subject: How Satellite Providers Cough Up The Wrong Numbers [print this page] In America, there usually is neck-to-neck competition among satellite providers. No provider wants to be left behind in the race of getting the maximum number of subscribers and customers. They lure customers with attractive rates or come up with something innovative to strike a niche. Every customer seeks good service from a satellite provider and value-for-money deals. Customers have the freedom to pick and choose the providers because the options are many.
When was the last time you looked up the brochure of a satellite provider to look at the number of subscribers it has? Satellite providers struggle to generate good subscriber numbers to convince customers that they are truly the best in business. Subscriber base is what separates a large satellite provider from a run-of-the-mill one. The more subscribers, the merrier the provider is going to be. Subscribers give these satellite providers good profit, and they gain from having a huge number of subscribers because that enables them to get good returns for advertising. In this race for the largest number of subscribers, it seems that satellite providers do not mind going the wrong way.
There are a number of ways in which satellite providers try to expand or maintain their subscriber base. These providers have a separate retention department to deal with customers who are not happy with the services and would like to switch to a competitor. No provider would want that its customer move over to another provider. One way in which they retain customers is by giving them pleasantly surprising discounts and rebates. It seems that DirecTV, one of the largest satellite providers in the US, has been doing this for long. A customer of DirecTV happened to post on a popular bulletin board that just when he wanted to move to Dish Network, DirecTV gave him the most unbelievable discount "" something he simply could not help but accept. Not surprisingly, a growing number of DirecTV customers have been increasingly reporting this weird anomaly on blog posts, which highlights the desperation of satellite providers to retain their customers.
Experts in the industry say that such desperate attempts show how important it is for satellite providers to flaunt huge number of subscribers. Having a greater number of subscribers than competition enables these providers to get a good standing in Wall Street, which has the domino effect of attracting greater number of advertising companies. Businesses that advertise on TV are lured to satellite providers that have the greater number of customers.
However, this isn"t the end of the story. There are other ways too in which satellite providers gather subscriber numbers. Guess what it could be? Well, they do it by retaining the records of non-existent customers, and paying the dealers to finance their fees! It might come as a mighty surprise to you, unless you consider the huge revenue that providers make from advertising companies. DirecTV has repeatedly been in the news online for practicing this among its dealers. So the next time you see those huge number of subscribers for a satellite provider, know that there is more to these numbers than what meets the eye.
