Top 150

[Uncle Peter]

Increasing to $42.99 a month. Rates going up like Cable TV. Any new Channels? Not Locals but regular channels like Goodlife TV, MTV Music Channels? VH-1 Themed Channels? :mad:

[FTA Michael]

What, CNBC World not good enough for you? ;)

C'mon, they've GOT to add something else, don't they?

[jeffwtux]

They desperately need to add channels to AT100. It will be $2 more than TC and with fewer channels. Come August/September, if Direct is offering the 4 months free with the purchase of Sunday Ticket, why would you stick with Dish?

[gcutler]

First comparison would be if you had cable, would the price increase be comparitively large, the answer for me is no.

The next question is what about any pricing by D*. I believe the programming I want from dish was $1 or $2 cheaper, now it will be equal or $1 to $2 more. That is not enough for me to jump ship.

No I'm not happy, but I'm ahead of the game with Cable and on Par with D*. Next time around things may be different.

[dbronstein]

I don't have a problem with the pricing. I get AT100 and even if it goes up $2, I'm certainly not going to change to D* over $2. Do you really expect E* to eat the cost of rate increases?

Dennis

[boba]

AT-100 and AT-150 really aren't jumping up $2.00. Both packages are built on the base of AT-50 that is going up $2.00 so all packages are going up that amount. Since last Feb. price increase DISH has signed a new contract with Disney for ESPN Classic, ABC Family, and TNT all I am sure have raised costs. There were also some escalation clauses in existing contracts I am sure.

[Chris Freeland]

I am not thrilled that the price of programing is going up $2 and it would be nice if E* would compensate by adding some additional channels, provided they can do it without decreasing pq, however even if no new channels are added and D* prices remain the same the rest of the year ( which I doub't ) I will not jump. For what I get, E* still offers a = value with what is available at D* and I can not get Supers at D*. E* will still be a better value then Comcast by far.

[DarrellP]

If they would increase the bandwidth for every channel by about 30% I would gladly pay $10/month more. Forget more programming, it only sucks bandwidth. Those of you who want more programs, are you watching on a 19" TV?

[RJS1111111]

Originally posted by DarrellP
If they would increase the bandwidth for every channel by about 30% I would gladly pay $10/month more. Forget more programming, it only sucks bandwidth. Those of you who want more programs, are you watching on a 19" TV?

Hey, I just got a TV with an S-Video input!
Now I can see some of those "compression
artifacts" that big-screen viewers keep
carping about!

[sorahl]

All these other issues aside. my rates have gone up a total of what 2 maybe 3 dollars since I signed up 4 years ago?
so this would be a total of 5 dollars max more than I was paying? When I compare this to the amount that cable for my neighbor has gone up and add the lousy service that he gets..... It's a MASSIVE bargain...

the trouble is, we are all spoiled....

[jeffwtux]

No, people won't switch to cable. They'll switch to DirecTV. TC has more channels than AT100 and will be $2 less. Sounds like a no brainer to me. AT150+locals is an absurd rippoff compared to $39.99 TC+ w/locals.

[Karl Foster]

You could subscribe to TC+w/locals and a premium for only $4 more than AT150....

AT50 is still the best bargain in town, though.

[Steve Mehs]

AT50 is still the best bargain in town, though.

But it was even a better bargain when it was $19.99, only channels that have been added to it since then are PIs and MTV2 when it was moved from AT100 to AT50. But prices go up... :(

[jeffwtux]

Only people here care about the Superstations package. In the real world, nobody does.

[Chris Freeland]

Originally posted by jeffwtux
Only people here care about the Superstations package. In the real world, nobody does.

Many new subs in the real world probably do not know the Supers even exist because E* no longer promotes them. If they are lucky enough to live in a dma with locals and their dma includes WB and UPN, your probably wright that they do not care, however for those of us who do not live in a DMA that has E* locals or do not have a UPN and or WB in are DMA and want WB and or UPN and do know about them, then yes they are very important to us, and I think that includes more people then just us at these forums.
:)

[Steve Mehs]

Even those of us with UPN and WB's on E* love the supers. I'd rather watch WPIX or WSBK over my WB49 and UPN 23.

[Jacob S]

Think about this, how easy it is to blow $2 or waste it? $2 does not buy you much anymore. It might buy you half a meal somewhere, a couple of soda's in the bottle, thats it. Some will switch just for that though but I think DirecTv will raise rates as well, thats what usually happens. It is called inflation and the prices cannot stay the same forever, they have to go up sometime. Them adding some new channels could help make up for it but then subs will say that is the reason for the increase.

[Nick]

Geez! This thread is just like the other one. I can't believe this much lip-flapping over nothing.

And another thing...aw, just forget it!

:rolleyes:

[Jacob S]

Isn't people making a lot bigger deal this time than before? Maybe part of it is because either there has not been as much inflation or because of the 9/11 incident, or both, with people tightening their wallets due to the poor economy.

