What year did you get your first DBS System?

[Steve Mehs]

What year did you get your first DBS System?

I'm curious to see the average years of experience members here have had with DBS.

[James_F]

I got it in 1998, but only during NFL ST... When we moved into our new house in 2000, we went to having it all year....

[ElJefe]

Had Primestar from 1994 to 1998, when I lived in an area where cable was unavailable.
Had Dish Network for the last year, since the cable company was charging too much for too few channels.

[catman]

I have had directv since 2000 . I had cable first . I could not stand the low voluim , muting of channels . That was why I switched .

[brmann]

I got DirectTV the first day it became available in Florida (I think sometime in 94 or 95).

I got Dish the first month it became available in North Carolina (April 96)

Never looked back

[Mike123abc]

I had always kinda wanted C-band, but the multi thousand dollar cost always kept it away until another day. I stuck with cable. Cable used to be reasonable here in Wichita Falls until digital cable came out.

Before digital you could get 75 channels for around $70 (that included about 8 movie channels 2hbo, 2sho, 2cmax, 2mvch). With digital the price magically went up to $108. Got my bill for $108 and canceled cable and got Dish.

They pulled the standard tactic... moved all premium movie channels to digital. Moved popular channels like SciFi to digital. So, you suddenly had to rent boxes at $8/month for each TV. Plus then you had to get a "digital tier" which was some of the channels you used to get on analog plus a few new ones (like multipaks of existing channels). All in all bill went up $35+ and gained a few extra multipack channels... probably 30 net gain in channels to about 105 plus "music channels".

So... out went cable in went Dishnetwork (it was a hard choice between dish & direct).

Bill went down to $70/month (everything pack paid year in advance + superstations + extra box) and gained probably 100 more channels that I probably will never watch, but it is amazing how they manage to sprinkle the channels that you want over several packages so you are forced to get ATA150 to get them all.

[Jacob S]

I got Primestar in 1995 and I got Dish in 1997.

[Karl Foster]

Got Dish in 2000 and switched to Directv in 2001.

[jmeluni]

Got Dish in September, 1999 and have been happy ever since.

[JBKing]

I was on the waiting list for D*, before it was even available locally.

Way back in late '94. Has it really been that long?!!? :eek2:

Installed on a cold, drizzly late December day, well past dusk, with my 5 year old daughter holding the flashlight! Yeah, like I was going to wait until the next morning???? :nono:

[Kevin]

I got it in July of 2000 after ditching crappy Cablevision (back then it was MediaOne). I've been happy with it ever since!

[spanishannouncetable]

Late April 1995

I am one of Directv's original million customers, with the low account number to prove it :)

[Jacob S]

Starting an account in December of 1997 with Dish, would that be within the first million as well?

[Steve Mehs]

Yes Jacob, according to an old D* flyer I have, with a comparison of D*,E* and P*, on the back, as of 1/98 E* had approx. 895,000 subs.

[rspetti]

I signed up in late 1997, back when you used to have to order from DirecTV and USSB. I tell my friends about that and they're suprised about having to order from two separate companies. I got it because a guy I worked with had one and so I had to have one too. :)

[Adam Richey]

I remember the only reason we ended up getting Dish Network is because our C-Band dish got struck by lightning. A guy from New Age Satellite (GREAT retailer in Indiana) came out and said it would cost about $1000 to repair all that was damaged. He told us that we should get a $400 2 room package for Dish Network. The receivers were a 4000 and a model 1000.

[xcableguy]

I have had Dish since late 96 or real early 97. I am going back to cable soon as Charlie got too greedy for me.

[Jacob S]

Cable got more greedier than Dish did, and has actually went up less than the rate of inflation on the basic channel packages, but the premium movie packages have went up a little more than the basic packages. Those that got the superstations before did get a big of an increase considering you have to pay $5 more for the basic package and another $5 for the supers, for $10 total, not counting how much te premiums have went up, so that is quite an increase the last 3 or 4 years, although a great deal of channels have been added.

[lee120]

i got directv in 2001 i had twc for 5ms i cost 25$ to get the dish and the receiver

[DCSholtis]

1995 when MLB EI meant something.....included OTA games...:D

[md_paul]

I moved to a home in the country in 1998. Cable was (and still is) not available. The original owners had Dish Network & left the dish & the old satellite receiver. Without thinking, I hooked up their old receiver and called to have Dish re-activate the unit under a new account for me. Unfortunately, I found out later that by doing this, I gave up my one opportunity to receive discounted or free new equipment from them as a new subscriber.
However, I can't really complain about the service I have received from e. The service has been reliable, and when I have had issues (other than trying to get some kind of a credit for having subscribed as a new customer without taking advantage of any special offers), their customer service reps have been able to resolve them quickly and without much pain.

[Steve Mehs]

Thanks for bringing this thread back up, just added 2003 for the newbie's :)

[ARKDTVfan]

Primestar in 1997, DTV on Dec 31, 1999 :D

[platinum]

I got D* in 1995

[mancow]

Got E in April 02, very happy with it, had C-Band since 86 or 87. Wanted reception on more than one TV. Now have 3 301's considering a 721.

[BobMurdoch]

May 2000 with Digital Dynamite plan.

Upgraded 4900 to Dishplayer.
Upgraded 2700 o Dishplayer.
Upgraded Dishplayer to 721.

Upgrading 721 to 921 as soon as they ship the thing.......

[Eyedox]

DISH Network in 1995. Still have the original receiver and it still works, though its really slow.

[Martyva]

http://www.skyreport.com/dth_his.shtm

[pez2002]

For me It was 12-14-02

@ 2:45pm We where hooked up

With total Choice And hbo

Now 5 months Later we have Total Choice plus And no HBO

[elbyj]

I didn't realize how long I have subscribed to DBS, but we got Direct in May 95. Those new users should have subscribed back then if you think you get "sticker shock" now! I just looked at my contract. We paid $2568.54 for two receivers, installation, 2 years warranty, and one year of Total Choice programming. The only company offering Direct back then was a company about 200 miles from San Antonio. Three years ago we switched to Dish and haven't looked back.

[dfergie]

Got my first direct tv rec. in 96, had c-band since LNA days crank the dish and no scrambling whatsoever back then. Got my first dishnet in 99, went hd with 6000u , killed direct last month. Dish offers me more sd and hd.