Help with programming packages

[detroit_fan]

Hi everyone, hoping you can help me out a little. I currently have the Plus HD DVR package from directv. This is an old package. I have 2 little kids that love the sprout channel and i just got an email telling me it is moving to a choice ultimate package. here are my questions-

my Plus HD DVR is billed @ $82.99/month. Looking at Directv's website the choice ultimate is only $70.99/month. Will I lose sprout since i have a more expensive package


question #2- should i just switch to choice ultimate? is it a better deal than what i have now? will i lose any channels if i switch?'

thanks for any help

 

[Jimbo]

Hi everyone, hoping you can help me out a little. I currently have the Plus HD DVR package from directv. This is an old package. I have 2 little kids that love the sprout channel and i just got an email telling me it is moving to a choice ultimate package. here are my questions-

my Plus HD DVR is billed @ $82.99/month. Looking at Directv's website the choice ultimate is only $70.99/month. Will I lose sprout since i have a more expensive package


question #2- should i just switch to choice ultimate? is it a better deal than what i have now? will i lose any channels if i switch?'

thanks for any help

I would go to D*'s website and see if the channels are listed for each package and figure out whats what, I would think that you would save money and probably not lose channels ... one of the packages adds some premium channels,, if your not into the movie channels you probably don't want that.

 

[detroit_fan]

thanks. yeah it would be about $6-7$/month more to switch. what makes me mad is they include tmc in the ultimate but i pay for showtime so i already get tmc. so now if i switch not only does my bill go up but i am getting less for my money on the showtime package. this really sucks, i have a 1 year old and a 2 month old, so sprout is on a lot at our house. so sick of these price increases, something has to be done to slow them down.

 

[Jimbo]

thanks. yeah it would be about $6-7$/month more to switch. what makes me mad is they include tmc in the ultimate but i pay for showtime so i already get tmc. so now if i switch not only does my bill go up but i am getting less for my money on the showtime package. this really sucks, i have a 1 year old and a 2 month old, so sprout is on a lot at our house. so sick of these price increases, something has to be done to slow them down.

D* prices go up slightly every Feb, use to be March.
It's the cost of doing business, the majority of companies have a yearly price increase to cover some ot the cost of business.

 

[detroit_fan]

D* prices go up slightly every Feb, use to be March.
It's the cost of doing business, the majority of companies have a yearly price increase to cover some ot the cost of business.

sure they do, but when does the ever increasing price become too much for the average family to afford. if the directv bill goes up $5-$6/year then in 10 years we are looking at bills $50-$60?month higher(which i'm sure you know cause it's basic math lol). That is too much per year for most families, especially in this economy. And why take away a preschoolers learning channel? Seems like there were better options. jmo

 

[Jimbo]

sure they do, but when does the ever increasing price become too much for the average family to afford. if the directv bill goes up $5-$6/year then in 10 years we are looking at bills $50-$60?month higher(which i'm sure you know cause it's basic math lol). That is too much per year for most families, especially in this economy. And why take away a preschoolers learning channel? Seems like there were better options. jmo

Thankfully, $5-6 a year is not typical.

 

[detroit_fan]

choice and choice extra are goin up $3 each, ultimate $4 and premier 5$. plus dvr is going up $1, so your looking at $4-6$ a month increases, is that more than normal? how much do they typically go up a year?

 

[john262]

Did you check your local PBS station to see if they carry some on the programs that your kids watch on Sprout?

 

[efbrune]

I have the same package as the op. I would like to keep H2, FBN and most of the sports channels. With the price increases I will be paying $93.08/mo. I really would like to reduce the cost of the programming.

Should I keep this package or go with one of the new packages?

 

[detroit_fan]

Did you check your local PBS station to see if they carry some on the programs that your kids watch on Sprout?

yes, unfortunately they only offer very few of the shows on my local pbs.

 

[Jimbo]

choice and choice extra are goin up $3 each, ultimate $4 and premier 5$. plus dvr is going up $1, so your looking at $4-6$ a month increases, is that more than normal? how much do they typically go up a year?

Typiocally it's 2-3 dollars, they generally don't increase the dvr/ recvr fees ect.
Last year they raised the recvr fee, this year the DVR, first time they have ever gone up, now, if they continue raising them, we have a problem, if they keep it where it is again, we'll be fine.

 

[bobvick]

While DirecTV certainly bears part of the responsibility where price increases are concerned. I fully believe that the most of the increases come from the greedy programmers. Not that DirecTV is not a business and not concerned with profit, but the programmers are the ones that are gouging us so badly. They go up on the price of their content more and more each year. I am convinced that if people would (which they are not going to) boycott the NFL, NBA, MLB, etc... the price would begin to at least stabilize if not come down some. The NFL is the main culprit, and the programmers are the ones that are stupid for paying billions to have contracts to provide the coverage of their games. Who knows, maybe each DirecTV subscriber helps to subsidize the cost of the NFL sunday ticket, that is the jewel in the crown for DirecTV. I know that everyone helps to subsidize the cost of ESPN for the ones that want it. I could care less about ESPN myself, but I am in the minority on that and I know it. If it were broken out and made like HBO, the package prices could probably drop some.

 

[Mr Tony]

Call Directv and see what they say. I saw a post that they gave a customer $5 off for 6 months because of Sprout moving to a higher package (the customer changed to the new package so it was a wash)