So, my monthly bill is going up by $6.00. Dish makes me some "special offers" to soften the blow, but they are really worthless to me and do nothing to ease my distaste for the the increased price. I'm getting the same thing I've been getting but now it costs me more. There is something that would help me feel OK about the price increase. Start to provide at least one thing of value that I have been wanting, namely ESPNU in HD. Why not?
Then it wouldn't be the price increase they are trying to achieve. The goal for them is exactly that: To make you pay more for what you already have. No different than going to the grocery store and getting the same stuff as usual, but walking out having spent more money. They either do it with increasing the prices for the same items, or reducing what's in the container, but leaving the size of the container as is and the price.
DISH is doing it similar by offering you stuff that you most likely don't want anyways, and the few that do are collateral damage.
They also knew if they wouldn't give subscribers a temporary break with an 18 month rebate, that would make too many people mad and lower subscriptions or leave. In the end that would leave them with less than before. After 18 months the majority will have calmed down enough not to be that mad about it anymore.
It's all a mind game...