DISH lost over 318,000 subs first quarter of 2017

[IcEWoLF]

Im a huge sports fan, if it wasn't for sports Netflix/HBO GO/PSUVue would be more than enough for me. Otherwise I would have said bye bye to DirecTV.
If DirecTV ever improves their now service and keeps prices reasonable and adds Cloud DVR then I might just dump Satellite all at once.

 

[camo]

Agree if it were not for sports I could cut the cord completely. Saying that I just turned the H3 back on and its so nice.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Love the hopper 3 too, but between the high programming costs and the additional receiver fees , it has simply gotten out of hand. The Flex pack looked to me like the way to solve some of the problems ,but now the rumor is that the Flex pack is going away. So I guess I am either going back to asking for credits on my bill to stay with them or I will finally leave once the 2 year price freeze commitment is up. Paying more than a $100.00 a month for satellite is out of the question. There needs to be away to drop or reduce the many fees, that might compensate for some of the programming increases , to keep my bill below that amount. DISH needs to do something to address it or they will continue to suffer from churn and cord cutting. I see DISH dropping below 13 million subs this year at the rate that they are bleeding subs.

 

[navychop]

If Charlie pulls another rabbit out of the hat with some kind of cell phone and/or terrestrial wireless data package, sub counts might rise again.

 

[MikeD-C05]

If Charlie pulls another rabbit out of the hat with some kind of cell phone and/or terrestrial wireless data package, sub counts might rise again.

IF............... being the operative word. He has till 2020 to pull this off ,but with every day passing, I have more and more doubts that it will happen. More likely he will sell off the spectrum to the highest bidder and then sell off DISH to any company that wants it and then retire from home satellite biz to run Echostar.

 

[Gobucks]

I bet they will just raise fees to compensate. Getting rid of the flex pack would stink. Why promote the Hell out of it then drop it?

Speaking of promoting Dish. I listen to Howard Stern every day and Dish advertises on there.Their ad consists of talking about the Netflix app on the Hopper. That's it. It sounds more like an ad for Netflix.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Look at what the newspapers are doing. In this region, the Kansas City Star increases rates every quarter. I don't read the paper but I have some friends who do. Decreases in revenue due to increased subscriber losses just get passed along to customers in the form of fees and higher rates. They are pricing themselves out of existence. The CEO's aren't going to take a lower salary to offset. It's a crapshoot. Same with landline phone service. These are all legacy products, just like satellite is becoming. Too bad for those of us in rural areas where high speed broadband is harder to come by. We are the ones who will pay the price.

I keep Dish for access to my "moved" locals and the reasonably priced welcome pack and HBO. If it werent for the ability to use my work's subscription to Sling to get the other channels I need, I'd probably dump Dish altogether. My 13 year old could care less; she streams netflix and Freeform 24/7.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[Claude Greiner]

Look at what the newspapers are doing. In this region, the Kansas City Star increases rates every quarter. I don't read the paper but I have some friends who do. Decreases in revenue due to increased subscriber losses just get passed along to customers in the form of fees and higher rates. They are pricing themselves out of existence. The CEO's aren't going to take a lower salary to offset. It's a crapshoot. Same with landline phone service. These are all legacy products, just like satellite is becoming. Too bad for those of us in rural areas where high speed broadband is harder to come by. We are the ones who will pay the price.

I keep Dish for access to my "moved" locals and the reasonably priced welcome pack and HBO. If it werent for the ability to use my work's subscription to Sling to get the other channels I need, I'd probably dump Dish altogether. My 13 year old could care less; she streams netflix and Freeform 24/7.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

The problem is everyone expects to read the news for free. The news papers try to go online, but nobody pays attention to the ads

 

[KAB]

The problem is everyone expects to read the news for free. The news papers try to go online, but nobody pays attention to the ads

After 10 reads or less on most major rags, you are cut off for the month without subscribing...per browser. I got in on the WP free/6 mom through Amazon.

