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To go along with the post by WinterWinds
Free previews at one time started just after midnight Eastern time. Also at one time they changed with the weekly uplink changes that month so not always on the 1st. I have not kept track of it but sometimes channels would last well past the time of free preview.
I think DISH, rather than list the actual end time for each channel lumped them together but some were meant to go longer. I realized that when I saw National Geographic advertised for free on Direct TV for 6 weeks - a channel that lasted on DISH well past the others in preview.

And thanks for all the info.

Tampa8 said:

Free previews at one time started just after midnight Eastern time.

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The one thing that is consistent these days is that the previews almost always end at midnight Pacific time (3:00 AM Eastern time) on the day after the listed date. The only exceptions are when channels have a show that starts before 3:00 AM, and lasts until after that time. Dish will not end the preview in the middle of a show. For example, both Nicktoons and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries were still in preview while I was typing the new thread this morning. Nicktoons had a show that started at 2:55 AM, so that preview ended at the end of that episode. Hallmark Movies & Mysteries ended at 4:00 AM, at the end of the movie on that channel.

Tampa8 said:

I have not kept track of it but sometimes channels would last well past the time of free preview.

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And of course, some previews either start late or end early. (Or perhaps Dish made a mistake when the dates were originally announced.) That happened last month with the BBC America preview ending two days early, although there actually was a more up-to-date listing with the correct date. However, the original incorrect date also remained listed on the website. That is the purpose of these threads: to point out any inconsistencies in Dish's free preview listings, and to list any previews that they don't announce.

I heard that some of the music channels were inadvertently provided as "free channels" for a while before Dish fixed it. I wish I had a few free music channels with my Flex Pack.

We have a home SiriusXM unit that we pay $5.99 per month for (promotional price) and I would switch it to the Dish SXM Pack, but Dish's pack doesn't include the talk/news channels.

WinterWinds said:

I heard that some of the music channels were inadvertently provided as "free channels" for a while before Dish fixed it.

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All of the Dish Music channels, as opposed to the SiriusXM channels, used to be FTA! I bought a Twinhan satellite tuner for my PC, got the most excellent freeware DVB Dream software going, and prepared to record hours and hours of it. Some genius even came out with some software that could scan the titles for changes, and split up the gigantic mp2 that resulted. Unfortunately, I got about two songs recorded before Dish went dark on those channels as well.

WinterWinds said:

I heard that some of the music channels were inadvertently provided as "free channels" for a while before Dish fixed it.

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You are correct. Here is the list of free music channels that we were getting at this time last year:

Audio music channels:

892 Viva Mariachi
927 City Lights
939 Classic Soul
941 Viva Mariachi
951 Country Gold
967 Jazz Traditions
972 Intermezzo
974 Swing Kings
6014* SiriusXM Coffee House
6049* SiriusXM Soul Town
6058* SiriusXM Prime Country
6063* SiriusXM The Message
6076* SiriusXM Symphony Hall

*channel numbers for ViP or legacy SD receivers. Hopper-interface receivers: replace the 60 with 099- to get the SiriusXM channel on collapsible channel 99.

However, I wouldn't say for sure that this was inadvertent. We never got an official statement from Dish either way. This preview (which included most of the channels that had free holiday music in 2019) lasted all the way from then until late October 2021.

It is quite telling that Dish did not add any additional holiday music free preview channels for the 2020 holiday season. That is also the year that Dish started the collapsible mapdown channel 98 for the holiday music channels, which was also not turned on as a free preview. So, it seems to me that if Dish had not been aware that these channels were still being provided for free, they would have turned on the preview for the part-time channels that are only carried during the holiday season. Dish's inaction at this time implies to me that they were aware that we were already getting free holiday music from these additional channels, so there was no need to start a new free preview.

However, the timing for the removal of this free preview in 2021 tells quite the opposite story. It seems that the preview ending was timed specifically to avoid providing holiday music for free, as some of these channels switch format in early November of each year. I thought it was funny that Dish was finally ending the extended preview at that time, since we were (presumably) about to get those same channels back in free preview again for the holiday season. That preview never came.

My guess would be that something changed contractually between Dish and the music channels. Perhaps Dish was no longer allowed to provide these channels as a preview part-time. It was a choice between either providing the channels full-time as part of the regular package, or not providing them at all if the subscriber does not have a package that includes them. Dish's extended preview seems to me to have been a workaround, so that Dish could claim that these particular channels were included in every package full-time, to ensure that we could still get the free holiday music the following year (2020). Then, either the music licensing rights got so expensive that Dish did not want to continue paying for them, or Dish hit the maximum amount of time that these channels were allowed to be provided for free under the contract. So, no free holiday music for 2021, and probably no free music this year either, unless something changes in the meantime.