DISH dropped CBS from my service!

[Least]

Tribune provides the guide info for OTA. I believe the OP about the OTA channel being listed as Important News. WBIN (channel 50) out of New Hampshire has the listings for a FOX 50 somewhere in NC or Virginia.

 

[danielle_s]

Despite losing 11,000 subscribers last quarter, profits are up. Dish profits up but subscribers dip - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety
So, has anyone seen a reduction in rates? My point here is that DISH is not playing hard for the benefit of the consumer, they just want a bigger profit, they could care less about the consumer. If some subscriber in my area just reupped with them, theyt are screwed for the next two years and there are lot of people in this area who can't get CBS off of antenna. If Dish really cared about the consumer, they'd let people pick the channels they want. For example, you have $50 per month to pick channels which have different prices. Want ESPN? That'll be $4. Want Disney? That'll be $1. Hypothetically, the local CBS could demand $10 per month. Well heck, the consumer will get to decide if they want want to spend 20% of their bill on that.
Right now, that is what people are doing with ota and internet.Went to Best Buy the other day and saw a large selection of internet streaming devices. Their are 1000's of people who agree with me- they are called former Direct/Dish subscribers. When Apple vamps up their Apple TV service in another year or so, Dish/Direct will wilt the same way that cable companies did when Direct first started service (and I was one of the first in my area, still remember sending USSB a monthly check!).

I hope one of the more experienced pub members will see this post and jump here. dsclark, I'm not sure where your getting your information from, but unfortunately what you want is not the way it works. Not for Dish, direct, Cox, Brighthouse, or any other cable company I can think of. What you are suggesting is something that both Dish & Direct have been fighting for for years now.

Programmers for example like Disney who OWN ABC, ESPN, Disney, & more... create contracts in which your provider must agree to. I don't remember who it was and hopefully someone will be able to mention who, but during a programming negotiation contract the programmer threatened to hold local channels hostage if the deal was not approved. Can NBC or FOX or any other programmer do that to your provider? The answer is yes! Now if you want Dish for example to be able to offer you channels a la cart then you need to complain to Disney, Fox, Comcast aka NBCUni, Viacom/MTV, & CBS, & AMC Networks. Tell them to stop forcing your provider to pay for channels in a bundle & forcing certain channels into certain packages. An example in which you talk about ESPN, that is not dish's doing, that's Disney's doing. Disney forces your provider to put ESPN in it's most basic package AT 120. A lot of people would prefer ESPN to be in AT 200 or higher and there are those such as myself who would rather it be an a la cart or in a special sports package. But until we can get the FCC & the Programmers to agree to an a la cart ruling we're stuck with the way things are today.

I hope this sheds some light on your situation.

 

[osu1991]

The reason Dish's profits are up while losing customers is all the nickel and dime fees they have like $17 a month for a second dual tuner dvr, $10 dvr fee for the 922's, $4 for google integration, etc...

Yep... Complain to all the programming providers, they are the ones who dictate where Dish, Directv and all the cable companies can place their channels. The reason your locals are wanting more money is because, Viacom, Disney, NBCU and Fox are all charging the local affiliates an affiliation fee to broadcast their programming and want the local affiliates to charge the Multi Video Providers (Dish, Directv, Cable etc..) more and funnel it back to them to cover these fees.

 

[whatchel1]

Well heck, the consumer will get to decide if they want want to spend 20% of their bill on that.

Does this mean you want it twice as much? won't want works a whole lot better.

 

[KAB]

When DS grows up and MAYBE knows anything about business, he might understand. But as of now, a waste of our time.

 

[dsclark]

When DS grows up and MAYBE knows anything about business, he might understand. But as of now, a waste of our time.