 

[ewindowman]

I enjoy getting the news paper delivered every day. I get up walk down the driveway grab my paper and get my coffee. Dish is losing subs because times are changing. If you offer something new and exciting that consumers are willing to pay for it .Right now dish is offering the same thing that all the other Providers have . If you want to be different than be different. When I first signed up with dish it was us against them. Now dish is them .

 

[comfortably_numb]

I enjoy getting the news paper delivered every day. I get up walk down the driveway grab my paper and get my coffee. Dish is losing subs because times are changing. If you offer something new and exciting that consumers are willing to pay for it .Right now dish is offering the same thing that all the other Providers have . If you want to be different than be different. When I first signed up with dish it was us against them. Now dish is them .

It's becoming outdated technology in the eyes of younger people


Sent from my iPad using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[Claude Greiner]

When I started Dish was all about saving money. Take your current cable, compare it to Dish and you could always find a way to save money.

Then in the early 2000's it was still about saving money, but also providing a better value with the use of multi room equipment and better overall technology such as DVR's

Then around around late 2008 and early 2009 Dish started to turn into a bunch of greedy A$$holes.

Not only did they start to treat dealers like garbage, but they started introducing all these fees to try to simplify things for the consumer.

As time went on, and the internet becoming more popular , Dish has successfully began to kill off their once loyal customer base.

It's no longer fun to be A dish customer anymore

 

[Juan]

Look at what the newspapers are doing. In this region, the Kansas City Star increases rates every quarter. I don't read the paper but I have some friends who do. Decreases in revenue due to increased subscriber losses just get passed along to customers in the form of fees and higher rates. They are pricing themselves out of existence. The CEO's aren't going to take a lower salary to offset. It's a crapshoot. Same with landline phone service. These are all legacy products, just like satellite is becoming. Too bad for those of us in rural areas where high speed broadband is harder to come by. We are the ones who will pay the price.

I keep Dish for access to my "moved" locals and the reasonably priced welcome pack and HBO. If it werent for the ability to use my work's subscription to Sling to get the other channels I need, I'd probably dump Dish altogether. My 13 year old could care less; she streams netflix and Freeform 24/7.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

They lost all their advertising to the internet..once upon a time the cover price of a newspaper just covered distribution costs..now they are charging for content

Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[MikeD-C05]

I enjoy getting the news paper delivered every day. I get up walk down the driveway grab my paper and get my coffee. Dish is losing subs because times are changing. If you offer something new and exciting that consumers are willing to pay for it .Right now dish is offering the same thing that all the other Providers have . If you want to be different than be different. When I first signed up with dish it was us against them. Now dish is them .

You are correct sir. When I was first going with DISH in 97 after leaving Prime Star, DISH was the lowest priced provider with practically no fees other than additional receiver fees at $4.99 a month. You could get east /west coast locals and Super stations for like $8.00 a month, because no locals yet. Charlie Chats felt like it was DISH against the world in keeping prices down and cable sucked . Cable was the great "cable pig" with all their fees. Now DISH is the king of FEES that they charge ,because they can. They either don't realize that their FEES are also causing churn or they don't care. To go from NO DVR fees in the early 2000's to $15.00 for the hopper and $17.00 for an additional 622/722/722k receiver is nothing short of highway robbery. IF DISH would reduce the price of their many fees and make joeys a one time purchase , that you could then avoid the extra $7.00 fee, I think that they would attract new subs and retain existing and would see many more subs want the hopper3. It shouldn't cost you up to $36.00 a month just so you can get an additional receivers in 3 rooms and pay a dvr fee.

 

[rvvaquero]

I am so glad that DISH chooses to charge people for what they are using and not bundle the extra receiver fees into the programming package cost. I am perfectly happy with my single VIP211K receiver and don't want to subsidize others who feel the need for a receiver in every room of their house.

