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ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - Dish Network says its third-quarter profit dropped 54 percent as the satellite TV operator lost subscribers and recorded impairments to reflect the reduced value of securities it holds. The Englewood, Colo.-based company said Monday it earned $92 million, or 20 cents per basic share, in the three months ended Sept. 30. That's down from $200 million, or 45 cents per basic share, last year. It says sales rose 5 percent to $2.94 billion. Thomson Reuters says analysts expected a profit of 58 cents per share and sales of $2.9 billion. Analysts usually exclude one-time items from their estimates. Dish says it lost about 10,000 total subscribers in the quarter to end with about 13.78 million subscribers.

Charter Communications Lost order, installed incorrectly, horrible customer service! I live in a complex that only allows charter. I recently attempted to sign up with them. I scheduled installation through the online chat while I was at work. I saved the information and printed it off. Unfotunately I left that information at work. That Saturday I waited around the house for a technician, he never showed and eventually called Charter. They had no record of anything.

Charter Communications Unstable Service Long Beach California. I live in Long Beach, California which is a Charter serviced community. After constantly having issues with HD dropping out and intermittent internet I decided to cancel the service. I had a technician tell me that the company is not interested in investing in the very infrastructure that carries their signal and a customer support representative who by miracle and chance answered from a center in Canada told me it was his last day and that he could no longer work for the company due to their lack of values toward the customer. Well, at that point the good thing was that I was moving to a new house. The bad thing was it too was in a Charter service area. I called and asked to cancel my service and requested a final bill amount so I would no longer have to deal with the incompetents and they gladly took my money on the spot. They also terminated my internet and HD cable immediately that very night. To my disgust, I received a collection letter several months later stating that I owe Charter more money. When I called their so called customer service they indicated that they show a zero balance on the account. What? The representative wanted me to fax them my bank statement to prove that I had made the payment when they themselves processed the final payment over the phone at the time I cancelled the service. Now why would I just turn over a full copy of my bank statement? I know they outsource but do they understand that Americans have a right to privacy?
Customer
Still in Southern, California
U.S.A.

Halloween is almost upon us and as a fan of horror films I thought I would list some of my favorites. You might notice that the majority of my favorite frightful films were made many moons ago. That's not to say I don't enjoy the newer spine tinglers that have been made in recent years, because I do. However the earlier classics wil always be my favorites.

Title	Date/Time	Network	Channel
An American Werewolf in London	10/29 12:00 a.m. & 2:00 p.m.	AMC	254
Village of the Damned	10/31 9:50 a.m.	STZARZ EDGE	522
The Silence of the Lambs	10/29 2:10 p.m. & 10:20 p.m.	ENCORE MYSTERY	530
	10/31 8:00 p.m.	ENCORE	526
Invasion of the Body Snatchers	10/28 6:00 p.m.	ENCORE MYSTERY	530
Alien	11/1 2:00 a.m.	FMC	258
Halloween	10/31 9:30 a.m.	AMC	254
Jaws	10/31 10:00 p.m.	MAX	512
The Exorcist	10/31 1:30 & 11:00 p.m.	BRAVO	273
Psycho	10/29 7:30 a.m.	AMC	254
Pet Sematary	10/29 10:00 a.m.	AMC	254
Seven	10/31 8:50 a.m. & 9:40 p.m.	STARZ IN BLACK	523
The Shining	11/1 10:00 p.m.	CHILLER	257
	11/1 8:00 p.m.	A & E	265
The Thing	10/30 5:00 p.m.	SCI FI	244
The Omen	10/31 9:00 a.m.	SPIKE	241
	10/31 11:00 a.m.	BRAVO	273
Poltergist	10/31 7:30 p.m.	ABC FAMILY	311
House of Wax	10/30 4:00 a.m.	CHILLER	257

Found this interesting article about the importance of the Hispanic population in the upcoming election....

Ramos: Road to White House Runs Through Univision

anchor Jorge Ramos characterizes Barack Obama as "almost spiritual" and "calm," and John McCain as "experienced" and "warrior-like."

By Mariel Bird -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/23/2008 6:11:00 PM

New York--Univision newsman Jorge Ramos accepted the B&C/Multichannel News Lifetime of Achievement in Hispanic Television award Thursday, less than two weeks before what he called the biggest election in American history—the outcome of which he says will hinge on the rapidly expanding Hispanic community.

“Nobody can make it to the White House without Univision,” Ramos declared in his acceptance speech at the New York Hilton, on the second day of the Sixth Annual Hispanic Television Summit (complete coverage here). “That’s how simple it is. If Barack Obama or John McCain want to win Florida or Nevada, they have to talk to us.”

The anchor of Noticiero Univision and a Mexican immigrant himself, Ramos also touched on the importance and privilege of being a journalist in America, offering a behind-the-scenes look at his own interviews with the “almost spiritual” and “calm” Senator Barack Obama and the “experienced, warrior-like” Senator John McCain.

Ramos also recounted his impression of GOP vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin.

“My interview with Sarah Palin recently was really interesting,” he said. “She’s no expert on Latino American issues or international relations but she did her homework. You might only see this politician who has been portrayed in a certain way but what I saw was a mother.”

Ramos described how Palin arrived with her daughter Piper, who brought Ramos’ children’s book, I'm Just Like My Mom; I'm Just Like My Dad, for him to sign. “[Piper] stayed for the entire interview while I asked Governor Palin about Venezuela and immigration and things like that,” he said. “This is something that you don’t see on TV and why it’s such a privilege to be a journalist. I saw a mother, not just a candidate.”