Why don't you grow up and learn something about business? I have backed what I have said. I'll try to make real simple for you:
DISH is a business-they make money off people who subscribe to their business. Now, if customer base feels that their product is low quality and/or a bad value, members of their customer base will cancel. If enough people cancel, this will hurt profitability and could even bankrupt them.
DISH/Direct/Cable no longer have a oligopoly on program delivery ( I say oligopoly as most markets have one or two cable companies and the sats). Fact is that they need to offer ala carte pricing. It doesn't matter whether they want to or not, or if the FCC won't let them, it is all irrelevent. Why? WHY?? Because that is what the customer wants and is discovering that they can get what they want on their own. More and more customers will continue to flee DISH and ignorant DISH fan boys like yourself (who know nothing about microeconomics) won't understand that fixed costs will be spread out over fewer subscribers and thus cut or eliminate profits.

 

[navychop]

Charlie Ergen has stated he would like to go a la carte. He has no choice in the matter, providers do not allow it.

We are about to see major price increases as providers insist on unsustainable fees.

 

[RobMeyer1]

Originally Posted by RobMeyer1

3 cents a day is about 90 cents per month, or about $11/year. Now multiply that by each local station and you're talking real money for something most of us can get for free OTA.

In your example, you think $.90 a month is too much, yet ESPN takes in about $4 a month (!) from a channel, many never watch. Why is it that I can't have CBS, but I am forced to subsidize this overpriced channel? If CBS wants an extra $.60 a month, I'll pay it. Hell, take away the ESPN (and spanish channels, LOGO, BET and a bunch of other channels while you are at ) give me CBS and keep the change. The sat/cable companies are losing 1000's of subscribers because people are tired of paying lots of $ for channels they don't want to watch.

I can see you are upset. If this was only about 60 cents a month with one station in your area, then it wouldn't be that big an expense. It is about 60 cents times all your locals, and not just in your area, but nationwide! If Dish caves in once, every local station nationwide up for contract renewal is going to demand a similar outrageous amount. It is a big deal!

You are right about ESPN's value. I'd rather drop it and save $4/month, but as others have commented, that is not possible due to the contracts that ESPN has forced on all sat/cable companies.

If you have a computer with broadband internet access, you can catch up on CBS programming you have missed by going to cbs.com. Have you tried using manual timers? It takes a little time to set up the first one, but once you learn how, it is not that difficult to set up more manual timers. Guide data is available online or in your local newspaper.

I hope that this contract dispute doesn't last too long--it is a significant inconvenience. In Albuquerque, the contract dispute lasted about a week and the local channels involved were running messages at the bottom of the screen frequently on their OTA broadcasts urging Dish customers to complain to Dish or change providers. All their viewers were inconvenienced by those messages, but the only way Dish customers could see them was OTA!

 

[Dr.Pepper]

Despite losing 11,000 subscribers last quarter, profits are up. Dish profits up but subscribers dip - Entertainment News, TV News, Media - Variety
So, has anyone seen a reduction in rates? My point here is that DISH is not playing hard for the benefit of the consumer, they just want a bigger profit, they could care less about the consumer. If some subscriber in my area just reupped with them, theyt are screwed for the next two years and there are lot of people in this area who can't get CBS off of antenna. If Dish really cared about the consumer, they'd let people pick the channels they want. For example, you have $50 per month to pick channels which have different prices. Want ESPN? That'll be $4. Want Disney? That'll be $1. Hypothetically, the local CBS could demand $10 per month. Well heck, the consumer will get to decide if they want want to spend 20% of their bill on that.
Right now, that is what people are doing with ota and internet.Went to Best Buy the other day and saw a large selection of internet streaming devices. Their are 1000's of people who agree with me- they are called former Direct/Dish subscribers. When Apple vamps up their Apple TV service in another year or so, Dish/Direct will wilt the same way that cable companies did when Direct first started service (and I was one of the first in my area, still remember sending USSB a monthly check!).

Oh God. Grow up and get informed. That's not the way it works between the broadcasters and the providers.

 

[dsclark]

Oh God. Grow up and get informed. That's not the way it works between the broadcasters and the providers.

