$10 here - $30 there; I am not about hoping from provided to provider. Hell, the hassle and non-stability of jumping back and forth is worth any piddly amount supposedly saved. I have used their cost estimate tools and spoken with others and at the end of the day its always less services for same or more money.
You mean the $120/yr to $360/yr in savings? Damned straight I'll take that money!
The hassle? You mean unplug, ship back, plug in new one, turn on and watch TV? Not much hassle at all. Let's see what that labor costs you. Say $30/month for a year when you switch which is generally going to be the case. That's $360. Swap out time is maybe an hour if a tech is a real nimrod at my house. If I was paying him $40/hour, I still have saved $320 for that swap. At my house D* or E* could just send me the Genie/hopper and I could hook them up in about 5 minutes. For those that have more than one unit there could be upfront costs involved depending on what configuration you want.
And whether or not is is more or less services isn't the question or answer at all. It is do I get the channels I will watch and save money by switching? For me D*, E* and cable have all the channels I actually watch, so the answer is yes.
Try these numbers :
1. 1st year deals save at least $360/year, more if premiums are involved because of the 3 months you get free for them. So assuming a $45+ cost for all premiums, that's $135+$360=$495 in the first year.
Now if you cancel and pay the ETF at the end of the 1st year of $240, then even if you switch every year you have a net savings of $255.
EDIT: Let me add to that a little. If you go to E* get a referral and get $50, if you go to D*, get a referral and get $100 @$10/month. And those referrals aren't hard to get at all!