I don’t mind Dish Network making a profit, but not a killing.

[Frank7004]

Somehow, with the increase in pricing, being sued for unethical business stuff, dish still climbs. Weird, huh.

I'm not a nut swinger but a free market is just that. You are the one paying. Don't have the service if you don't want to pay for it.

 

[Bobby]

I know this is the wrong forum for this question, but if someone could point me in the right direction(Scott, or someone else), as too where this is discussed or described, it will be appreciated.

But this thread brought up this question to my mind:

What legal right, if any, do cable companies have for "NOT" have multiple cable services available to customers in most areas of the country? In other words, I am serviced by TWC, with Comcast, and Armstrong, being availbe only about 3-4 miles away in other counties/towns, but they are not available to me for the purpose of making a "choice".

In other words, when a McDonald's opens, there is nothing stopping Wendy's/Burger King/etc... from opening up right across the street, and providing competition for them. Someone mentioned, and it is true, that competition helps keep prices down. But somehow, cable companies have somehow, skirted around this by having "territories", and not invadiing each others area. This is Bullsh*t, and I always wondered how they get away with it.

I know they have competition from the satellite companies(which you can get almost anywhere), but wouldn't prices drop, or services increase, if every area had TWC/Comcast/Armstrong/AT&T U-verse/Verizon FIOS/etc... available to them in any area? Wouldn't this keep prices down because now there is "real" competition from other companies for your money?

How in the hell do they get away with that? It wouldn't take too many cables to string along on telephone poles for nearly evry servcie to be made available to you. And the ones that die, die. While the ones that offer the best service/rates survive. Let the consumer decide.

Cable service is controlled by community franchises. City, County, etc. allow the infrastructure to be installed in the community. There are some places that actually have 2 different cable companies, usually in a county area and serviced by aerial facilities. In those areas where there are underground facilities only it would be very expensive for a cable company to dig up the ground and add all the facilities necessary to be able to service subscribers. Where I live, we have had 4 different cable franchises in our city over a 30 year period. All one at a time and each time a new company got the franchise they would take over the existing facilities. Even in aerial plant conditions it is very expensive to place all that cable on the poles and a second cable company would be responsible to pay the costs of rearrangement of the existing facilities on those poles and perhaps even pole replacement to raise the height of the poles to maintain proper distances from other facilities. It is not as easy as you might want to think.....

 

[getstuff4less]

Everybody loves to immediately assume that Dish did this for the sole reason of making more money off these subs. Perhaps they did or perhaps they didn't. Maybe it's because the networks told them in no uncertain terms when various new contracts were signed that their HD programming had to be a part of a basic programming packaging including other programming that the provider had which was happened to be in SD.

If it was truly because of programmers, how come they are able to keep the "all HD" Dish America packs? I think a petition by a long time member should be started. They are lying IMHO.

 

[Zero327]

So, no matter how deep they put it, we should just shutup and take it.

Either cancel service or BYOLube...

You don't get to argue with the service providers on any issue that truly matters. If they want to charge you more, they will. And if you want their product, you'll pay it. You don't have to like it, but huffing and puffing about how unfair it all is won't change Charlie's mind or the price you pay for service. It's simple logic, and more importantly, it's business - nothing personal.

 

[Kb Cool]

Either cancel service or BYOLube...

You don't get to argue with the service providers on any issue that truly matters. If they want to charge you more, they will. And if you want their product, you'll pay it. You don't have to like it, but huffing and puffing about how unfair it all is won't change Charlie's mind or the price you pay for service. It's simple logic, and more importantly, it's business - nothing personal.

Yes, but if enough people "Huff and Puff" and cancel. Then Charlie may change his mind on how to go about this sitiuation. I think he should leave the package "as is" minus the Platinum channels and if you want those? Pay the extra 10 bucks!

 

[Tyralak]

I wonder how many of you guys are the same ones that were bitching and moaning about the channel disputes? "Give me back my channel now! I don't care how much it costs! I'll pay it, just get it back on!" When price increase time comes, well it's a different story now isn't it?

 

[Kb Cool]

I wonder how many of you guys are the same ones that were bitching and moaning about the channel disputes? "Give me back my channel now! I don't care how much it costs! I'll pay it, just get it back on!" When price increase time comes, well it's a different story now isn't it?

Yes, Maybe after this increase Charlie will have the "Balls" to double everyones price, "including the Everything pak". Shortly there after Directv will follow suit.

 

[Tyralak]

Just like how elections are never on April 16th, channel disputes are never in February. The programming providers know that people forget about rate hikes later in the year.

 

[andrewj0781]

I still don't have much to complain about yet. I'm saving about $7.00 over D*, My local cable company wants $83.48 for digital package. With E* you get the channels in every room for cable to do that I'd pay extra $26.85 ($8.95 x3), dvr is $10.95 and $4.00 for HD. Before taxes and Franchise fees we're talking around $125.28 (talk about nickel and dimming ya) They didn't raise their rates yet this year yet. Saving around $40.29 (that doesn't include the new E* rates or taxes)

 

[mike123abc]

If 10 million households were to drop pay TV the providers would sit up and take notice.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/television-sets-projectors/239340-interesting-chart-tvs-us.html

I posted the statistics chart in the TV sets forum, but if you look at the chart, people huffed and puffed but did not drop pay TV enough in the last year to move the statistics. Essentially everyone complains about pay TV but no one will drop pay TV to show they are serious. Essentially the number moved in 2008-2009 at the start of the recession, but 2009-2010 was unchanged.