I am quite grown up. I have taken my money and walked away from DISH, got a TIVO premiere, got networks, HULU plus and Neflix, my bill will be $35 a month. I really could care less if DISH wants ala carte or not, why should it matter? I am a consumer, researched my options and don't see a reason to pay an extra $60 a month so I can have the extra chore of manually recording shows that will all share the same title in the recorded programming list.
Others, as evidenced by the large drop of DISH subscribers, likely feel the same way. Sorry, but I don't want to pay an extra $700-$800 a year to be a DISH Fan Boy. Perhaps you are the one who should grow up.

 

[Laddyboy]

I see that you are now happy. Good for you. It seems you were more interested in saving some dollars each month instead of getting any particular programming offered by Dish or another provider. So it was really about the money and not the service in the end. This was probably the correct choice for you. I will note the titles of recorded shows can be changed just so others know that can be accomplished should the issue arise for them.

 

[dsclark]

I see that you are now happy. Good for you. It seems you were more interested in saving some dollars each month instead of getting any particular programming offered by Dish or another provider. So it was really about the money and not the service in the end. .

That's the problem in keeping DISH- they don't have programming that I want that I can't get elsewhere for free, or better. For example, DISH offers CW in standard def only, meaning when I watch "Supernatural", it looks terrible. I can stream it for free in high definition if I want.
Two and half years ago, when I signed up with DISH, if I wanted to watch and record networks in HD, or the stuff on the cable networks, it was only possible with local cable company or DISH/Direct. Those days are over as everything I want can be obtained via the 'net.

 

[Least]

Did you try "moving" I don't get the CW in HD in my area, WLVI, but if I moved to NYC (if they are on my spotbeam) then i would get it in HD from WPIX. Or there's the legal way of doing it. Three simple letters O-T-A.

 

[budda]

That's the problem in keeping DISH- they don't have programming that I want that I can't get elsewhere for free, or better. For example, DISH offers CW in standard def only, meaning when I watch "Supernatural", it looks terrible. I can stream it for free in high definition if I want.
Two and half years ago, when I signed up with DISH, if I wanted to watch and record networks in HD, or the stuff on the cable networks, it was only possible with local cable company or DISH/Direct. Those days are over as everything I want can be obtained via the 'net.

Why did you ever have Dish in the first place. You could have gotten those locals from the beginning and not paid the monthly fee's maybe a TIVO fee and a Netflicks fee. And to be honest the OTA gives you the best picture anyway. Sounds like you paid for a lot you didn't use. I see nothing wrong with what you want to do, but I still like my service(Dish) With my OTA DVR Quad tuners/ 2 OTA ,2/SAT.... Peace

 

[STDog]

dsclark,
What will you do when the streaming options go away, or the cost goes way up?
And how do you stream when your ISP is down?

Hell I get a lot of stuff online too, mainly because I don't have a dual tuner to record 2 channels at the same time.
(I could set up timers on another receiver and swap drives, but that's more annoying than BitTorrent)


I've wanted à la carte options since '98 when I moved to Dish from a BUD (C-band did offer à la carte).
It's just never goii g to happen. Once a few cable companies agreed to a forced carriage and tired contracts all have to. That dates back to the early days of cable and long before Dish and Direct came on the scene.

If one refused the contract, then they just don't get the related channels, then they cannot compete with those that do agree. Look how many people went to Direct just for NFL Sunday Ticket. Imagine if Dish lost Disney/ABC/etc, or Viacom owned channels. Just not a risk any provider will take.

It'll take federal intervention to force reasponable carriage terms for à la carte to ever have a chance.
Even then it probably won't make it as 1) it wouldn't be cost effective for customers, and 2) it's too much work for most people to bother with.

 

[whatchel1]

That's the problem in keeping DISH- they don't have programming that I want that I can't get elsewhere for free, or better. For example, DISH offers CW in standard def only, meaning when I watch "Supernatural", it looks terrible. I can stream it for free in high definition if I want.
Two and half years ago, when I signed up with DISH, if I wanted to watch and record networks in HD, or the stuff on the cable networks, it was only possible with local cable company or DISH/Direct. Those days are over as everything I want can be obtained via the 'net.

CW in HD is dependent on the DMA. I get it in HD from DFW