Harps Products - Archived News March 2008

Now thru March 31st 2008 the following charges will be in effect; US Customers will only be charged the $3.95 USPS Priority Mail Return Shipping and our customers in Canada and Mexico will enjoy the same savings. The USPS Priority Mail International Flat Rate Box Return shipping charge of $23.00 US is reduced to only $16.85 US reflecting the same savings of their US neighbors.

We hope all who have receivers that need repairing will take advantage of this huge savings as shipping will surely rise due to the increased price of fuel. Thanks for all of your support and we would love to hear from you with your thoughts on this and anything else relating to our services, Contact Us.

As Sirius and XM prepare to close their merger, lobbying the Federal Communications Commission for a final regulatory OK, some attention has been focused on the company's efforts north of the border.

Both XM and Sirius have operations in Canada. While Sirius Canada was quiet about the news this week that the U.S. Justice Department cleared the satellite radio combination, XM Canada said in a statement the decision will have no immediate impact on its service.

"We have a strong business model in Canada and are committed to an aggressive growth strategy aimed at increasing our subscriber base and delivering outstanding programming across the country," said Michael Moskowitz, president and CEO of XM Canada.

"We will diligently review any opportunity that arises from this decision and evaluate the impact on our economic positioning and the benefit derived for our customers and shareholders," Moskowitz added.

According to press accounts from Canada, it's unlikely that the nation's communications regulators would challenge a merger since one company could simply relinquish its broadcasting license while the other continues to operate under a combined brand and service.

At issue for some in Canada, however, would be the market valuation of the satellite radio entities once a deal is complete. Privately held Sirius Canada has held an advantage in subscriber numbers and retail sales, but XM Canada has exclusive coverage of NHL games and key deals with top automakers.

A Familiar Name Wins Licenses in 700 MHz Auction

A familiar name in satellite circles came up big in the Federal Communications Commission's auction of 700 MHz spectrum, results for which were released Thursday.

Frontier Wireless, the entity associated with DISH Network, bid about $711 million on licenses, stated information on the FCC auction Web site. The locations of the winning licenses are varied, covering markets from Maine to California.

Some of the bigger markets covered in the Frontier licenses are Denver, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington and Baltimore, Miami, Tampa and Cincinnati, among many others, sated the FCC information. The licenses are in the E Block portion of spectrum.

Among the big winners is Verizon Wireless, which won all regional C Block frequencies required for a nationwide footprint. The company spent $9.63 billion on the licenses that contain open access requirements. AT&T won 227 licenses, all in the B block, paying $6.64 billion.

The FCC kept the identities of bidders under wraps as part of its auction rules. The names of companies participating in the auction, and their winning licenses, were released Thursday.

The 700 MHz spectrum promises to deliver next-generation mobile broadband services. The auction raised more than $19.5 billion, more than any other FCC auction.

Sat Radio Merger a Step Closer to Decision?

Apparently, the Federal Communications Commission is a step closer to issuing a decision on the merger between XM and Sirius.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin told reporters Thursday that he has instructed staff to draft documents on the deal, though he added, “I haven't figured out what I think we should do on it yet." Martin also said a decision on the transaction probably wouldn’t come before the end of the month, despite earlier pushes to finish any review of the deal before that time.

Nonetheless, given that the FCC is prepared to issue something on the deal, the agency could deliver a decision on the merger sooner rather than later. Also scrutinizing the deal is antitrust staff at the Justice Department, and it’s unclear how that entity is progressing on the deal.

DISH Network scored a deal with Cox Sports Television that will give customers of the satellite TV service in the New Orleans region access to New Orleans Hornets basketball games.

The deal runs through 2010, the Hornets organization said.

As part of the deal, DISH Network customers within 75 miles of New Orleans and Baton Rouge can watch Hornets games through the DBS provider's carriage of Cox Sports Television. The agreement will extend the network's viewership to the Louisiana parishes of Jefferson, Orleans, Lafource, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Terrebonne and Washington, as well as the Mississippi counties of Hancock, Harrison and Pearl River, the Hornets said.

The deal could be a bonus for DISH Network given that Charter Communications, which provides service to areas outside of New Orleans, doesn't carry the Cox sports programming.

"I hope that (the DISH Network) announcement will spur Charter to have continued talks with Cox in order to reach an agreement," said New Orleans City Council President Arnie Fielkow, who has been active in discussions to make Hornets games available to a wider audience in the Gulf South.

The Cox/Hornets channel launches today on DISH Network.

Advocacy group Public Knowledge continued to offer support for the proposed merger between XM and Sirius, though the organization told the Federal Communications Commission this week that the agency should tie conditions to the deal.

