hack widely through the United States and Canada via a closed dealer network involving a small army of individuals that are also involved in the suit. It is this security breach which the new Dish Network smart card will patch.
In 2002, Dish Network began negotiations for the next generation of smart card security from Nagravision, a division of the Kudelski Group, which provides the conditional access security for many satellite television companies worldwide. The new smart card is rumoured to be a variant of the Nagra 2 smart card that has been secure in Europe for some time.
Dish Network has already begun the transition to their new smart card platform, slowly shutting down popular subscription channel blocks to subscribers using the older version card. This strategy has been used for some time as it prompts legitimate subscribers to contact the satellite company to request a new card.
The security swap out will mark the first time since 1997 that all North American satellite television companies have been piracy free. Directv Inc, the leading U.S. satellite direct to home provider has had no piracy problem since Early 2004 when they fully adopted their new conditional access platform.
This caused a large transition of piracy from the Directv system to the Dish Network system, nearly doubling their piracy problem overnight. This further exploded when pirates found a way to modify legal free to air satellite receivers to tune into the Dish Network signal subscription free. This caused significant concern as the sale of free to air receivers were much more difficult to enforce than traditional piracy devices.
Bell Expressvu, the leading Canadian satellite provider, which uses the same equipment and security as the Dish Network system, also recently reported that they expect a card swap completion by July 1, 2005.
Once the Dish security swap is complete, this will mark the end of more than a decade of satellite piracy problems in North America, which began in early 1995, shortly after the Directv DBS service was first launched in the summer of 1994.
Analysts speculate that the new smart card upgrade will cause a sudden surge in subscriber numbers once complete as tens of thousands of former pirates open their wallets to fill the entertainment void. The strategy was certainly successful for Directv, who saw record new subscriber counts shortly after adopting aggressive new anti-piracy measures in 2002.
The North American DTH market is high competitive and expensive to service with each service still struggling to maintain profitability as new subscriber acquisition costs and the costs of new satellites and uplink centers weigh heavily on their bottom line. Dish Network now has more than 9 satellites in orbit, with Directv following close behind with eight. Additionally, each service is expected to launch up to 6 more in the coming years to service the growing high definition market, which requires a great satellite capacity than standard definition channels. The latest entrant to the DTH power struggle, VOOM, folded earlier this year, unable to attract any significant subscriber numbers. Echostar quickly picked the bones clean, snapping up the VOOM satellite, orbital slot and high definition programming produced by VOOM.
As operational costs soar, it is clear that to ensure the survival of DTH satellite broadcasters, every subscriber counts and the satellite broadcaster must stay a step ahead in the years to come to avoid a repeat of earlier costly mistakes.
Any Dish Network subscribers that have not yet received their new smart card in the mail are urged to contact Dish Network as soon as possible at 1.800.333.DISH to prevent a total loss of their subscription programming. New Dish Network receivers purchased since last summer, should already contain the new smart card, which is yellow in color in comparison to the older blue colored one. __________________
Anonymous
Posted on
"Facts" from Charlie is all this is. Who let the Charlie dude post in here?
Fat Lady Sings Summer 2006
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Correction: There is not 14 months left, only 8 as of December.
If it ends July 2006, it is only 8 months, where $275 receiver (ird) divded by 8 = $34.37 per month...
a fancier $399 ird would be 50 bucks a month...
Was great while it lasted where if you got a cheap $175 ird (works fine) and used it for 2 years (24 months) you only paid $7.30/mo for your free service... this same $175 ird now with 8 months left would be $21.88/mo...
Just something to consider if you want to compare the costs for the time/life left in these FTAs...
Makes sense to buy the cheapest and forget these fancy expensive boxes with a short life span in my opinion... hope this helps save some bucks for those considering a new box.
Realist
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Idiots who only want to hear rosey news will be dissapointed liek when Dave swapped cards. BEV was next. Now DN this summer... these are facts, like them or not, I don't like them either but must face reality.
This is FACT on what's left... DN.
I have nothing to do with anyone, just thought I'd help out those getting scammed by dealers trying to push more expensive expensive units.
A fix has to be hacked on the card first and ROM 102 is not hackable like NDS' Dave card, NDS won't even give the fix to Dave but only a testing device. It's over soon... and locked up tight.
I appreciate a heads up like this than bury my head in the sand but somehow this is reflected to bursts idiots' rosey bubble so they do not want to hear the bad news.
We saw what happened to BEV and Dave, I bet you didn't believe them either.
Proof idiots encompass a percentage of our population and start making false accusations for a burst bubble like they can simply wish the truth or bad news to just dissapear and go away.
FTA is on borrowed time, this is the fact... 8 months left. You want to buy a 600 buck receiver and pay 75 bucks amonth, go nuts, knock yourself out... you might find you get a clearer picture menu and less hastle by simply subscribing... either that or get the rabbit ears out =)
As Thill said that is an old post and it is referring to events in 2005 not 2006 It's funny because everyone thought their receivers wouldn't work after Nag1 ended and look what happened. And these receivers will always work for true FTA, so they will never be useless.
The Facts
Unregistered guest
Posted on
How about figure it more accuratly. Buy a fortec ultra for $145 with shipping included(I just looked it up on E*ay) Use it until July (almost 9 months) total cost $16.11 per month. This includes all PPV movies those $50 fights, All adult channels plus locals from around the country(you can see almost every NFL game) plus hundreds of channels. I just went to DN site and they have a package called Americas Top 60 Plus. Which is a mere 60 channels with locals for $36.99 month- about 41.50 with all the taxes. 9 months of that= $373.50 for 60 channels + basic. Even if you took your Fortec(or other similiar priced box) and threw it in the garbage after next summer it was well worth it. Those are real numbers. If someone wants to make it look bad they use these high priced boxes as the example. Like Realists post above using a $600 box and 8 months to show a $75 a month payment. I don't know anyone with a $600 box. Fact is the cheap box gets every channel the expensive box does. If you pay DN, you get crap for programming for 40-60 a month. Not to mention the PPV's . Why would anyone come to this site and try to persuade people not to test? What would their interest be? I understand they will say they are trying to save you money. Hmm let's see, thousands of people have a ZERO payment a month. I think they already know how to save money.
I dunno
Unregistered guest
Posted on
Hey fine, maybe you guys are right... I hope so
I am enjoying free TV too... I hope we get free TV indefinitely too
Just thought I'd relay a heads up for how long as I just came accross this post today.
To add some optimism to the mix, they claimed the HU would never be hacked either in th H days =) Albeit it took agaes to unloop the damn things.. =)
Lets hope the article proves false or they at least delay the swap...
Be happy for what you have! if it last another day, ok if it lasts another month Great, if it lasts 6 months WOW! Just be happy with what you have. Stop whining and enjoy
I dunno...
Unregistered guest
Posted on
hate to sound like the proverbial complainer but it's down today....
if it last another day, ok if it lasts another month Great, if it lasts 6 months WOW!