Leaders of Tele-Communications Inc.'s hometown are pitching an alternative to the cable giant after years of frustration.
Greenwood Village, the upscale Denver suburb housing TCI's corporate headquarters, is supporting a special promotion for its residents from TCI's satellite television competitor, EchoStar Communications Corp.
Greenwood Village Mayor David Phifer signed a mailing to residents explaining that the City Council endorses free satellite installation for the DISH Network.
The deal was launched in October and runs through the end of this month. It was hatched after EchoStar met with city officials and offered an alternative to their big corporate cable neighbor.
"Greenwood Village kept on saying they were frustrated with rates and price increases and especially service," said EchoStar regional sales director Steve Rockafellow. "They wanted to see if we could do some-thing positive for their residents."
After a meeting between Echo-Star chairman Charlie Ergen and Phifer, the homegrown satellite company ageed to give free profes-sional installation for Greenwood Village residents. The cost usually starts at $200 a customer.
TCI of Colorado spokeswoman Margaret Lejuste said her company is puzzled by the council's move because a recent survey showed Greenwood Village customers were fairly satisfied with service. "We did have some issues with the city but we resolved them," she said. "And satellite does not provide many of the things that cable does."
EchoStar officials said the promotion has been well-received, but declined to release numbers of new customers. The upstart company, which Ergen built from scratch, has been an outspoken critic of what he calls "the cable cartel." He blamed cable interests for derailing his planned partnership with Australian born media mogul Rupert Murdoch, which has turned into a federal court fight.
Greenwood Village has had its own battles with TCI. The City Council threatened to yank the company's franchise during the summer, claiming promises were broken. The franchise expired in September, but the two sides recently agreed to a six-month extension. TCI made concessions, including giving the city its own government-affairs channel and linking City Hall to other facilities.
The mayor is no fan. "I have had problem after problem with TCI," Phifer said. "You can't get an answer and you can't get any service out of them."
When EchoStar offered an alternative, he said it seemed like a good deal for residents. He stressed the city didn't spend a dime on it.
"Everybody has had problems with TCI. They're too big, too impersonal and too costly," said Councilman Tim McManus. "Satellite is the way to go and Charlie Ergen is homegrown."
The Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association-(SBCA) defended the big dish with a letter to the Wall Street Journal, written in response to perceived credit concerns involving retailers and C-Band owners as well as subscriber losses.
The article, titled "Lenders Wish They had Never Heard of Big Satellite Dishes," appeared Oct. 15 in the Journal.
While there may be a small number of dealers and owners with credit problems, SBCA pointed out that a majority of large and small dish owners "are satisfied customers, and maintain close relationships with the dealers who sold them their systems."
The letter also addressed the article's assertion that small dish systems have rendered C-Band dishes obsolete. "But three years after the introduction of small dishes, 2.1 million large-dish owners still enjoy the benefits of hundreds of viewing choices and crystal-clear reception.
"It's true that large-dish systems sales have declined, but this is to be expected with the advent of any new technological development.""
Discovery Networks has unveiled a new logo and on-air promotional package for Travel Channel. New look logos are slated to begin airing in November. The "The" in the channel's name has been dropped to provide a more friendly look and feel. The change follows the recent infusion of 300 hours of new programming into Travel Channel's lineup."
EchoStar Communications Corp. has announced its 1997 holiday season promotion for DISH Network. The promotion offers a free Self Installation Kit or $50 off the professional installation through December 31, 1997. The campaign will be promoted nationally through magazine and newspaper advertising as well as television commercials."
DirecTV announced today that it will offer the last six weeks of '97 NFL SUNDAY TICKET free to new subscribers.
The offer, which runs from Nov. 10 to Dec. 21, is available to all new DirecTV residential customers who purchase a DSS system from an authorized retailer and subscribe to a DirecTV Total Choice programming package starting at $29.99 per month.
NFL Sunday Ticket delivers up to 13 NFL games every Sunday, allowing fans to receive up to 71 games between Nov.16 and Dec. 21. Current DirecTV subscribers can receive the final six weeks of the '97 season and the entire '98 regular season for $179 by ordering before Dec. 21.
DirecTV recently signed an agreement with NFL Enterprises extending its exclusive DTH distribution of NFL games through the year 2000.
NFL Enterprises has also authorized C-band packagers to offer the remaining few weeks of the 1997 NFL SUNDAY TICKET and the entire 1998 package at a suggested price of $179. C-band dish owners may qualify for a special payment plan like $79 down and the remaining $100 due by March of 1998. Call your program packager for more information."
