A la carte channels?

[finniganps]

I don't understand why you can't buy individual channels instead of upgrading to the next package. Why don't they charge extra by the channel. Let's say you have the basic package and don't need the higher packages. I should be able to buy one or two additional channels a la carte for a couple bucks a month per channel instead of paying $10-20 extra for channels I don't want. My wife likes our current package but would like 2 other channels......no dice unless we sign up for the next package. Seems to me Dish could get more $$ if they added this ability. Any thoughts?

[stickyfingers]

Works for me. My wife *really* wants DIYNet - and I'd pay $2/month for just that channel, but there's no way I'm going to pay $20/month for it (and the other 60 or so that come w/it...)

Brian

[greylar]

I don't understand why you can't buy individual channels instead of upgrading to the next package. Why don't they charge extra by the channel. Let's say you have the basic package and don't need the higher packages. I should be able to buy one or two additional channels a la carte for a couple bucks a month per channel instead of paying $10-20 extra for channels I don't want. My wife likes our current package but would like 2 other channels......no dice unless we sign up for the next package. Seems to me Dish could get more $$ if they added this ability. Any thoughts?
That's exactly the reason there are always a couple of channels that everyone wants in the next package up. Dish has planned it this way. If you could buy just those channels why pay for the whole package?

I think that they would gain some money from people ordering a la carte but they would lose much more when all those people on bigger packages dropped to lower ones and picked up just the extra channels that they wanted.

There is no way to prove this other than some serious market research but I'm sure Dish has done this. Of course maybe they haven't. Dish hasn't had a stellar record on their marketing lately :)

G

[cdru]

That's exactly the reason there are always a couple of channels that everyone wants in the next package up. Dish has planned it this way. If you could buy just those channels why pay for the whole package?

I think that they would gain some money from people ordering a la carte but they would lose much more when all those people on bigger packages dropped to lower ones and picked up just the extra channels that they wanted.

There is no way to prove this other than some serious market research but I'm sure Dish has done this. Of course maybe they haven't. Dish hasn't had a stellar record on their marketing lately :)

GIt also has to do with contract terms with the individual channels. That was one of the sticky spots in the last round of negotiations with Viacom I beleive. They wanted to require Dish to carry a certian channel, Nick Toons I beleive, along with their other channels. Viacom knew that many people want their MTV, Nick, etc and would pay money to get them...but some people might not want Nick toons. Buy forcing the bundling, Viacom would get paid for a channel that might not do well otherwise.

Also it may be required for a certian channel to be available in a certain tier of service. ESPN was required to be in the basic tier of my local cable through contract negotians. By having this requirement, when ESPN started charging $2/subscriber, the cable company couldn't just move it up to the highest tier to save the money. They had to leave it where it was and screw^H^H^H^H^Hrip off^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hcharge subs more.

[James Long]

Many channels get stuck in AT180 so they won't have to raise rates on AT60 and AT120 subscribers. When was the last real channel added to AT120 or AT60?

(BingoTV and shopping channels don't count this time.)

The Sirius addition will be the first major change to AT120 in a long time. (And if they count audio channels like they did with AT100 CD and do with AT120 CD, we could end up with AT 220. :) )

JL

[chenrikson]

My daughter-in-law is about to go to Dish. She is just going with the top 60 package, but her husband enjoys Outdoor Life Network. The CSR she was talking with told her she could get that one additional channel for $1.95/mo. I note that BEV in Canada offers quite a few channels as ala-carte.

Craig

[stickyfingers]

My daughter-in-law is about to go to Dish. She is just going with the top 60 package, but her husband enjoys Outdoor Life Network. The CSR she was talking with told her she could get that one additional channel for $1.95/mo. I note that BEV in Canada offers quite a few channels as ala-carte.CSRs are notorious for being (at best) incorrect (as opposed to dishonest) - I'd triple check that. The Outdoor Channel is available a la carte for $1.99 but I don't think OLN is.

