Mirroring Fees

[shilton]

A while ago I read the rumors that Dish and DirecTV were possibly eliminating the mirroring fees for 2nd, 3rd receivers, etc... Does anyone know if there is indeed any truth to this, or has this been proven to be false? I was wondering because I really have not read anything about it for a while, so I assumed it was just someone's bad idea of a joke.

Does anyone have any insight?

[Jacob S]

Seen nothing of this in any news reports.

[RichW]

It's probably someone's wishful thinking rather than a bad joke. This rumor comes up about every six months. The reality is that neither provider is about to give up the HUGE revenue generated by "mirroring" fees. We are talking about millions per month here. So how would the DBS providers make up for this drop in revenue? Only by rasing the basic subscription prioces or by building in the price of a second receiver into the basic rate. (This is what cable does for their digital tiers).

For those who complain about the mirroring fee, you should instead look at the total cost of geting the channels you want on the number of TVs you want. You will find that even with the mirroring fees, DBS beats cable on pricing almost all the time. Yeah there are exceptions, but in general multiple TVS on digital cable cost more for the same service.

[shilton]

Originally posted by RichW
It's probably someone's wishful thinking rather than a bad joke. This rumor comes up about every six months. The reality is that neither provider is about to give up the HUGE revenue generated by "mirroring" fees. We are talking about millions per month here. So how would the DBS providers make up for this drop in revenue? Only by rasing the basic subscription prioces or by building in the price of a second receiver into the basic rate. (This is what cable does for their digital tiers).

For those who complain about the mirroring fee, you should instead look at the total cost of geting the channels you want on the number of TVs you want. You will find that even with the mirroring fees, DBS beats cable on pricing almost all the time. Yeah there are exceptions, but in general multiple TVS on digital cable cost more for the same service.
Oh well...I was hoping there was some truth to it. Actually, I'd like to see Dish charge the mirroring fees in "tiers" 2nd receiver, $4.99, 3rd maybe $3.00-$3.99 4th a little less and so on. I was only wondering because I have 2 additional receivers sitting here eating dust and if I could set up another for less, or FREE, I'd rig one up in the kid's room!

I do believe the mirroring fees are a reasonable deal, but I also feel that Dish and DirecTV would both be able to drop them if they found ways to reduce the piracy that cuts so much into the bottom line. I bet the pirates cost each company far more than what our mirroring fees are worth.

[Jacob S]

If anything they will go up, not down. Why drop mirror fees if they are needing more money to make up for programming fees? Dish said it was a cost for their conditional access system for each receiver in which has a card.

[RAD]

Originally posted by Jacob S
Dish said it was a cost for their conditional access system for each receiver in which has a card. At $4.99 per month, right! It's just about pure profit and nothing else.

[Eyedox]

I agree. I could see if I were RENTING equipment, charging me $5/mo for each additional box, but when I *OWN* the box, it's just another way to stick it to the subscribers.

[johnsmith22]

I say be thankful for small mercies, in the Cband days it was another full subscription if you wanted to have a second receiver. Really at five or six bucks it is not a great expense for the convenience of being able to watch different channels on a second TV.

[Jacob S]

Well I also think its profit, but Charlie himself said it was to pay for the encryption for each receiver, but he also says he pays more to have the receivers made than he charges for them. If this was true he would be asking for a name and address for every person buying them just as they did with the DirecTv receivers when they had cards with them.

[Eyedox]

Well, Microsoft loses $100 on every XBOX they sell. They make it up in spades on the royalties from the software vendors. It's similar to the satellite companies. Dish may lose a little on the receivers when they are sold, or barely break even ... BUT they know that they have years and years of programming income from the sale of one box. I don't mind the $5/mo extra receiver access fee, but it's not to pay for some encryption crap like Charlie says. It's extra chicken feed for Ergen.

[RichW]

I beleive the DBS providers do have to pay a royalty for every access card in operation. However is is less than a buck a month. The real reason the fee is 5 bucks is because that is what the market will bear. The fee used to be $1.50 for about two months after I got DBS but went up to its current fee. That fee generates so much income and profit. The only way it will be eliminated is for fees to go up in other areas - like rasing prices for EVERYONE. At least the current system is fairer. You only pay it if you have added receivers. If you think the fee is too much, you avoid them by having only one receiver.

[JayeDVXIII]

When I had digital cable last year, I had to pay the same price for each digital cable box, so I dind't balk at this price

[Jacob S]

Also if they are losing a little on the hardware that they sell, then they are charging the $5 second outlet fee to make up for that because they do not make all the money off of programming on the second receiver like they do the first receiver.