EchoStar Communications Cor-poration today announced its 1997 holiday season promotion for the DISH Network digital satellite TV system.
The promotion, which will run through December 31, 1997, will allow customers who purchase a system during that time to receive either a free Self Installation Kit or $50 off a professional installation.
This promotion will be supported by a national marketing campaign that will include in-store materials, extensive print advertising in both newspapers and magazines, as well as television commercials.
"As with our 'Fall Install' promotion, we are pleased to continue to offer the best value for high quality digital TV," said Mary Peterson, vice president marketing, EchoStar Com-munications Corporation. "A DISH system is a great gift for anyone - even yourself. And the holiday promotion simply makes this great gift even better.""
PrimeStar announced Tuesday it renewed and expanded sponsorships and promotions with NASCAR racing, the American Red Cross and country music star Clay Walker.
PrimeStar's NASCAR sponsor-ship will lock the company into a new multi-year, multi-million-dollar deal with Roush Racing. The promotion also involves top-ten Winston Cup driver Ted Musgrave and his No. 16 Ford Taurus race car, and will allow PrimeStar to acquire associate sponsors.
In the past, PrimeStar has sponsored NASCAR events and a traveling promotional trailer at many racing events.
The Red Cross re-commitment follows a two-year relationship in which PrimeStar raised nearly $9 million in donations and pro-motional support.
And PrimeStar will sponsor and promote another concert tour with Clay Walker. In 1998, Walker is scheduled to perform a 100-city tour, which will involve on-site demon-strations and sales efforts from PrimeStar."
Ted Turner, founder of the global news service CNN, yesterday compared his rival Rupert Murdoch to Hitler and accused him of coarsening British culture and abusing his grip on the media in England.
Mr Turner said: "I don't like him and I don't respect him. What's happened in Britain is a tragedy. He came close to having this country under his thumb."
He told a lunch hosted by CNN in London that Mr Murdoch was self-centered and selfish. "Rupert's idea of a better world is a world that's better for Rupert. I'd like to get him in the ring. I'll get the gloves out and face him.
"I'm more courageous than he is, and I'm younger . . . but he's a pretty tough old codger and he might land a lucky punch," he said, drawing applause from the audience.
When questioned about the Hitler reference, Mr Turner replied: "The phrase I used was: the former leader of the German Reich."
In response to a question about the launch of the BBC's new 24-hour news channel, he said: "I'm quite happy that the BBC is running a newscast aimed at Britain. It will be aimed directly at Sky. Anything that reduces the power of Murdoch in England is good news. No one person should have as much control of the media in this country as Murdoch has."
The feud dates from last year, when the two clashed over Mr Murdoch's plans to set up Fox News Channel in competition to CNN."
Telescene Film Group, Richmel Productions and Goodman/Rosen Productions have established a new $200 million- plus venture, Action Adventure Network (AAN), and signed an agreement with DirecTV, Inc. for AAN to arrange for the development and production of the first original television movies and series to air on DirecTV.
AAN's agreement with DirecTV, which has more than 3 million subscribers, marks the first time in the United States that a direct broadcast satellite television service will serve as the exclusive platform to premiere first-run entertainment prior to it being sold to syndication or other traditional distribution plat- forms.
The new venture, which will arrange for the development and production of original programming for the global marketplace, will work with major creative and acting talent. AAN has already signed executive production agreements, or is in final negotiations, for John Landis and Leslie Belzberg's St. Clare Enter- tainment, Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope and Steven de Souza for first-run, action-adventure two-hour episodes.
Production on the initial - package will commence in the first quarter of 1998 and air on DirecTV next summer. Each of the two-hour initial episodes will serve as the series premiere for 20 one-hour episodes in year one, and 22 one-hour episodes in years two and beyond.
The programming will air on the DIRECT TICKET Pay Per View service during primetime."
U.S. and European officials, engaged in negotiations over global use of spectrum, accused each other of trying to thwart competition among multi-billion-dollar satellite systems.
And caught in the middle is Teledesic, the $9 billion project between Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, cell phone pioneer Craig McCaw and Boeing.
U.S. Ambassador John Bryant publicly accused European delegates at International Telecommunication Union talks in Geneva of trying to "undermine" Teledesic. The deputy head of France's delegation said negotiators from 40 European countries were only trying to break Teledesic's perceived monopoly on broadband spectrum.
