This kind of thing cracks me up when people say a large business like D* has no business sense.
Take look at what they have achived financially then take a look at what you have achieved. They didn't get to where they are now by mistake or accident.
And this isn't just about D*, I am sure people say the same garbage about dish. But sinse I don't care about Dish I don't read what is posted about them. Nor am I interested in researching it. My point is, unless there is a sat company owner piping up in here or even an exec at a large sat comp here, no one that posts here has any idea what it takes to run a successful sat company. Just because it doesn't make sense to you, doesn't mean that it's dumb. It means you don't understand but rather than say "I don't understand", it's better to say, "they have no clue what they are doing".
If it made good business sense for them, they would do it. They are not in the business of providing free TV. They are in the business to turn a profit.
They make mistakes, but when a company is that large, it can't turn on a dime. It takes time to evalute what is wrong and correct it.