[jeffwtux]

Ok, people will just forget it and take the first best DirecTV promotion they can get. I as a retailer fully expect this will kill my business completely. Yes, there have been other rate hikes. THIS ONE IS DIFFERENT BECAUSE IT IS THE FIRST TIME RATES HAVE BEEN RAISED IN THE 100 CHANNEL PACKAGE ABOVE DIRECTV's TC. That's why I keep making the DirecTV comparison. You people can all feel good knowing you're still getting a better deal than cable fine. That doesn't say much in most cities. Most people want the best deal available at the least inconvenience. Dish won't be it. $2/month + getting more channels will easily be worth the switch for most people. The intro promotions will make the inconvenience worthwhile.

[DaYooper]

Originally posted by jeffwtux
Only people here care about the Superstations package. In the real world, nobody does.

Maybe not. But Superstations is one of the main reasons I switched to Dish over 3 years ago, and it's really the only reason I'm still with them. Some days I almost wish the Superstations would disappear so I could switch to Direct TV without loosing sleep. With the price increase and returning Dishplayer fee, I may end up doing that anyways.

[FTA Michael]

As I've said, half of the choice between systems is examining their unique content.

The superstations are Dish's best unique content, in my eyes. It's a shame that Dish doesn't/can't promote them, but when I annoy/try to convert my friends to Dish, that's the "secret" I use for the hook. It's also a slender window into the utopian world of being able to buy any broadcast feed that you want.

I must admit, when I chose Dish over DirecTV a year and a half ago, it was HBO Comedy that made the difference. I didn't see the superstations until months later when I stumbled onto a reference to them in an exhaustive search of Dish's online FAQs.

DirecTV has PBS Kids!, Trio, Extra Innings, Sunday Ticket, and better TiVo integration. If Dish doesn't pick up Extra Innings this season, I'll probably jump.

Heck, even my local cable system has Classic Arts Showcase running a few recordable hours a night on an access channel. Everybody's got something different, and every viewer likes something different. You Mileage _Will_ Vary.

[Jacob S]

The Superstations are the best channels there are in my eyes on Dish. I could do without all the others. Big advantage over DirecTv. Stupid to switch providers over a buck when DirecTv is going to more likely do the same as well. DirecTv was a buck higher, now Dish is going to be a buck higher, so what, a flip flop.

So its wrong for Dish to be a buck higher but not wrong for DirecTv for being a buck higher?

[jeffwtux]

Yeah, when DirecTV TC has more channels than DishTV AT100, Dish better not be $.01 more.

WANT TO KNOW AN EVEN BIGGER RIPPOFF????
McDonalds charges $1 for 4 chicken nuggets and Wendy's only charges $0.99 for 5 :):):):):)

[Eyedox]

Price increases suck ... but you can always go down a package or two (AT150 -> AT100 -> AT50). That would save money. The real greedy bastards are the individual cable networks (like Disney, AOL-Time-Warner-Microsoft, etc) that keep raising their premiums to DISH and DirecTV.
The one thing I don't understand is that 90% of people can pick up their locals with a cheap rooftop antenna for FREE ... hell, most of them in HIGH DEFINITION now. If there's anything that hogs bandwidth its all the locals DMA's D* and E* have added over the years to compete with cable.

[Doug E]

Seems to me that you are condeming locals somewhat selfishly. I live where I receive no over the air TV and will never have cable. DBS locals are a God send to me as I now receive the networks and all of the other locals.

[Chris Freeland]

Plus most of the locals are now on spotbeams so they are not really using that much bandwidth anymore.

[Jacob S]

How many more channels does DirecTv have than Dish on that level of packaging?

[Eyedox]

I do feel bad for people that live out in the the styx where grade B OTA reception is not possible, and which are also not served by cable TV. But putting up all the locals on satellite for that reason which accounts for maybe 2% of the total population is kind of selfish also.
I agree that the bandwidth is not much of an issue now that we have awesome SPOT BEAM technology! :)

[Steve Mehs]

How many more channels does DirecTv have than Dish on that level of packaging?


Total Choice VR America's Top 100

(This DOES NOT include religious, shopping or public interest channels)

This looks BAD for E*! I checked it over thee time each with my package comparison page and current E* and D* promo brochures

Both packages have the same channels except...

In TC, but not in AT100-

Bloomberg
CNBC World
Fox Movie Channel
Hallmark Channel
Health Network
National Geographic
Newsworld International
Outdoor Life
Oxygen
Trio

*Note most of the channels, above E* has in AT150

In AT100, but not in TC-
TV Games

[jeffwtux]

Exactly, Bloomberg, FMC, NG, OLN, and Trio are not garbage stations. I have had many customers reluctantly upgrade to AT150 for one or more these stations. Why would somebody now pay $42.99 for them. Why would somebody pay more for AT100 when it has fewer channels.
No people don't usually pay attention to what the other company charges or offers, BUT THEY DO WHEN THEY GET THEIR RATES RAISED AND ARE MAD ABOUT IT.