Brian

[finniganps]

I understand your comments, however, I think if they announced that channels are available a la carte at say $2 per channel, I think they would generate more revenue and make people happier. People at the lowest package have already decided they're not moving up after a year or so....I've been a subscriber of the lowest package plus locals since 99 and I have no plans to move up, but I wish I could add a couple channels a la carte.

If existing subscribers dropped their higher package to go a la carte, don't they have to pay a change fee for dropping their subscription (I had to when I dropped a distant local). I don't think folks would pay to drop their higher package.....plus more than likely most of the customers that would drop their package would come back to the higher package because they'd realize they do watch more than just the one or two channels they decided to buy at the a la carte price. Dish could set it up so that you could only buy say 5 channels in the next package up (lets say you have a top 60 subscriber, only let them buy 5 in the next package and 2 in the package above that).This way they could limit the erosion of higher paying customers.

When cable subscribers ask me about Dish vs Direct, my main points are, if you're a BIG sports fan Direct has packages you can buy that Dish doesn't have. I tell people that Dish is cheaper for the packages and then I tell them to look at the channel line ups. A guy that I work in the office with went to Direct because they include OLN in the package he wanted. To get that in Dish he would have had to buy a more expensive package...if not for that he would have gone with Dish which was cheaper.

Just my 2 cents.

[dbronstein]

If they sold channels a la carte, they would be more than $2 each. You'd probably be looking at $5 to $10 depending on the channel, and by the time you subbed to the channels you want, you'd end up paying just as much as you do for the packages.

Dennis

[finniganps]

If they sold channels a la carte, they would be more than $2 each. You'd probably be looking at $5 to $10 depending on the channel, and by the time you subbed to the channels you want, you'd end up paying just as much as you do for the packages.

Dennis

Dennis - they already charge about $2 for a few channels, NOT $5. See the post above. There is precedence for this. I'm just asking that they extend this to the majority of channels (Animal planet, Bravo etc.).

[Chris Freeland]

On most channels E* has no control over this, most of the channel providers insist that their channel goes into a particular package and not sold "a la carte". Their are some exceptions to this and E* does this on a few select channels. The following channels included in AT180 are also available "a la carte" Golf $4.99, Outdoor channel $1.99, Bloomberg TV $1.50, Encore Movie Pack (Encore West, Westerns, Mystery, Action,True Stories, Love Stories) $4.99. All 32 Dish CD audio music channels which is included in AT120 is available "a la carte" $4.99. All AT60 Plus amounts too is your local RSN(s) added to AT60 for an additional $5 and the Disney channel which is included in all of the AT packages and DLMax is also available "a la carte" for $9.99 for both East and West feeds. E* has more channels and small packages available "a la carte" then any other multi-channel service provider.

[chenrikson]

CSRs are notorious for being (at best) incorrect (as opposed to dishonest) - I'd triple check that. The Outdoor Channel is available a la carte for $1.99 but I don't think OLN is.

Brian

Brian -- OOPS, My bad -- She meant the Outdoor Channel!

Craig

[Jacob S]

A while back Dish CSR's were saying that you could not get the Encore Movie Pack for $4.99 any longer. Some of the customers wanted Westerns and were told that they had to get what was AT150 (now AT180) to get Westerns.

[Chris Blount]

Chris Freeland is correct. It's all about contracts. E*'s hands are tied on most of the channels they carry.

When I had my C-Band system, I was able to purchase channels a la carte. The individual channels were very expensive. Just having 5 basic channels could run up to $10 a month.

The package deals are a much better value. We should be thankful we have them. A la carte pricing, while is sounds great at first, is not really that big of a deal and will drain your pocket quicker than a Vegas slot machine.

[ck33]

My wife and I have AT120, and overall we are quite impressed with it. But, there are a couple of channels that I wish were available a la carte. First, my wife would really love to have the DIY channel. I wouldn't mind having the GAC channel (I actually would prefer it over CMT, which I can just barely tolerate these days), and I would also like to get the WAM / Starz bundle. However, although we desire these channels, we can do without them and stick to AT120.

