From Dish: Hd Enabling Fees

[dishcomm]

Is this HD enabling fee a one-time or monthly recurring charge? The original post doesn't really say.

Iam not sure..I think it is a recurring charge..But don't quote me..According ot the Feb chat, one of the hosts =said " $6 sounds very reasonable for HDTV programming"..Or words to that effect....
I think it sucks....If the fees are still there I will probabaly consider going off satellite..Cable right now is not an option....But anything is possible.....But I will not pay all these nit picky "nickel and dime you to death" fees.....
Who knows, I could end up with an off air antenna on my roof.....First 15 years of my life, that's all I had....It would suck. But ya get used to it....I could save about $1k per year....
If pay tv gets any more expensive, those with low and even moderate incomes may just throw in the towel..Dish has to be looking into that..In fact the first one to realize that will be making all the $$ if they offer a low cost package....We'll see...

 

[Stargazer]

Charlie will just have to charge the access fee along with everybody else unless they make that against the law. This is why I think IPTV will take over. I think each company will offer their lineup of channels directly to the consumer either live or On Demand from their website. This would allow them to make more money from their channels and still be cheaper for the consumer. Some of these could be ad-supported as well. We could end up seeing ads during the entire shows/movies. Someone will come out with a program like Napster or Real Player or Windows Media Player or one of those will be used in order to access all of the stations or On Demand choices so that we can access them all from one place. This may force cable and/or satellite out. Things change.

 

[dishcomm]

No matter what Charlie says he does NOT want Ala Carte. His revenues would drop and his costs for channels would rise.

Hell if Ala Carte was put into place I dont think I could pick 25 channels I wanted to keep.

Yer rught on target..A la carte would be far more costly..If there were any savings it would be minimal..JMO...
I read a story on this when the FCC decided to take a look at A la carte.....Programmers have already lined up their lobbyisits to shoot this down...They claim that the niche channels would go away if cable/sat didn't have to carry them as part of a package...that seems logical to me..I have AT120. I could probably do without about 100 of those channels.....As long as I have access to what I watch, the rest of it can go out of busines for all I care..I don't watch many of the niche channels except for HRTV and TVG...If those went away, I could live without them...

 

[dishcomm]

Charlie will just have to charge the access fee along with everybody else unless they make that against the law. This is why I think IPTV will take over. I think each company will offer their lineup of channels directly to the consumer either live or On Demand from their website. This would allow them to make more money from their channels and still be cheaper for the consumer. Some of these could be ad-supported as well. We could end up seeing ads during the entire shows/movies. Someone will come out with a program like Napster or Real Player or Windows Media Player or one of those will be used in order to access all of the stations or On Demand choices so that we can access them all from one place. This may force cable and/or satellite out. Things change.

I assume IPTV means Internet protocol TV?.....
intersting concept....
One item I have been mulling over..Telcos getting involved in pay tv....If another communications purveyor could get involved in the industry that would be great for consumers....I believe that with the telcos bazillions of miles of fiber, pay tv delivery over the web would be no problem for them...
I realize the cable co's have been doing everything in their power to keep the telcos out of the tv business..It's time for the FCC to sh*t or get off the pot on this issue..

 

[jsanders]

My guess is that their will be a new fee to go along with all the other existing fees; the new "Ala carte" fee . God only knows what it will be but with all these fees I'm sure that the savings will be little to none for Dish ala carte.

Don't give them any ideas about new fees! Dish reads these message boards!
The guy that came up with this "HD Enabling Fee" needs to be fired!

 

[ralfyguy]

Confused

Maybe I understood the whole thing about that fee. I have AT120 and a 625, called for an upgrade to 622 with HD Silver around March 1st, installation date March 25th. CSR said on the phone that I will pay the $6 fee for HD...WHY???
Dish Silver is AT120 + HD. I don't understand the whole damn thing...

 

[BFG]

the $6 is the receiver lease fee.

 

[MikeD-C05]

He probably meant that you would pay the 6.00 lease fee not the enabeling fee. If you sub to any of the hd metalic packs you can escape the enabeling fee but not the lease fee. THe csrs are just as confused as to what they are talking about with these new fees too. From what I have read on this and other message boards , Dish will charge you the lease fee on every receiver you lease now under the Dish n Up promotion for current customers. As opposed to the second receiver only under the old digital home advantage plan.
So don't feel bad about the confusion over fees : YOU are not alone!

 

[BFG]

The enabling fee is really a small thing to worry about. The only people it would ever come into play with are the folks that own a 622/411/211 and do not subscribe to DishHD (which I would hope is no one, cause why are they buying it in the first place then) the rest of the folks that lease have to sub to dishhd bronze minimum anyways

 

[Cyclone]

you know.

For less than $200 one can get a HDTV ATSC tuner PCI card for a PC. Throw that in to a PC and get a OTA DVR with a full EPG and no monthly fees. I'm really getting tempted to go that route.

