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DISH price changes eff 1/14/21

3K views 16 replies 7 participants last post by  crodrules 
#1 ·
Not only is there the usual increases in TV package prices, they actually are LOWERING the monthly service fees on any receivers that you have purchased & own! (see the drop-down on this site for the new rates on those)
But put simply - any/all owned Hopper/Joey receivers, as well as all owned legacy solo receivers will be $5, while all owned legacy duo receivers, will be $10.

https://my.dish.com/infocenter

2021 Pricing Updates (as of January 14, 2021)
Package 2021 Price Increase from 2020
Welcome Pack $39.99 $5.00
Flex Pack $47.99 $5.00
Smart Pack $45.99 $5.00
America's Top 120 $77.99 $5.00
America's Top 120+ $82.99 $5.00
America's Top 200 $92.99 $5.00
America's Top 250 $102.99 $5.00
America's Everything Pack $127.99 $5.00
Dish America $62.99 $5.00
DishLATINO Básico $46.99 $5.00
DishLATINO Clásico $49.99 $5.00
DishLATINO Plus $56.99 $5.00
DishLATINO Dos $75.99 $5.00
DishLATINO Max $87.99 $5.00
Locals Only (CORE) $15.00 $3.00
 
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#2 ·
But put simply - any/all owned Hopper/Joey receivers, as well as all owned legacy solo receivers will be $5, while all owned legacy duo receivers, will be $10.

https://my.dish.com/infocenter
Suspiciously missing from that drop-down list are the Hopper Duo and the 4K Joey. So, are those fees being eliminated entirely, or are they staying at the current rates? It seems ridiculous that a purchased Hopper Duo would remain at a $10 per month DVR fee, while all other Hoppers are going down to only $5 per month. So, with a $10 per month reduction to the DVR fee across the board for all purchased Hoppers, that would make Hopper Duo DVR service completely free.
 
#3 ·
Is Dish selling the Hopper Duo & 4K Joeys to own? I wouldn't put it past them to switch to a lease only model like D* did for Genie 2.
 
#7 · (Edited)
You're confusing the DVR fee & actual Equipment fees...if you look at a DISH bill with multiple receivers, the 1st receiver, if you have at least 1 DVR, is billed a "DVR fee" anywhere between $10-$15. (I'm was paying $12, but now am paying $10, as being a "loyal customer") Then my additional Ho's are being billed at $12 each, as "Hopper" fee. (again, as "loyal customer") So the first DVR will STILL be billed at whatever (DVR) rate you're currently paying - REGARDLESS if you own or lease it. So because of this, there really is NO financial advantage in owning your 1st (& only) receiver.
In my current case, because I only own 1 of my 3 Ho's, I will only see a reduction on 1 of those units, down from $12 to $5.

As far as the Duo...IIRC, DISH does NOT allow any other receivers on Duo accounts - so because of this, the (DVR) fee on those receivers will NOT change at all - again regardless if you own or lease it, because the 1st (& only) receiver on these accounts will still get hit with the $10 DVR fee.
Re: 4k Joeys...I suspect those will be treated just like all the other Ho/Jo receivers - which ALL owned units will now be billed $5.

Well if you plan on staying with Dish for the long term now makes sense to own the equipment.
As I stated, NOT if you only have 1 receiver...DVR or otherwise - at least if you're on a plan where the 1st receiver does NOT have a separate equipment charge.
 
#16 ·
Well, that's the thing: my sister's account only has one purchased Wally, and she is currently being billed a $7 per month receiver fee. Again, this is the only receiver on her account. This is definitely not a "DVR fee" but rather an equipment fee. So, her fee should go down to $5, correct?
I say it should - I take it her account is one of those where her 1st (only) IS charged a separate fee, correct?

Dish's language in the linked message is not exactly clear on that. It says "...we also will be removing receiver fees..." and also says "...you will see a new, lower service fee..."
The service fee that they charge currently would be the DVR service fee.
Not necessarily...it's very possible that in those (added) receiver fees, they actually comprise of 2 services - the "rental" of the physical box, plus the "service fee" of supply TV service to that said box. So for all of the owned boxes, they are simply removing the "rental" portion of the current, monthly fee they are now charging.
I still do NOT believe they are including ANY DVR's fees in this discussion; if you recall, they USED to charge a DVR fee PER DVR BOX, but stopped doing that & now only access (1) DVR fee per account. So that would make no sense for people like me with multiple DVR's.
When I go online & try to order new DISH service for 2 TV's, it selects a Ho Duo & 1 Jo, with total monthly fees of $10. But if I change it to 1 TV, it removes the Jo & reduces the monthly fee to $5. So to me in the case of a Ho Duo, they are charging $5 for a DVR fee (since that receiver has less DVR functionality than the other Ho's) & $5 for the Jo "receiver" fee. My understanding the whole reason why they even came out with the Duo, was basically as a (cheap) replacement for the legacy Duo receivers, but now the 2nd TV is now in HD.

So, I would read that to mean that the additional receiver fees will be changed to match the new lower (DVR) service fee, and Dish will simply charge a service fee for every receiver on the account. If Dish meant that the new fees in the chart only apply to additional receivers, then they should have specified "additional receiver fee" instead of calling it a service fee.
Well to your point, they are NOT being totally clear on it either way...IMHO I still do NOT think the DVR fee is part of their rate restructuring.

