I think that DISH understands that a lot of people are dropping the premiums in order to save $$$$. So this makes sense to go with the locals/dvr bundle or the WITH DVR packs and add what premium packs you want or don't want. You save the .98 cents over doing it the other way. THe main point everyone keeps missing is that DISH has done away with the extra dvr fees on the extra dvr receivers. So if they do as I think they will do on your bill, they will show the 17.00 dvr fee and in the credits they will show the A/0 fee credit for keeping your receivers plugged into a phone or ethernet line: YOU saved $5.00! They will also show the dvr fee as a credit: YOU SAVED $5.98 ! Which means a creative way to show the charge in one way and the credits in another part of the bill. You will still be just paying the 7.00 extra or additional receiver/lease fee . The only thing DISH is doing is combining the fees into one , and standardizing the prices on additional or lease receiver fees. So no more 5.00 for sd and 7.00 for hd , it will be just 7.00 for all extra receivers after the first. Most people will be paying less in February than they do now.
My question is still what about making the hd free with any programming packs? THere were rumors that they were going to do this to advertise FREE HD with any pack, like cable does now. Is this still going to happen and what happens to sd receiver only customers ? Do they get screwed ? Do we have to pay 10.00 more for regular programming packs in order to have the free HD, so they can hide the cost in the packs? I guess we will find out next month at CES about this and other questions .