Even if I don't, I have a really hard time thinking of a 18 mo commitment, especially with Fios just around the corner.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

If someone subs to a E* SD pack, they might buy a 211 in order to pick up their HD OTA locals if their HDTV doesn't have a built-in HD tuner.

 

[Mike0616]

No matter what Charlie says he does NOT want Ala Carte. His revenues would drop and his costs for channels would rise.

Hell if Ala Carte was put into place I dont think I could pick 25 channels I wanted to keep.

Also, who in their right mind would want any of the abundant (read that: too dayum many to count) shopping channels? Not too much of a market there.

Since the cable and satellite channels all get paid to put that crap on the airwaves, I laughed when they announced the channel count for their new "family pack." They count the shopping channels in the total channel count, as if they are real channels.

Also, how many people would subscribe to the "music" channels? Not much of a market there, either, if you could opt out of it, and not have to pay for it.

I think I could cut down to 10 or less channels for the wife and I if ala carte was available and do not think we are exceptions, rather the norm.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I wonder what the take on a la carte would be if the charge were $4/channel?

Or if there was a $20 minimum for 5 channels and then $3/channel after that.

I think some think that if there was an a la carte offering, that it would be for around $1.50/channel. I don't know why E* or D* would ever offer that.

 

[jsanders]

The only people it would ever come into play with are the folks that own a 622/411/211 and do not subscribe to DishHD (which I would hope is no one, cause why are they buying it in the first place then) the rest of the folks that lease have to sub to dishhd bronze minimum anyways

I'm one of them. I don't like those overcompressed SD channels, they are almost unwatchable on the HDTV in all of the Stretch-o-visioN glory! Why pay for it? I get the networks in HD, and I get the HD Pack. To get the fee waived, you have to subscribe to HD and SD, and that is absolutely stupid for an "HD enabling fee". SD should have nothing to do with it!

What I find is interesting is what Scott said they are going to do, not allow anyone to disable the HD tuner to avoid the fee. Think about that one. Why would they do it? Sounds like a lot of people are buying the 622 as a replacement for the SD DVR, only with a 320GB HD. For them, it sounds like a great deal, and they probably don't even have an HDTV! Dish is trying to gouge these people. The 622 would make a teriffic SD DVR if you could disable the tuner, and it would give those folks an "upgrade option" for when they got their HD TVs (just enable the HD tuner).

 

[MikeD-C05]

They want to get all their customers to sub to hd as well as their sd channels. They want more money and what better way to get it then to force all subs to the new metallic packs? If you want a new receiver and you are a current customer you will someday have to sub to hd or pay $6.00 fee monthly. IF you are a new customer you will most likely be pushed to get the metallic pack as well. The future for Dish making more money per average sub looks bright. All these new invented fees are making Dish a lot of profit. Take a look at their 4th quarter statement and you will see the profit is up, Way UP.

 

[Chris Freeland]

Even after they have enough of a suply do you think they are going to drop this enabling fee?

I think not.

Probably not unless they discontinue the SD receivers and just give all new customers a VIP 211, 222 or DVR622, weather they wanted HD or not. If they did this E* could reinstate the disabling of the HD option for those who do not need it. It would make the manufacturing process simpler by only producing 3 models, it may save E* some money by doing this and easier for people to upgrade to a HD pack latter if they upgrade at a latter date to a new HDTV.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

All these new invented fees are making Dish a lot of profit. Take a look at their 4th quarter statement and you will see the profit is up, Way UP.

Echostar and the Oil Companies are the companies who made LARGE profits the last quarter. Of course both Dish Network service and GAS Prices have gone up.

I understand that Echostar is in business to make a profit, I have no problem with it, what I hate is Charlie going on TV all the time whining that he is doing something so he does not have to raise my rates.... AND THEN HE RAISES MY RATES.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Charlie said he doesn't want to raise your rates for programming . He never said he didn't want to raise your rates per fees, both new invented ones and old ones. Every since Charlie started charging a dvr fee per reciever , he has moved further and further towards cable like status. He used to make comments about the "other guys charging as much as 12.99 to do tapeless recording and we don't charge you anything to do it."

Charlie /Dish is the Cable company from the sky.

 

[SRW1000]

The only people it would ever come into play with are the folks that own a 622/411/211 and do not subscribe to DishHD (which I would hope is no one, cause why are they buying it in the first place then) the rest of the folks that lease have to sub to dishhd bronze minimum anyways

Not only would the 622 be useful for local HD, but there's also HD HBO and Showtime. Why should someone have to pay an extra fee to receive a channel they're already paying for?

This HD enabling fee is just another crummy way of raising customer prices. The cable companies started all of this, but Dish seems to keep ways of catching up with, if not surpassing, them.

Scott

 

[BlackHitachi]

Not only would the 622 be useful for local HD, but there's also HD HBO and Showtime. Why should someone have to pay an extra fee to receive a channel they're already paying for?

This HD enabling fee is just another crummy way of raising customer prices. The cable companies started all of this, but Dish seems to keep ways of catching up with, if not surpassing, them.

Scott

SO true very well said!!