 

[whatchel1]

I don't like what is happening but I've been looking at alternatives. So far unfortunately haven't found one that is any better. D* I'd have to pony up $99 for a 2nd HDDVR (I can't afford it right now) to be able to record 4 things at once. An yes I do record 4 things at a time occasionally: like Thur nites. I use 2 sat & 2 OTA. I looked at our local cable co and since I have it for net thought maybe. But scanned it w/ both my Panny TV & the My HD TV PC card I have. It's talked about how awful the PQ is on E* man I was going this city has never seen an HD signal if they think that SuddenLink has any. U-verse is only other choice & on the site says I can't get it here. I know that is untrue but I have a felling I'm on the end of the node which means I screwed for get more than 2 HD streams. So gonna have to stay put for a while longer. I really is a case of grin and bear it. Was thinking about cutting the cord to & upping the net speed but that isn't gonna work either. Can't get the stuff off DVR as HD w/o equipment I don't have yet so will have to wait. I know woo is me. End of my rant :rant:

 

[Zero327]

Yes, but if enough people "Huff and Puff" and cancel. Then Charlie may change his mind on how to go about this sitiuation. I think he should leave the package "as is" minus the Platinum channels and if you want those? Pay the extra 10 bucks!

"Enough people" in DISH terms is in the 5-6 figure range. 1-2k angry customers really won't bend his ear. His call centers get a higher volume than that every day.

I don't see your grassroots movement getting very far. DISH is too big to try a power-of-the-people play with. And Charlie isn't known for second-guessing himself. What you might do however is get him to reassess the low-volume of complaints he receives and see even higher increases next time should he feel he can get away with it. The axe swings both ways.

 

[inazsully]

Let's face it. every major company, including Dish Network, employ marketing experts that crunch millions of numbers and compare demographics resulting in knowing exactly how much they can raise rates without decreasing their bottom line. Basically they know how much they can get away with without overturning their apple cart. We are addicted to what we have become accustomed to watching and they know it. What sports nut would give up ESPN just because the rates went up?

 

[Bob Haller]

well I dropped E and am very happy with comcastt triple play bundle

and have ZERO connection with whoever started this discussion.

 

[shodobe]

I guess most of you haven't been watching how cable companies and providers have been fighting! Come on everyone, get real. This will eventually happen to sat companies real soon and we will get caught in the struggle between Dish, Direct and the providers. It isn't really the sat companies fault if the providers want to increase the fees. I don't think that it is such a crime when they increase our costs to cover these increases. I am, in my friends opinions, one of the worst conspiracy theorists around but don't think this is just a way for Charlie to jack everybody for more profits. You pay for what you want and shouldn't expect anything for free just because you think you deserve it.

 

[inazsully]

It isn't the sat companies fault? It's the providers fault. Maybe. We'll never know who's not playing nice because we'll never be privy to the facts. Both the providers and the sat/cable companies will make sure of that. We're addicted to the product and we gotta have it.

 

[Hall]

If you look at Dish quarterly reports the average profit per sub is around $5/month. Not exactly a killing.

$5/mo per customer ? Dish has 13 million customers... That's $65,000,000 (read 65 million) profit per month. Not exactly a killing, eh ?

 

[Hall]

What legal right, if any, do cable companies have for "NOT" have multiple cable services available to customers in most areas of the country?

As noted by bobby, "franchise agreements" is what allowed this for so many years. I think most areas have gotten rid of them now though.... So where's the "other" cablecos ? They're sitting tight. It probably costs hundreds of millions of dollars to "wire" neighborhoods, build the plants, etc, etc and very few companies are willing to make that investment.

 

[harshness]

What legal right, if any, do cable companies have for "NOT" have multiple cable services available to customers in most areas of the country?

It is called franchising and it is done to insure that at least one competitor will survive. Part of it is associated with use of public rights-of-way and other parts are deals that localities cut with the operator to bring in various services.

 

[Greg Bimson]

As noted by bobby, "franchise agreements" is what allowed this for so many years. I think most areas have gotten rid of them now though.... So where's the "other" cablecos ? They're sitting tight. It probably costs hundreds of millions of dollars to "wire" neighborhoods, build the plants, etc, etc and very few companies are willing to make that investment.

It is called franchising and it is done to insure that at least one competitor will survive. Part of it is associated with use of public rights-of-way and other parts are deals that localities cut with the operator to bring in various services.

Oh, those local franchise agreements are still around. How does anyone think Verizon was able to enter the TV business so quickly?

There is only one major locality in the DC metro area, Alexandria, that has yet to negotiate a TV franchise agreement with Verzion. More here.