How long till E changes the DVR fee?

[Bob Haller]

How long do you think it will be before E realizes it made a mistake?

[Mike D-CO5]

Lets see Dish never admitted it made a mistake with the Dishplayer problems and still doesn't. So I doubt you will ever see them admitt a mistake on the fees either. :nono2:

[Bob Haller]

Realizes means they change reduce or elminate the fee.

[sampatterson]

I don't think they will change. It is eliminated with the Everything pack. ;)

[Bob Haller]

D TIVO is just $5 per account for ANY package and free with the top one. I believe the fee will cause DVR units placed to drop, and since DVR subs are the least likely to churn ths could lead to more churn.

Its a interestoing experiment but I doubt it will work. Many folks buy DBS to get away from high cable bills. Fees such as this may discourage them altogether.

A related question D dropped the fee to encourage more TIVOS beause they are better subs.

E creates a expensive fee will that not discourage new subs?

[Lyle_JP]

I would gladly pay this DVR fee if Dish were to do away with the additional receiver fee. Additional receiver fees are one of the biggest stumbling blocks that DBS has when trying to woo cable customers.

Oh sure, you can argue that cable does the same thing by charging a per-box rental fee. But does cable make you shell out $100-$600 to buy the box and then charge you $5+ a month for the "privilage" of watching television in more than one room of your house? No, only DBS does this.

[boba]

Wall St. likes the DVR fees so they will stay with DISH. Churn of customers or a slow down in sale of DVRs will be the only things DISH will see as reason to eliminate the DVR fees. Personally I already churned so I can't vote that way again. As a DISH dealer I can try to swing customers to TIVO because they will at least get their moneys worth.

[DarrellP]

$10 + extra receiver fee is just too much to swallow. I refuse to go higher than the AT50 package, there is nothing I want to watch in this package. In fact, I will drop the AT50 once the HD package comes out, even if I have to pay an extra $5 for it, but I will NOT pay a DVR fee. If that means I will not have a 921, so be it, that's a loss to Dish, not me. Dish needs me more than I need Dish, they need to wake up and smell the money.

[Fee Tivo/ Free Tivo]

It will probably only make TIVO realize that they too can charge more and will start to do so very soon. As in the past, one follows the other and I won't doubt it that Tivo will raise their rate to comparable. DTivo will also raise their rates thinking well the competition is getting this much per box, we just as well raise ours too. won't surprise me how about you Tivo owners

[spanishannouncetable]

Tivo no longer collects monthly fees the DirecTiVo boxes, Directv does. They pay TiVo a lump sum licensing fee, so TiVo cannot raise anything.

Directv used to collect $9.99 per month for TiVo service and split the fee with TiVo. In September 2001, Directv lowered the price of DirecTiVos to $49 (new subs) or $99 (existing subs). When they had sold at this price for a couple of months, 2 trends jumped out from the numbers :

1) Low priced DirecTiVos get new customers to sign up
2) Once subs have a DirecTiVo, they NEVER churn out.

With these facts staring at them, Directv decided to run with the DirecTiVo as a way to keep subs. They took over administration of the DVR service from TiVo, immediately cutting the monthly DVR service price in half and eliminating the fee completely for TC Premier customers.
This encouraged DirecTiVo owners to buy multiple units, and recommend DirecTiVos to anyone who would listen.

I for one do not worry about Directv raising the rate for DVR service. They know it stops churn and gives them the DVR advantage over both cable and Dish Network. They won't give up this advantage any time soon.

[harsh]

Oh sure, you can argue that cable does the same thing by charging a per-box rental fee. But does cable make you shell out $100-$600 to buy the box and then charge you $5+ a month for the "privilage" of watching television in more than one room of your house? No, only DBS does this.

Some cable companies are selling STBs if you believe what you read here.

