Dish HBO feud?

[bobvick]

Are Dish and HBO in a feud? I notice on the Dish website, they are no longer offering HBO/Cinemax as part of the three month free preview for premium channels for new subscribers. Also when you click "premiums" under programming, there is no mention of HBO/Max, just Showtime, Starz, and BB@Home. I wonder if they are both miffed at each other, Dish over standalone HBO GO and HBO/TimeWarner at Dish over SlingTV?

 

[Willh699]

Are Dish and HBO in a feud? I notice on the Dish website, they are no longer offering HBO/Cinemax as part of the three month free preview for premium channels for new subscribers. Also when you click "premiums" under programming, there is no mention of HBO/Max, just Showtime, Starz, and BB@Home. I wonder if they are both miffed at each other, Dish over standalone HBO GO and HBO/TimeWarner at Dish over SlingTV?

Time Warner owns HBO, and Time Warner also owns the Turner suite of channels which was recently in a nasty dispute with Dish that lasted for 1 month and Dish and Turner reached a short term deal to bring the channels back on while they continued negotiations. so it's possible the HBO/Cinemax deal is set to expire soon and Dish and Time Warner maybe facing another round of blackouts.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Its possible, when I look at mine they have nice big descriptions for Showtime and Starz. But for HBO and Cinemax there is no description just their names.

http://www.mydish.com/upgrades/premiums

That does seem odd to me.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Starz and Showtime also have their own pages.

http://www.dish.com/entertainment/starz/
http://www.dish.com/entertainment/showtime/

However if you try http://www.dish.com/entertainment/hbo/ or http://www.dish.com/entertainment/cinemax/ it bounces you back to http://www.dish.com/entertainment/

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

And The premiums page at http://www.dish.com/entertainment/channels/ has no mention of them.

 

[bobvick]

Seems like they are giving HBO the "Showtime treatment" the way they nixed any mention of Showtime right before the CBS dispute. Certainly is something going on it seems.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Seems like they are giving HBO the "Showtime treatment" the way they nixed any mention of Showtime right before the CBS dispute. Certainly is something going on it seems.

I will agree, something seems strange.

 

[ChadT41]

This has been like this for a few months. SomeDishGuy even mentioned it a couple weeks ago.

 

[bobvick]

This has been like this for a few months. SomeDishGuy even mentioned it a couple weeks ago.

Not that long, they were advertising HBO/Cinemax real big during the Showtime dispute. Here is a link to a capture of the Dish homepage as of January 1, they were still advertising them then

https://web.archive.org/web/20150102041654/http://www.dish.com/

From reviewing the archives from Jan 1-15, it looks like Jan 16 was when the change was made to remove references to HBO and Cinemax.

 

[jegrant]

I also notice all the mailings I have been getting (snail mail) neglect to mention HBO/MAX or if mentioned, only at the bottom of the page. They are offering 1/2 off everything but HBO/MAX for 6 months according to the most recent flyer (which did not have HBO/MAX listed). I bet that Dish wants a new deal that includes the ability to sell HBO GO standalone and as an add on to SlingTV.

 

[The Fat Man]

They might want to tread lightly on this matter though. HBO and Cinemax are in a completely different league as compared to Showtime and The Movie Channel. There will be a much bigger fallout from a loss of HBO and Cinemax. And this is coming from a guy who gets programming from the Showtime suite (via The Movie Channel), the Starz suite (via Encore and Starz On Demand), and the EPIX suite (via...well...EPIX). But, I don't get anything from the HBO suite.

 

[bobvick]

To me it is stupid to feud over a premium pay-TV service. If HBO wants more, Dish can just raise the price, it is a-la-carte, if a viewer doesn't wish to pay the increased price, they won't. I think this feud has more to do with SlingTV and standalone HBO GO service rather than a fee dispute.

 

[KAB]

HBO soon to go streaming might have something to do with it. Don't have it currently, but since I used up all my freebies, that option is on the table to consider.

 

[ChadT41]

To me it is stupid to feud over a premium pay-TV service. If HBO wants more, Dish can just raise the price, it is a-la-carte, if a viewer doesn't wish to pay the increased price, they won't. I think this feud has more to do with SlingTV and standalone HBO GO service rather than a fee dispute.

Although any reasonable person will agree with you, you have to think the majority of people are what can be termed "TV Stupid". You are right, being a standalone service, if they raise the rate, then Dish raises the rate, but what if DTV, Comcast, Cox, ATT Etc does not raise the rate? Then it just looks like Dish are being greedy jerks, and when that happens, we get the MitchFloridas who come out and talk about how greedy Charlie is and how this was an unnecessary increase, etc. Not to mention it just looks bad when you offer the same service for less. That all said, I will agree with other posters, including yourself, about it being about SlingTV and the new HBO standalone streaming offer.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Maybe they aren't advertising HBO because it is already $19.00 a month! It is already the highest premium channel they have on the market. Why advertise it?

 

[Skytrooper]

Just signed up for HBO/Cinemax for 20$ a month two weeks ago, even tho offer is no longer advertised. Yes the price is high, but they got the best programming. My son at college can also watch it thru his X Box.

 

[bobvick]

I have HBO too, I have had it since I have had satellite. If you think $19 per month is bad for 8 feeds with 7 in HD, after scrambling first started in 1986, it was $12.95 per month for HBO East and HBO West, and that was in 1986 dollars!

 

[MikeD-C05]

I refuse to pay full price for ANY premium movie pack any longer. I have Hbo but at 1/2 price or $9.50 a month, which is where is should be. It simply isn't worth any more than that. The other premiums I only take if they are free or 1/2 price or $7.00 a month. But I usually get $$$ credits off my bill from DISH to pay for them.

 

[Tampa8]

I too have had HBO since I have have had pay TV. It's generally the most watched channel over those years. There are very few original shows over the years I didn't like or watch, and they generally have the movies I want to see, of course there are exceptions. With the addition of HBO GO the cost of $20 is mitigated because we not only watch on satellite but use GO very often. The several discounts offered also helps.
I do wonder why they are not featured anymore or seem to be not part of the free new subscriber package. Maybe HBO wouldn't give DISH a big enough break anymore?

 

[oldengineer]

If my wife misses one episode of Game Of Thrones when it restarts I'll be forced to go to cable or endure her wrath. I'd consider going back to D* but their satellite position requires a roof mount.