Yes, I actually had two purchased Hopper Duos on my account at the same time. The additional receiver fee for the second Hopper Duo was $15.
OK, interesting...did you have to do anything "special" to have that 2nd Duo on your account?
Also did you have any Jo's on your account? If so, how much were you paying (separately) for each of those? Or were they "$0" rated, as being part of the "Duo" receiver system?

So again, the lack of Hopper Duo being included in the list is disturbing, since there is no way that a second Duo should still be charged $15, while all of the other receiver fees are dropping down to much less than that.
Since all the other Duo's are only being lowered to $10, I would bet that's what they'll end up being...at least as a added receiver. But I still need to know the answer if the Duo's come with a Jo, as part of their current monthly fee...
 
#17 ·
I say it should - I take it her account is one of those where her 1st (only) IS charged a separate fee, correct?
Yes, that is correct.

So for all of the owned boxes, they are simply removing the "rental" portion of the current, monthly fee they are now charging.
I agree. However, for owned boxes, they never should have been charging a "rental" portion to begin with. So, that would mean that we have been overcharged all of these years, and should now get a refund.

When I go online & try to order new DISH service for 2 TV's, it selects a Ho Duo & 1 Jo, with total monthly fees of $10. But if I change it to 1 TV, it removes the Jo & reduces the monthly fee to $5. So to me in the case of a Ho Duo, they are charging $5 for a DVR fee (since that receiver has less DVR functionality than the other Ho's) & $5 for the Jo "receiver" fee.
Since all the other Duo's are only being lowered to $10, I would bet that's what they'll end up being...at least as a added receiver. But I still need to know the answer if the Duo's come with a Jo, as part of their current monthly fee...
I understand how that can be confusing, since the new customer promo rate is different from what Dish charges existing customers. Existing customers currently pay full price ($10) for the Hopper Duo DVR fee. This is without any Joeys. The Joey would add a $7 fee. The new customer promo only charges a $5 DVR fee and a $5 Joey fee. This way, they get both TV's covered for two years, for just the $10 monthly rate of the Duo. However, that is not the way it is advertised. Instead, the $5 DVR fee is included in the price they advertise for the base package. (At least, it is that way in the junk mail fliers I get.) So, an upgrade to any other model of Hopper adds $5 to the advertised base package price. (New customers get a $10 promo DVR rate on all other Hoppers.) If I recall correctly, the Joey is also not included in the advertised price, so adding the Joey also adds $5. I hope I explained that correctly.

OK, interesting...did you have to do anything "special" to have that 2nd Duo on your account?
Also did you have any Jo's on your account? If so, how much were you paying (separately) for each of those? Or were they "$0" rated, as being part of the "Duo" receiver system?
Both Hopper Duos are purchased. I simply called Dish to activate it, and they added it to my account. I did not (and still do not) have any Joeys on my account. So, I only saw the $10 DVR fee (for the 1st Duo) and the $15 additional Hopper fee (the same as any other Hopper, in cases where two Hoppers are allowed). I did not keep both of them activated for very long after seeing how much it would cost.
 
#4 ·
Not only is there the usual increases in TV package prices, they actually are LOWERING the monthly service fees on any receivers that you have purchased & own! (see the drop-down on this site for the new rates on those)
But put simply - any/all owned Hopper/Joey receivers, as well as all owned legacy solo receivers will be $5, while all owned legacy duo receivers, will be $10.
Well if you plan on staying with Dish for the long term now makes sense to own the equipment.
 
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#11 ·
I am surprised that the fee isn't market based. In some places locals is a lot less channels than the major markets. But the large markets have a lot of "must carry" channels that DISH doesn't have to pay for (or lesser channels that they can drop if the channel chooses "consent to carry" and asks too much). The major network stations and their networks are the biggest reason locals cost so much.
 
#12 ·
Does anyone know if the multi-station owners like Nexstar, Tegna, etc., set their retrans contract rates by market or flat rate per subscriber? I don't know what the overhead costs would be for Dish to charge subscribers different rates per market. I know it's doable, but would it be cost effective for Dish...
 
#13 ·
The mechanism is there. DISH has an RSN fee that could be charged if they had RSNs. :)
There are only 210 markets and each has to be activated per customer. I don't see it being difficult or more expensive to manage to have a different price point per market. They just need to bill for "Local Channels: South Bend" instead of the generic "Local Channels" and tie the activation to the line item the way packages and add ons are connected.

It would be a messy bill for RV customers who change locals often. Since bills are paid in advance there would be pro-rated charges and credits - even if all markets were $12 markets. But most customers are not RV customers.
 
#15 ·
It can be a messy bill for RV customers now, with various state surcharges, and different states charging different rates for sales tax. Granted, that may not be the way Dish is actually doing the billing in those cases. (Instead only charging the surcharge and/or sales tax based on which market was being received at the start of the billing cycle.) However, any effort to keep such billing simple is inevitably going to lead to some customers being overcharged as they move around the country.

However, even for subscribers who do not move around, the billing can be messy due to the Flex Pack add-ons, and the ability to add and remove purchased receivers at will, without any programming change fees in either case. Most of the Channel Packs can be added and removed as often as you wish, and I take advantage of that quite regularly. I add the locals on the days when I want them, and then drop them again to avoid paying for them. I do the same thing with my purchased ViP211k on days when I need an additional receiver for a rarely-used TV. My Dish bill looks about as complicated as a long-distance landline phone bill, but I get the programming and additional outlets I want, while still saving money.
 
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