In a filing detailing its meetings with FCC staff earlier this week, Public Knowledge said a combined satellite radio company should be required to offer pricing options such as a la carte or tiered programming to customers. Also, a merged entity should make 5 percent of channel capacity available to non-commercial educational and informational programmers, the group said.

Also, a merged XM/Sirius should agree not to raise prices for its combined programming package for three years after the merger wins approval, Public Knowledge said.

And the group suggested a new satellite radio company should make the technical specifications of its devices and network open and available to device manufacturers that want to develop any device they choose without interference.

While Public Knowledge lobbied for those four conditions, it told FCC staff that the agency should not stop a combined satellite radio company from providing local programming.

DIRECTV's Chase Carey said the DBS service has created a "a real position of leadership" with its high-def platform, but he also acknowledged that competition could get tough given ongoing HD pushes by other video providers.

At Bear Stearns Media Conference Tuesday, Carey said "competitors will get stronger" with their continuing roll outs of high-def programming. But DIRECTV's dominant position with its HD platform gives the company a window to maintain its high-def leadership, he said.

As competitors grow their high-def services, Carey said DIRECTV will launch new local HD markets and increase sports content. "We will continue to add to our HD features," he said.

Carey described the company's growth as widely spread and "healthy across the board." However, he added that at times DIRECTV has targeted specific areas with its sales and customer enrollment efforts.

For example, DIRECTV took advantage of some of the cable system transitions in the Los Angeles market, Carey said. Time Warner Cable has dedicated a lot of company resources to turn around systems in Los Angeles it acquired during the Adelphia bankruptcy process.

Also, DIRECTV has "room to grow" in rural and MDU markets, Carey said.

DISH Network took aim at the National Association of Broadcasters and its push to force DBS services to carry locals for all 210 DMAs, saying regulators should "not be duped by NAB's attempt to stonewall the process by engaging in a fishing expedition."

At issue is a proposal for DBS services to carry all local HD signals for markets they choose to offer local HD broadcast service. Both DISH Network and DIRECTV have offered to carry local HD signals for the markets they serve on a phased-in basis, hoping to cover any markets they serve with high-def stations within a four-year time period.

That apparently is not good enough for the broadcast lobby, which has asked the Federal Communications Commission to require DBS services to carry all locals from the nation's market areas.

Said DISH in response, "NAB can run its own calculation - just as Spanish-language programmers, consumer groups, rural telcos and others have done - to determine that EchoStar and DIRECTV cannot support an immediate HD must-carry mandate."

The company added, "What also is a matter of public record, however, is that the vast majority of television stations NAB claims to represent are in no position to broadcast in HD come February 2009. The 30 million U.S. households relying on DBS should not suffer just because NAB has not done its homework."

As the nation's transition to digital TV draws closer, another wrinkle has developed prior to the February 2009 switch: What about consumers who do not have access to any digital broadcast signals?

National Programming Service, the C-Band programming company that has been in business since 1985, raised that concern late last week. In a letter sent to the Federal Communications Commission Friday, NPS urged the agency to adopt rules that would provide consumers with the tools to determine - prior to the digital TV transition - how best to receive digital broadcast network signals.

"The urgency for simple and straightforward eligibility criteria to determine whether a household is unserved by digital signals is heightened by the rapidly approaching date for the digital transition," NPS said in its filing.

The company asked the FCC to take action to ensure that TV viewers who are unable to access off-air digital signals after the DTV conversion can obtain broadcast network signals through other means, including distant network signals.

NPS said there should be an accurate predictive model to determine digital signal availability. With the model, consumers who do not get an over-the-air signal could determine their eligibility for distant digital signals. Consumers also could use the model at a particular location to determine the type of off-air digital antenna needed to receive local digital signals, the company said.

In addition, NPS asked the commission to adopt a transitional mechanism that would establish a limited time period during which consumers who are unable to receive an off-air digital signal could qualify for distant digital signals without seeking a waiver from local broadcast stations.

In its filing, NPS said it serves more than 40,000 C-Band subscribers with programming services, including distant network signals for qualified customers. In 2006, NPS began providing distant network television service to DBS subscribers.

While regulators continued to scrutinize the pending XM/Sirius merger during the week (given statements that they want to wrap up the review process by the end of the month), the satellite radio companies kept feeling the heat from the deal's opponents.

Earlier this week, representatives from radio giant Clear Channel Communications met with Federal Communications Commission staff about the proposed transaction. During their visit at the Portals, company representatives said the XM/Sirius merger would be harmful to consumers and could concentrate satellite radio spectrum resources "in the control of one essentially unregulated entity."