I understand that the abuse for an arguably crummy Comcast DVR (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000) is nearly double that of a plain digital box. In view of the fact that you must have at least a digital STB to get much of anything special, cable is far and away most expensive when enjoyed on multiple televisions. Comcast asks $10 per television just for the receiver (w/remote) and another $9.95 for the DVR feature*.

$239.40 a year for a utterly marginal DVR is pretty steep in the long term.

What remains to be seen is how they integrate DVR functionality with the forthcoming digital cable ready televisions.

* source: http://www.comcast.com "What's in my area" given a zip code of 22206 and choosing the last Arlington radio button.

[Bob Haller]

I for one do not worry about Directv raising the rate for DVR service. They know it stops churn and gives them the DVR advantage over both cable and Dish Network. They won't give up this advantage any time soon.

Then whats E up to?

[spanishannouncetable]

Charlie is claiming his DVR has the lowest monthly fee, and it is by a whole $.01. He figures the majority of subs with DVRs will only have one unit anyway (which he is giving away to new subs with the 510), so as long as you only have one of E*'s underperforming DVRs, Charlie wins. Lots of new, uninformed subs will take him up on his offer.

The problems he will have are that his home-grown DVR software isn't good enough to keep subs from churning out the way Directv's custom TiVo software is, and his hardware prices still won't be low enough to keep existing subs happy. Almost everyone immediately grasps how much better the DirecTiVo is when compared to the 501/508 (I had both at the same time, so I sure saw the difference) or even the 721. Dual-tuner DirecTiVos are $159 to existing subs while single tuner 508's are $149, and there is no word on any deals for the upcoming 510.

Combine better software, Directv's per-account fee vs. E*'s per-receiver fee and a similar hardware price-point, and Charlie's gonna have to sign up lots of new subs (which is what he apparently wants) to replace alienated subs who churn out. Directv likes new subs too, but wants to keep their current subs happy over the long haul.

But hey, it's all about the new subs, right ? :p

[Bob Haller]

We have decided to check out D TIVOS. I for one am tired of the bugs and was looking forward to the 522 but now I dont want it because of the fee. As a matter of fact on principle alone I will never give E a cent for PVR, DVR, or whatever they want to call it.

For ME they have taken the fun out of upgrading:( Actually they ill fine you for doing it:(:(

[HTguy]

Yep. The DVR fees are here to stay unless E* sees a marked reduction of new subscribers or a drop off of new DVR customers in the next 6 months to a year.

It may surprise some members of these forums that they actually do some market research before making these kinds of decisions. Free DVR hardware up front & leasing 2-tuner/2-room DVRs for the same monthly cost of an additional outlet lead me to believe that they will succeed in bringing in a lot of new customers.

[Mike D-CO5]

D TIVO is just $5 per account for ANY package and free with the top one. I believe the fee will cause DVR units placed to drop, and since DVR subs are the least likely to churn ths could lead to more churn.

Its a interestoing experiment but I doubt it will work. Many folks buy DBS to get away from high cable bills. Fees such as this may discourage them altogether.

A related question D dropped the fee to encourage more TIVOS beause they are better subs.

E creates a expensive fee will that not discourage new subs?


I think that Dish is giving away the only advantage it had over Directv ;No FEE DVRS. People can stand buggy software if they don't have to pay a fee.

I will be interested in seeing how many new subs vs the churn factor in the next quarter after these fees are started. I think that this might have been the main advantage that Dish had over Directv in dvrs.

[Bob Haller]

Yeah PAYING for a service it MUST work right.

I doubt Charlie realizes how bad his PVR boxes truly are. My 721 missed some proigrams yesterday and jen was upset. I am tired of the complaints.

[Richard King]

I think that Charlie's theory is that he will attract higher paying customers with the charge. He will probably sell few if any to AT50 customers and will sell most to AEP customers. Once a customer has a DVR they are less likely to churn, so, Dish gets a higher paying customer and gets one who will probably not churn. Churn will likely be restricted for the most part to those with AT50 or AT100. Look at it as a way to protect Dish from churn in their highest paying customers.