 

[Scherrman]

You are correct sir. When I was first going with DISH in 97 after leaving Prime Star, DISH was the lowest priced provider with practically no fees other than additional receiver fees at $4.99 a month. You could get east /west coast locals and Super stations for like $8.00 a month, because no locals yet. Charlie Chats felt like it was DISH against the world in keeping prices down and cable sucked . Cable was the great "cable pig" with all their fees. Now DISH is the king of FEES that they charge ,because they can. They either don't realize that their FEES are also causing churn or they don't care. To go from NO DVR fees in the early 2000's to $15.00 for the hopper and $17.00 for an additional 622/722/722k receiver is nothing short of highway robbery. IF DISH would reduce the price of their many fees and make joeys a one time purchase , that you could then avoid the extra $7.00 fee, I think that they would attract new subs and retain existing and would see many more subs want the hopper3. It shouldn't cost you up to $36.00 a month just so you can get an additional receivers in 3 rooms and pay a dvr fee.

I haven't seen any other providers that don't do exactly what Dish does with fees so I'm not sure how they can be the "King" of fees. As for charging for the DVR, extra packages and receivers how exactly are they suppose to make money when their expenses go up? The only ways are to charge for their services by charging fees and raising programming prices or they have to reduce their expenses greatly.

What expenses can they drop in order to save them enough money yet continue to offer customers top of the line equipment and programming? Here are some options for lowering expenses. They can get rid of retailers, pay technicians less, stop investing in creating new technology and drop channels that keep raising their rates. Do any of these sound like smart business choices?

If they are not charging fees for all the extra things they offer they would then have to raise the price of their core programming. That would be the worst thing they could do. If customers are going to want separate programming on multiple TVs in HD and have DVR ability then they are going to have to be willing to pay a premium. This isn't free programming OTA, this is a premium service and needs to be paid for. If people want basic service then it's available to them.

 

[comfortably_numb]

I haven't seen any other providers that don't do exactly what Dish does with fees so I'm not sure how they can be the "King" of fees. As for charging for the DVR, extra packages and receivers how exactly are they suppose to make money when their expenses go up? The only ways are to charge for their services by charging fees and raising programming prices or they have to reduce their expenses greatly.

What expenses can they drop in order to save them enough money yet continue to offer customers top of the line equipment and programming? Here are some options for lowering expenses. They can get rid of retailers, pay technicians less, stop investing in creating new technology and drop channels that keep raising their rates. Do any of these sound like smart business choices?

If they are not charging fees for all the extra things they offer they would then have to raise the price of their core programming. That would be the worst thing they could do. If customers are going to want separate programming on multiple TVs in HD and have DVR ability then they are going to have to be willing to pay a premium. This isn't free programming OTA, this is a premium service and needs to be paid for. If people want basic service then it's available to them.

It can't continue as-is. Too many other players. In business, it's adapt or die. Or become a niche product, like servicing rural customers who are willing to pay more because they have no other choice. That's where I'm putting my money.

 

[Scherrman]

It can't continue as-is. Too many other players. In business, it's adapt or die. Or become a niche product, like servicing rural customers who are willing to pay more because they have no other choice. That's where I'm putting my money.

Adapting is good and I feel they are. Dish has always been trying to even though they may not always be able to succeed with it. I remember years ago how Dish was talking about how TV was trending towards being online and that was the future. This happened years before we actually saw it happen. Ergen new what the future held. He always wanted to have their own phone at one point but that obviously didn't pan out.

It takes time for them to implement certain ideas and while they try to come up with their idea to change with the times they still have to keep their current product up and running as best they can. I still think they offer the best product for TV and that's why I continue to pay them over $140 a month. No other company is going to give me HD on this many TVs and have access to all my recordings and allow me to record almost anything I want whenever I want.

 

[dare2be]

The Flex pack looked to me like the way to solve some of the problems ,but now the rumor is that the Flex pack is going away.

Where did this rumor come from?

Great, another thing for me to be grandfathered on.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Where did this rumor come from?

Great, another thing for me to be grandfathered on.

Scott hinted that DISH might be doing away with the FLex pack in the team summit thread.