In a filing detailing its FCC meetings, Clear Channel said a combined satellite radio company could use its market power to impede the growth of HD Radio, the fledgling digital audio service being rolled out by local radio stations.

"While HD Radio holds much promise, satellite radio faces no meaningful, foreseeable threat from HD Radio," Clear Channel said in its comments. "Moreover, XM and Sirius have completed with each other to obtain exclusive contracts with auto manufacturers - a crucial market into which HD Radio is just beginning to gain entry."

If the merger should win regulatory approval, a condition that HD Radio technology be embedded into satellite radio receivers should be attached to the transaction, Clear Channel said.

The radio conglomerate also proposed other conditions such as a divesture of some satellite radio spectrum and a ban on satellite-delivered local radio content by the combined company.

In recent weeks, more attention has been given to TerreStar, the fledgling company that's building an integrated mobile satellite-terrestrial communications network.

Last month, TerreStar won investments totaling $300 million from EchoStar and Harbinger Capital. Of that amount, $200 million was made available to fund the TerreStar 2 satellite, the company said.

Also part of the transactions, TerreStar said it will obtain access to 1.4 GHz spectrum currently held by EchoStar and Harbinger.

The deal, according to an analysis released last week by Near Earth LLC, "serves to further differentiate TerreStar from its MSS (mobile satellite service) brethren and may signal one approach EchoStar intends to use to counter cable TV's vaunted triple play."

In its own assessment, Stifel Nicolaus said the $300 million investment "may represent the kind of strategic move for the MSS sector that has been awaited for so long, though it could leave other MSS firms with one fewer partnership option."

TerreStar has said it will provide 4G speeds via its terrestrial network, "potentially giving EchoStar a mobile broadband play that could shake up the industry," said Stifel Nicolaus in its research piece. "However, it is not clear when the network will be built and whether EchoStar is wedded to TerreStar or merely dabbling. "

Last week, broadcasters continued to push local HD must-carry provisions for DBS, saying small dish providers shouldn't be allowed to pick and choose the local high-def stations they deliver to subscribers.

According to a filing at the Federal Communications Commission, representatives with the National Association of Broadcasters met with agency staff about local HD must-carry mandates. The broadcast group argued that a DBS company should make available local HD services in any market they serve on a carry-one, carry-all basis.

Allowing DBS services to "cherry-pick among local stations and foreclose viewer access to HD content on numerous stations, including independent stations and those that serve niche audiences, would be harmful to intramodal competition and contrary to the public interest," stated the NAB filing at the FCC.

According to earlier filings at the FCC, DIRECTV and DISH Network have been approached by commission staff about a phased-in approach for a must-carry HD locals regime, in which a select number of markets would receive all high-def stations after a period of time.

Specifically, DIRECTV and DISH proposed that for any carry-one, carry-all local HD rule, a phase-in process could cover 15 percent of markets served by a DBS service a year after the digital TV transition. That would increase to 30 percent two years after the switch, 60 percent three years after the transition, and then all HD markets served by a DBS platform four years after the DTV change.

Nonetheless, NAB said DBS operators have made suggestions that they have sufficient capacity to carry HD broadcast signals in all 210 markets.

For example, DIRECTV has said it will have capabilities to retransmit at least 1,500 local channels in HD format. "These 1,500 channels would cover virtually every local television station it could ever be obligated to retransmit in HD," the NAB said. Also. DISH Network has announced the launch of three satellites, giving it enough capacity to deliver HD locals in at least 100 markets this year, the broadcast association said.

When DISH Network reported fourth quarter results Tuesday, the financial community saw some of the same trends impacting the company: High churn, a deceleration of net subscriber additions, and the company abstaining from repurchasing shares.

That's not too much to get excited about, said some on Wall Street. But given that the company is positioning itself for a rebound, and merger and acquisition speculation continues to surround DISH, things could be looking up for the DBS service and its shares.

"For our part, we're not nearly as bearish on DISH's M&A prospects or fundamentals as the market appears to be," said Jason Bazinet of Citi Investment Research. "That is, we think the market has already assumed - like we have - that churn remains at elevated levels through 2008. As such, any improvement should cause multiple expansion."

And, "unlike the market, we're not convinced that M&A can be entirely ruled out of the valuation calculus," added the Citi analyst.

The negative for some on the Wall Street was DISH Network's high churn, at 1.71 percent. Involuntary disconnects were cited for the churn increase, "suggesting elevated churn will likely prove transitory as promotions cycle through the subscriber base," said Bazinet.

As for looking forward, stock buybacks may be on the horizon for DISH, the analyst said.

In a note released Wednesday, Bazinet maintained a "buy" rating and $46 price target on DISH stock.