Smithsonian HD dropped and replaced with Crime & Investigation HD

[Sigma]

Called tonight and downgraded my subscription from Platinum to Gold.

I didn't watch Smithsonian more than two or three times a week but enjoyed the programming they offered. Despite the addition of C&I HD, it no longer makes sense to pay extra for a package that offers channels of very little of interest for me.

A marketing suggestion to Dish ... You need to come with with some innovative ways to make people want to subscribe to Dish or even remain for that matter. That means being a leader in the channels being offered at a significant price savings to subscribers.

[Hemi 6.1]

dumb question..What happens after 3 months? Does it go away or do I have to call in and pay a $5 downgrade fee?

Last I knew No. It doesn't cost $5 to remove if it was a promotion. Even if it does you just got $60 worth of Programming for $5 then.

[riffjim4069]

Charlie better have an ace up his sleeve, or subs will start walking in droves again.

FiOS TV added 303K and U-Verse added 232K customers during 4th quarter. Those customers are coming from Cable and DBS, which doesn't bode well for Dish Network since D* has also been adding customers. I can only assume that Dish Networks is trying to improve the bottom line by keeping programming costs down and holding the line the new acquisition costs. Offhand, I don't know what they plan to do with the 922 (promotions, etc.) but I get the feeling they badly wants a to obtain a couple Cable contracts in order keep the 922 production costs down.

[multnomah]

Well, this time I am ahead of Charlie. I figured that since Smithsonian, like the VOOM channels, showed interesting programs and didn't compress the HD bandwidth like a lot of the other channels, it would be the next channel that Charlie axed. I archived a lot of Smithsonian programs onto a hard drive, and now that it's gone I can still watch the shows, so I'm not hurting.

For those who are curious, I'm also archiving HDNet and National Geographic Channel. (I don't have any information about what will be axed next; those are just my guesses).

[BK94541]

they should get the rid of that stupid FISH channel insted..I dont know called WFN or something stupid boring channel no one watch & wasted HD space

[DishSux]

riffjim4069 and multnomah both seem to give reasonable assessment. When I got Dish HD (the reason I got it because is HD only) in April, 2008, I even thought about buying their shares, after they removed VoomHD, I changed my mind, boy, what a good decision.
Dish will lose more consumers in the next several quarters, this reminds me of Circuit City and their bad decision to fire more experienced salesperson, which further alienated consumers. Now HD consumers (more like to pay $$$) will leave in droves , and I believe Dish will eventually fail!

[JonUrban]

Geez, I just did a scan of the listings for the new C&I channel. Ho-Hum, I'll be skipping over this one a lot. What a bore. Nice job, Charlie.

[bighick]

They possibly dropped b/c only 10 people watched it and they all chat here. You act like a cable company doesn't switch programming.

[lern4483]

Here we go again...

First my Voom channels..Next it could be yours...

Dish is the worst!!!

[Slamminc11]

...will leave in droves , and I believe Dish will eventually fail!

mr. sux, let's take a look at the numbers, shall we...
Dish has 13+ million customers, over 10 million of them have SD channels only. Of the 3-4 million (if that many) customers with HD programming, probably 95% didn't watch smithsonian channel when it was there, and of the 5% left maybe .02% of those are going to leave because of this one channel (which includes you as stated in your protest thread that was closed).
So droves and Dish failing, wrong again. Sounds like you are 0-2 today so far...