[FTA Michael]

I think if they announced that channels are available a la carte at say $2 per channel, I think they would generate more revenue and make people happier.Make more subs happy? Maybe. Generate more revenue? No way.

For any such channel, there are folks who really want it and there are folks who'd prefer to have it. Most folks who are desperate for the channel will simply pay to buy the higher tier. Most folks who merely prefer the channel will upgrade to the tier or not.

The a la carte plan would make money only from those subs who want a channel strongly enough to search out the special single-channel deal, but who won't pay to go to the next tier. For every one of those guys, you'd probably lose a full-tier upgrader.

[dbronstein]

Dennis - they already charge about $2 for a few channels, NOT $5. See the post above. There is precedence for this. I'm just asking that they extend this to the majority of channels (Animal planet, Bravo etc.).

And my point is that if every channel was a la carte, they would be more than $2 each. There's no way a lot of these channels could survive at $2 because they wouldn't get nearly enough subs. Let's say Dish currently pays Animal Planet 20 cents per sub. They would need 10 percent of Dish customers who currently get whatever tier it's on now to subscribe at $2 a month to get the same revenue. I just don't see there being that much interest in Animal Planet to have that many people buy it for $2. Of course this a purely subjective opinion with no hard data to back it up.

Dennis

[Mike Richardson]

DISH Network used to have an ala-carte service called DISH Pix. Unfortuniately the page for it at the DBS Talk mirror of EKB is missing, and the actual EKB has been down for a long time.

[Link]

Works for me. My wife *really* wants DIYNet - and I'd pay $2/month for just that channel, but there's no way I'm going to pay $20/month for it (and the other 60 or so that come w/it...)

Brian

Yes I know what you mean. I am currently paying an extra $18 or $20 just for the Top 180 package for Great American Country, VH1 Classic, Fox Movie Channel, and SoapNet. I'm not sure its worth it but we like GAC Classic on GAC and watching Dallas reruns on SoapNet. Otherwise we'd have the Top 60 package because there is nothing we really have to have in the Top 120.

I don't know why Dish has Hallmark in the TOp 180 when its a basic channel on most cable systems and Directv's cheapest package.

[Chris Freeland]

A while back Dish CSR's were saying that you could not get the Encore Movie Pack for $4.99 any longer. Some of the customers wanted Westerns and were told that they had to get what was AT150 (now AT180) to get Westerns.

Yes that was true, however Charlie came out on a Charle chat soon after these CSR's were saying this and anounced that the Encore Movie pack is available "a la carte" for $4.99/mo. Their may have been a short time where this package was no longer available "a la carte", however either E* brought this option back or these CSR's were mistaken all along, it is not advertised this way so you have to ask for it, however if you go to the E* website and click on one of the channels that are included in the Encore Movie Pack, it will be listed as available in AEP, AT180 and Encore Movie Pack.

[uncdanwrong]

I just wish they had theme packages like our neighbors to the north.

[Link]

I just wish they had theme packages like our neighbors to the north.

They claim that Sports channels like ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPNews is what costs a lot and make the rates go up. If this is the case why can't ESPN just be available in the Top 120 or on an al la carte basis.

I think they should redo the packages and have 4 different packages to choose from.

[dbronstein]

They claim that Sports channels like ESPN, ESPN 2, and ESPNews is what costs a lot and make the rates go up. If this is the case why can't ESPN just be available in the Top 120 or on an al la carte basis.

Because ESPN's contract requires it to be in the lowest tier. And while some people here wouldn't care if Dish dropped it so they didn't have to pay for it, Dish would be dead if they didn't carry it. So ESPN gets to make the rules.

Dennis

[Jacob S]

Didnt they have an action pack that consisted of the Science channels but later on did away with it?