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61.5 was NEVER going to be completely removed. What Dish wanted to do is lose the 110/119/61.5 set-up and migrate everyone to eastern arc (77/72.7/61.5) or western arc (110/119/129). Those that said that 61.5° was going to be shut down completely misunderstood what they were told by Dish.

Well I have to add to this old thread, I just had a rep from Dish Upgrades tell me that 61.5 is going away but your explanation is more plausible!

Simple explanation: Dish has two groups of satellites in the sky 110, 119, & 129 (1000.2 Western Arc dish) and 61.5, 72.7, & 77 (1000.4 Eastern Arc dish). Each group of satellites offers Dish Network programming. Some people use part of both arcs (or groups of satellites) to get their programming. Dish is moving some channels on the Eastern Arc from on satellite (61.5) to another (72.7). The people using a hybrid of both arc need to be consolidated to one arc (110,119 & 129 or 61.5 , 72.7, 77) or to add the additional satellite (110, 119, 61.5 & 72.7). I hope that helps.

The last information I have regarding the channels migrating off 61.5 W (voluntarily) was back in March 2010. It was due to the fact that, at the time, the core and HD programming available on it was simulcast on 72.7 and 129 and this migration would free up bandwidth to offer more programming. I believe that this has actually happened out of sight, out of mind. Going over my master channel list I notice that there seems to be NO core programming on that satellite when available on another. I do see some international channels and the DISH Platinum channels on there, however. My information specifically excludes locals, as there are still locals on that satellite and those, from what I can tell, are not affected by any plans on migration (which is of course subject to change). I think it was part of the push around that time to offer more local DMA's (w/HD or HD potential). In fact here is some "official" information:

"Due to limited satellite resources and the need to launch more Local programming (both HD and SD) and more HD Core programming, it is necessary that we remove the HD Core, Premium, PPVs, and VOD channels off orbital location 61.5°."

To me that means the orbital is getting cleared of "repetitive" programming and that way more new goodies can be on the way. The real push was to get people to have either 72.7 W or 129 W in their array.

I believe that this information is still valid honestly, even with the recent issue at 77 W. Had to edit a bit here, didn't realize how old the OP was! DOH!

LOL! The problem remains that some dealers and representatives are either misunderstanding or at the very least leaving the subscriber with the misunderstanding that 61.5° is being shut down.

A little history to those that may care. When DBS satellite services were first envisioned, the idea was to have dozens of services out there. Remember at the time the average LARGE cable super-duper service had maybe 60 channels total. So the FCC only granted so many transponder locations per satellite location to any one company. There were a half-dozen viable satellite players including DirecTV, USSB, Primestar, ASkyB (Rupert Murdoch), Sky Angel, etc. Dish Network ended up with 21 transponders at 119°, 8 transponders at 61.5° several at 148° and even more at 157°.
In 1996 Dish launched to subscribers at 119°. Dish originally planned to have local channel service at 61.5° and 148° depending on where you lived.
In 1997 (or was it 1998?) Dish started launching local channels at 61.5. A deal with Sky Angel who owned 8 transponders at 61.5° gave Dish control of another 6 transponders at 61.5° so Dish started to load up locals and international channels at 61.5°. By 1999 Dish started putting stuff up on 148° for west coast residents.
Meanwhile a gigantic law suit between Dish and Rupert Murdoch was not going well for Murdoch. There was a settlement that essentially gave ALL of ASkyB's assets to Dish Network. Dish was now the proud owner of 29 transponders at 110° and two satellites still on the ground to operate from 110°. The Dish 500 was born soon after and a giant shift in strategy since there was a huge resistance by subscribers to having two dishes to get locals. This was the beginning of the first migration of stuff from 61.5° to 110° . For a while there 148° was completely abandoned as Echostar 4 (the most travelled satellite in the E* fleet) moved from 148° to 110° to provide temporary service until the new satellites could be launched. Dish Latino was the first thing there. This is when I added my third dish. America's Top 150 (at the time there was AT40 and AT60 (later AT100)) was introduced shortly after. AT40/50 and AT60/100 required only 119°, but AT150 required the new Dish 500 or two dishes.
But then... the laws allowing for locals via satellite kicked in which required that a satellite carrier to carry all local channels in a market they carry any local channels. Up until this point Dish carried only the big 4 networks of any local market they carried. So Dish once again employed 61.5° and 148° to carry "minor" local channels for larger markets. Here in Cincinnati ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox were at 110° but WB, UPN and 3 PBS were relegated to 61.5°.

61.5° was used for internationals, Sky Angel and "minor locals" for cities east of the Rockies. Essentially Dish wanted you with a Dish 500 for regular service and a second dish for 61.5° for those east of the rockies and a second dish at 148° for those west of the rockies.

But wait.... this new thing called High Definition is coming out. Change of tactics one more time helped along with new regulations requiring satellite carriers to have all locals from any one market receivable with a single dish antenna. So HD channels start being placed on 61.5° and a new satellite location acquired at 129°

Later Dish acquires 72.7° and 77° and the current Dish plan to have all customers in the western US on western arc 110/119/129 and all the eastern US customers on eastern arc 61.5/77/72.7.

So this is a long-winded explanation of why those of us who were so-called hybrid customers (61.5/110/119) had that set-up in the first place! It wasn't a hybrid set-up until March of last year. Up until the addition of TCM HD, BBC HD and several others to 129° or 72.7° the so-called hybrid set-up at 110/119/61.5 was the regular set-up. Things change and it sometimes sucks. I just hope this 77° issue doesn't change things again!