Europeans charged that Teledesic was given an unfair advantage under a decision at the 1995 talks, allowing technical specifications that only fit the Teledesic service.
All sides said they want the joint Loral/Alcatel Skybridge project and Motorola's Celestri to get bands and compete against Teledesic. The three plan to launch several hundred satellites in 2001 and 2002 that will offer high-speed, multimedia ser-vices.
"We want to take steps necessary for all three companies to go forward. Each time we get close, the Europeans say they don't want to," Bryant said. "My view is that the whole conference supports all three systems going forward. But the Europeans refuse, they want to undermine Teledesic."
Bryant heads a 90-strong U.S. delegation that includes Teledesic officials.
The French spokesman said Europe wants to promote com-petition. "Our point from the beginning has been that if the conference leaves things as they are, it is a worldwide monopoly for Bill Gates for provision of this type of services by satellite," he said. The French proposal is to put power limits in all bands. The compromise the conference wants is to put power limits anywhere else that are not Teledesic bands.
The World Radiocommuni-cation Conference 1997 will set international rules for the use of communications frequencies."
Canada's ExpressVu is taking aim at an estimated 300,000 Canadian dish owners who receive U.S. gray market satellite offerings to its legitimate DTH service by offering rebates on equipment purchases.
The service said it will offer credit on programming equal to the purchase price before taxes of set-top boxes and dishes. The offer is open to all DirectTV, EchoStar and PrimeStar viewers in Canada.
Meanwhile, a picture of Can-ada's legitimate small dish market has emerged after two services started operations. ExpsessVu reported 10,000 subscribers as of Sept. 30, four weeks after its launch. The company's main competition, Star Choice Communications, reported 23,000 satellite subscribers as of Oct 31."
Highlighting the difficulties of conforming to diverse national mores, Star TV will appear before an Indian court Thursday on charges that it aired obscene movies.
The Hong-Kong-based satellite network owned by News Corp. will ask the Delhi High Court to throw out a case charging that four movies seen in India on Star TV violated India's obscenity laws. The movies under investigation are "Strip To Kill," "Big Bad Mama," "Dance of the Damned" and "Jigsaw Mur-ders."
A court judge found evidence of "toplessness" in the movies in earlier proceedings. Star TV said the movies have "certificates" that allow them to be shown throughout the country.
News Corp. is no stranger to the courts in India. In July, it took the Indian government to court over its new broadcasting policy."
GE American Communications, Inc., a subsidiary of GE Capital Services, announced today the inauguration of Spacenet 3 satellite service at a new orbital position,83 degrees W. Spacenet 3 was moved to its new position when GE-3 became operational at the previous 87 degrees W. orbital position.
Spacenet 3 has transponders available for service to the cable, broadcasting, business TV and data market segments. The satellite's transponders will have access to 4 million C-band backyard dishes, and with regional sports programming services such as Home Team Sports, Spacenet 3 is ideal for targeting cable distribution."
Heartland Wireless Communica-tions Inc., America's largest wireless cable television company, announced the signing of a cooperative mar-keting agreement with DIRECTV Inc.
The seven-year agreement will allow Heartland to sell the DIRECTV service in residential multiple dwelling units (MDUs) such as apartment buildings and condo-miniums.
The company noted that the agreement allows Heartland to sell DIRECTV packages on a com-mission basis, as well as offer individual channels to augment Heartland's channel line-up for MDUs under a channel transport arrangement with DIRECTV.
"This marks the culmination of a series of agreements with the nation's largest wireless cable and private cable operators," said John McKee, spokesman for DIRECTV. "Through our relationship with Heartland and other wireless and private cable operators, we have an even more attractive programming package, including local broadcast channels, to offer the MDU market."
Also, DIRECTV has agreed to immediately begin discussions with Heartland on similar agreements for single-family units, as well as for commercial entities such as hotels, motels, hospitals and nursing homes.
Heartland Wireless Communi-cations Inc. is America's largest wireless cable television company, currently servicing approximately 193,000 subscribers in 58 markets."
New to the 4DTV lineup are 20 channels of digital movies, including additional STARZ! feeds and a movie plex of Encore theme-based movies. Of these channels, 15 are not available in analog.
Showtime is adding 15 East and West coast feeds of Showtime, Showtime 2, Showtime Mountain, TMC, TMC2, Flix and Sundance Channel to the 4DTV lineup, free to subscribers of analog Showtime packages.
Music Choice added 9 additional channels for a total of 40 available.