I read a recent article where Time Warner in one of their local systems is no longer offering the Encore channels as part of a cable tier but a premium tier. The article inferred that this was a change instituted by Liberty Media (owners of Encore, Starz, and DirecTV). Considering the cited change regarding Dish, it seems that Liberty Media is no longer interested in offering Encore as a cable tier service (such as TCM, IFC, Fox Movie Channel, etc), and, instead, will now offer it only as a premium channel, at least when the contracts come up for renewal, to ALL MVPD's.
This is rather sad as the Encore Channels did represent a real value and, as of lately, began running much more recent movies, along with some old TV series with NO commercials. Oh, well, these great values never seem to last forever.