Free in perpetuity? What a kick in the face to existing subs! This is much, much worse than their normal new-customer freebies. There should be a law requiring them to give all customers equal pricing.
I would be very, very surprised if Dish allowed either of those things. If they were really interested in doing the right thing, they'd just combine the Platinum package (which probably only has one or two channels that any given customer would watch, and therefore is financially unsupportable) with the base HD packages for everyone. That's the way it was before they added Voom, so they should go back to it.
Yes, but it was $20 instead of $10.
I said they were setting up for a price increase, let me make an addendum to that. Let's suppose that all the Platinum channels cost DISH $2 a month per subscriber. Right now they're making $8 on each subscriber. But let's suppose that only 10% of all HD subscribers take Platinum. They could make MORE money giving the channels to everyone and charging them an extra $3, even though they'd only make a $1 on each subscriber. Not to mention the fact that they can go to the channel providers and say "We just increased your subscribers 10 fold, how about you cut your fee 20%"
If they just added those channels to the HD pack and then raised the price a few bucks, tons of people would whine about being forced to pay for channels they don't want. (Never mind the fact that they've been saving $10 a month for several years.) So here's what they do. They open a new package called "HD & Platinum" and close the other packages to new subscribers. Current subscribers don't get switched automatically, but they will give it to anyone that asks. Current Platinum subscribers in the know can call and ask for "HD & Platinum" and save $10. Current NON-Platinum HD subscribers in the know can call and get the extra channels for free. People not in the know get ripped off, but they're not in the know, so they'll never know.
BUT...when February rolls around, "HD & Platinum" goes up to $12.99. The Platinum subscribers who didn't already switch will get moved into it and save $7 automatically, so they'll be happy. The HD Gold/Silver/Bronze subscribers who didn't take the bait stay grandfathered in at $10. Everyone else gets a price increase.
This is my prediction (though knowing DISH, they'll probably try for $14.99), and any of you who jump to the new package to try to get something for nothing- no whining when the price goes up and you can't go back.