Goodbye to FTA Dealers in North America

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el bandido

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A few years ago, someone new or a person needing new gear to receive the free satellite signals had many options. Several FTA dealers in North America had complete packages available that included a receiver, a satellite dish, equipment to move the satellite dish, the lnb, and almost everything else needed to install the system for one decent price. Many different FTA receivers were also available, and new receiver models were introduced at least once a year.

Today things are different. Several FTA dealers have closed shop, and the few dealers that remain are not doing much. The offerings of FTA receivers are becoming pitiful, and reviews written by people who actually purchase and use these receivers hardly exist. I have seen North American Dealers complain about China when most of what they sell is made in China. I have seen FTA dealers ban discussions about cheap FTA receivers that are being sold on the Internet, and even ban the people who started the discussions.

What is happening is simple and easy to see. Most of the FTA dealers that are left in North America are not making much money. At least one FTA dealer is trying to sell old, outdated receivers as new, and the other FTA dealers are not really offering anything except outdated technology. The offerings I see today for FTA receivers in North America are very similar to what we had in 2010-2012. The problem is it is 2017!

The amount of households that view the free satellite channels has also shrank. One could argue that less people are watching free satellite channels because there were no modern receivers for them to purchase, so they moved to something else. While this may be at least part truth, we would also expect the Android and ip based receivers that use the internet and offer free channels to have appealed to many that once used the free satellite channels.

For about the past four years, I have not purchased a single FTA receiver from any dealer in North America. I have dealt mainly with linux receivers that are based on open source operating systems. The reason for not buying locally is simple: No FTA dealer in North America currently sells a FTA receiver that appeals to me! Ali 35xx and Spark receivers are things of the past, but some of these guys keep trying to sell them. And it appears the FTA market keeps shrinking. Wonder Why?

I am sure that we will never see the levels of FTA users that we had around a decade ago, but we probably will not have any dealers of FTA equipment left in North America in a couple of years if things continue. New FTA receivers and new FTA products are needed soon. Else the North American dealers that are left will not have enough customers to stay in business.

President Trump is another wildcard. What would happen to these North American FTA dealers if a Tariff for China imports is signed into law?

The writing is on the wall. EB
 
Here is a partial list of receivers that we are being offered to watch fta satellite:
Openbox Z5 HD PVR
OpenBoxS10 HD
Azlink HD S1
AZAmerica S900HD
Azlink Ultra V3 HD
SatHawk PVR300HD
SatHawk PVR200HD HDTV
GEOSATpro HDVR1200
GEOSATpro HDVR3500
Linkbox 9000i HD
Linkbox 9000i HD Local
Manhattan RC-1978 HD
ICECRYPT S1600CHD SE HD Satellite Receiver
ICECRYPT S3750CHD Satellite Receiver
SYNOQ SR1 High Definition Satellite Receiver
UNIDEN SUPRA (Analog)

Most receivers in that list are way overpriced, outdated and/or have serious software or chipset defects. Granted, No fta receiver is perfect, but how exactly is fta in North America supposed to survive when we have a list of receivers like that to choose from?
 
Technomate is Pricey? Hardly. Unless you compare with the twenty dollar receivers on Ebay.
The most expensive Technomate, (a 4K receiver) is around $250-300 U.S. shipped. Most other Technomate models seem to be in the $100-$200 dollar range. It would be nice to see someone carry this line of receivers in North America.
 
Rick sells the Octagon 4K and tek2000 sells the ZGemma 4K. Both are priced in the low $200s. They also sell complete c-band satellite systems. Quite complaining.
 
I've given up on the NA sellers myself. As to the cheap Asian stbs, those are O-U-T.
Last 3 stbs I've purchased were thru fleabay from an Irish seller - vortex-satellite. One Technomate 5402-m3, a Ferguson Ariva 4K(Android box with NA sats included in arc as supplied) & a Formuler F1(E2 - openpli box with NA sats included here too).
The 5402-m3 sat is very good for blind scan though you must create your own sat list.
Point is, there are euro dealers out there more willing to earn our business than in years past.
 
The problem I see is the North American dealers get their gear from some foreign clearing house that have nothing new to offer. They pump it up saying it will be all that with some vaporware fix that cant happen. The closing of the doors is being brought on by their own stupidity trying to scam the public over and over.
 
Pansat used to be a big name in fta products until they got busted for theft. Pansat went out of business on paper, but continued making fta receivers under the Linkbox name. Here is a link to, and a screenshot of the Linkbox dealers list.

http://www.linkboxusa.com/dealerlist.htm

Linkbox_Dealers.webp

Most of the dealers and the links to their websites in the Linkbox dealers list are out of business. The few that are left are pretty much selling outdated equipment. I do not think any dealer in North America has announced even one new receiver for 2018.People will have to start buying directly from Europe or other countries if they want decent, updated fta receivers and other equipment. We have a section on this site for advertising European and other sellers that ship to North America. (See Link Below.)

http://www.legitfta.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?413-Where-to-Buy

Most of the North American dealers are probably beyond the point of staying in business now. They are selling old or outdated products and are not offering much of anything new. There is no way most North American fta dealers can keep a customer base unless something changes quickly.
 
Too much streaming and iptv causing the decline in fta. Plus the ebay and amazon vendors providing cheap receivers capable of providing the free stuff people want. Dish, DTV and cable are losing subscribers because they keep raising prices for packages that contain channels that no body watches. In my area, on Craig's list there are always 60+ used dish or dtv dishes for sale. But wait till the internet caps kick in and start affecting the streamers and iptv folks, they will be in for a big surprise. Oh and the price increases kicking in after the honeymoon is over. It will probably get worse for fta before anything of interest happens.

The local tv stations in my area are currently testing the repack of frequencies as specified by the FCC to see how much of the C band has to be relinquished to the cellular market. The only good thing of the repack would be if some of the major providers switch to ku. It would help the space challenged folks interested in getting into fta.

In regards to ota 4k transmissions, the guys I spoke with at the local cbs and pbs stations have no plans currently until the FCC decides what to do with atsc 3.0. Will they provide $$$ credits to purchase 3.0 decoders, subsidize station equipment etc.?

Just follow the money trail to see what's happening.
 
Manhattan

Guess it is too much trouble to update your website...Even after several years?

Manhattan.webp

Jeff S. owner of Manhattan has done nothing expect talk about a new receiver for a couple of years. His website is bad out of date, so we can only wonder if the end is near for this company. The ongoing excuse for not releasing a new receiver is because they are waiting for ATSC 3.0 tuners. I guess they will be waiting for a few more years because the only ATSC 3.0 tuners that are available are very expensive. A single ATSC 3.0 tuner if purchased right now would cost more than all of his 3 receivers that have been released since 2010. How long can a company last like this? What will happen when Trump's trade war gets into cheap China made fta receivers? Will be interesting to see how this one plays out. The Manhattan company may already be dead, but not formally buried yet.

http://www.manhattan-digital.net/news.htm
 
I always bought my satellite products at Sadoun.com but he doesn't carry much these days. The best place for fta satellite products today is tek2000.com They are like a c band satellite superstore!
 
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