Ramos also gave his own insight into how the candidates and their VPs have been approaching the Hispanic community in the months leading up to the election this November.

“Neither Obama or McCain or Biden or Palin have been talking about immigration lately, and I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “Latinos only get recognized once every four years in America, when politicians realize that they are going to need our vote. They start to visit our communities, and speak about immigration and learn a couple of phrases in Spanish, but it’s only once every four years. For the first time with this election the Hispanic community has been able to get something for our vote. Nobody’s talking about immigration because they all realize that something has to be done.”

Ramos also joked about his encounters with George W. Bush, whose name translates as “Jorge Ramos” in Spanish, and the president’s attempts to speak Spanish.

During a Q&A after the speech, Ramos discussed the growth of the Hispanic community, remarking that “the Latino community is growing so much because Latinos love each other so much and we have so many kids. If you put together immigrants and the Latino birth rate within the country, eventually we will be in the majority.”

Ramos estimated that majority could come within “less than 100 years,” and he expects that it is this surge in the population of the Latin American community that will have a profound impact on the future of America as well as on the outcome of the 2008 presidential election.

Picking up on the well-worn campaign rhetoric about change, Ramos agreed that the country appears to be ready for a new direction.

“The only question,” he said, “is which direction we want to go.”

An association of Wisconsin public-access channels on Thursday strongly criticized a Charter Communications plan to change its cable TV service.

Charter’s plans would push its customers to buy into digital technology before most are ready for it, said Mary Bennin Cardona, executive director Wisconsin Association of PEG Access Channels.

“We’re really disappointed that they’re trying to push this. We think it’s discriminatory and really harmful to our communities,” Cardona said.

Charter spokesman Tim Vowell defended the company, saying very few customers are likely to be inconvenienced.

The changes were announced in a brochure mailed to customers last month. They included more entertainment channels and moving the public-access channels to the 900s, which are available only to those with digital TVs.

Not just any digital TV will do if customers want to view the digital channels, including the public-access channels. The TVs will need CableCard technology or something called a QAM tuner.

Customers could keep their older, analog TVs, but they would have to rent a digital-conversion box from Charter for $5 a month.

Vowell said very few customers are expected to want the conversion box. He said when Charter made a similar change in a market of 50,000 customers in another state, only 30 asked for conversion boxes in the first 90 days.

But Cardona said at least half of Charter customers don’t have digital TVs, and it’s not known how many of those with digital TVs have the updated technology to handle Charter’s digital signal.

Vowell said at least half and up to 65 percent of customers in some of Charter’s Wisconsin markets already have Charter digital equipment, in addition to those whose TVs have built-in, Charter-ready technology.

Cardona said public-access channels would lose half their audiences. Vowell suggested that very few people who want to watch public-access TV will be inconvenienced.

Vowell noted that the 900s are very close on the channel lineup to the single- and double-digit channels, where the public-access channels now reside.

Cardona said her group has been meeting with Charter officials, who wanted the group’s endorsement of the changes.

“Everything they offered us was just Band-aid fixes that didn’t go near far enough to alleviate the harm,” Cardona said.

Vowell has said that Charter is considering giving the digital-conversion boxes to customers for free for a limited time to ease the transition, something it had done in another market.

Cardona said the changes might violate state and federal laws. She said the association is considering a lawsuit.

CHARTER CHANGES-
Charter Communications plans to send a postcard to its customers next week, announcing that some of its planned changes will go into effect Aug. 20. The postcard asks customers to expect more channel changes.

$0.35 Charter Communications Inc. Current Stock Price

$20.41 DIRECTV Inc. Current Stock Price

E entertainment, one of my favorite channels. The cable company moved it again, from channel 71 to channel 28! I wonder what is going to happen when the Digital transition takes place, I am sure it will move again.

Try DIRECTV 100% digital picture and sound!! The only way to go.

I can not believe the cable companies, they keep dropping and moving channels around. I was talking with my friend this weekend and she said that the Bravo channel moved again. It was an analog channel, now it is a digital channel, so if you do not have a digital box on your TV you will not be able to view Bravo. Good luck cable subscribers. I am a happy DIRECTV customer!!

Appearing in the CBS Networks fall line-up is a show titled "The Mentalist" whose plot and story line bear an uncanny resemblance to the USA Network's edgy and humourous series Psych.

CBS has once again tapped handsome and talented Australian actor Simon Baker, whom many tv viewers may remember for his role as Nick Fallin, a corporate attorney who is sentenced to 1500 hours of community service in the drama series The Guardian, which showed much promise when it left the starting gate back in September 2001, but was not able to go the distance and lasted for only 3 seasons.

Baker who has the lead role in "The Mentalist", plays California police detective Patrick Jane, an individual who has tremendously keen powers of observation and uses this ability to help him solve crimes, just like actor James Roday's character Shawn Spencer does on the USA network hit comedy/drama series Psych.

While there are some similarities between the two, after all hasn't it always been said that "imitation is the most serious form of flattery" The Menatlist, will offer more intense drama with perhaps a little low key humour interspersed within in so as to to add a little levity to the show at just the right moments. 

If you're a Psych fan, as am I, then why not give "The Menatlist", which airs Tuesday nights at 9:00 p.m. on the CBS network a shot. Comedy it's not, but who doesn't enjoy a well written and produced drama series every now and again.