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Ya know, the company has to make some money. I've seen a local-less $11 and $15 floated here. That's $132 to $180 a year. Dish can't survive as a company on that kind of return. Satellites cost really big bucks to design, build, launch, and maintain. Receivers and associated hardware ain't cheap either, and the installers cost a pretty penny as well. Considering that new customers generally get free receivers and hardware it would take years, yes, years just to break even for that single customer. Multiply that customer by 1000s, even 10s of 1000s, and you should be able to see that the only way to move forward is to charge the higher tiered customers more to make up the difference. The higher tiered customers get excited when their bill goes up and they go somewhere else. It's a vicious circle. So, for those who want that minimalist package, suck it up or their won't be any package available at all. Now, if you want to buy your own equipment and hardware and pay your own installer, like I did 20 years ago, there might be an argument for a cost break without locals...

Bobby said:

Ya know, the company has to make some money. I've seen a local-less $11 and $15 floated here. That's $132 to $180 a year. Dish can't survive as a company on that kind of return.

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Well, I've seen this $15 price not too long ago, and that was with locals. Remember, this isn't an advertised package and it does take some knowledge and manual intervention to get it. I'm sure they're just using it as a retention tool and not as a profit generator.

dare2be said:

Well, I've seen this $15 price not too long ago, and that was with locals. Remember, this isn't an advertised package and it does take some knowledge and manual intervention to get it. I'm sure they're just using it as a retention tool and not as a profit generator.

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And the cost of retransmission of locals has gone up as has everything else in our economy. So too has the cost of the available satellite channels. I think, maybe, if you can't afford $23 a month for satellite TV you shouldn't even consider it. Consider instead going to nothing but free OTA. If you can't receive OTA for any reason, that is not the fault of satellite providers or their customers that would have to subsidize those who can't afford $23 a month...

"Little disposable income..." and who's fault is that? I mean, if I don't invest for my retirement, then who's fault is it if I'm dirt poor when I'm 65?

BTW you'd be shocked at the number of people with "little disposable income" I see at the casinos around here.... then they're the ones who complain because they can't afford TV

comfortably_numb said:

"Little disposable income..." and who's fault is that? I mean, if I don't invest for my retirement, then who's fault is it if I'm dirt poor when I'm 65?

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Not everybody can be fortunate enough to have adequate resources when or if they retire. For medical or other reasons a shortage of funds is very common. I'll probably work until they bury me but in my travels I see a lot of folks who are having a less than comfortable retirement through no fault of their own.

JSheridan said:

Not everybody can be fortunate enough to have adequate resources when or if they retire. For medical or other reasons a shortage of funds is very common. I'll probably work until they bury me but in my travels I see a lot of folks who are having a less than comfortable retirement through no fault of their own.

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Maybe. I don't know. I was just raised with an "if not you, then who?" mentality and I am fully aware that if I don't take care of myself, nobody else will. Unless of course there's a sugar momma out there who would like to help...

comfortably_numb said:

Maybe. I don't know. I was just raised with an "if not you, then who?" mentality and I am fully aware that if I don't take care of myself, nobody else will. Unless of course there's a sugar momma out there who would like to help...

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I was raised the same way and my kids are too but the older I get the softer I get too I guess.

JSheridan said:

I was raised the same way and my kids are too but the older I get the softer I get too I guess.

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I'm trying to raise my 15-year-old the same way. Hard work pays off!

comfortably_numb said:

I'm trying to raise my 15-year-old the same way. Hard work pays off!

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And man it's a battle! My 12.5 year old thinks she's gonna be automatically rich but working with me a little bit this summer has her coming around.

Bobby said:

And the cost of retransmission of locals has gone up as has everything else in our economy. So too has the cost of the available satellite channels. I think, maybe, if you can't afford $23 a month for satellite TV you shouldn't even consider it. Consider instead going to nothing but free OTA. If you can't receive OTA for any reason, that is not the fault of satellite providers or their customers that would have to subsidize those who can't afford $23 a month...

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My stance is more about not giving a choice to pay for locals or not. They now do it with most of their other packages. It's also not about prices going up like they do everywhere, but locals going up 5x faster than everything else. I would guess when the locals price continues to rise at 5x the rate of inflation, and the Welcome Pack goes up to 24.99 to compensate, then maybe Dish might offer a locals-free Welcome Pack for say, 19.99. More choice is better for the consumer, and retention.

I feel like we have to remember that Dish isn't a charity, though. At the current $22.99 price, there is already very little meat left on the bone for profit.

I think Welcome Pack is a tremendous deal as it is now and I'm very happy with it

dare2be said:

My stance is more about not giving a choice to pay for locals or not. They now do it with most of their other packages. It's also not about prices going up like they do everywhere, but locals going up 5x faster than everything else. I would guess when the locals price continues to rise at 5x the rate of inflation, and the Welcome Pack goes up to 24.99 to compensate, then maybe Dish might offer a locals-free Welcome Pack for say, 19.99. More choice is better for the consumer, and retention.

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In a way, it surprises me that Welcome Pack is not already $24.99 per month. I seem to remember that the Latino Welcome Pack increased to $24.99 years ago, right before Dish discontinued that package.

JSheridan said:

And man it's a battle! My 12.5 year old thinks she's gonna be automatically rich but working with me a little bit this summer has her coming around.

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The almost a teen years. Hope you survive!

comfortably_numb said:

I feel like we have to remember that Dish isn't a charity, though. At the current $22.99 price, there is already very little meat left on the bone for profit.

I think Welcome Pack is a tremendous deal as it is now and I'm very happy with it

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If $12 of that package is just locals, then that's a lot of meat. Dish could trim $10 of cost (assuming they get a $2 cut of that) and offer the package at $7 or $8 less, and come out ahead profit-wise.

My guess is that the real reason they don't offer the package without locals is contractual. They just didn't or weren't able to negotiate for it.