All providers have fits with channels, E* is not alone.. D* does it.. I had AT&T Uverse drop channels due to disagreement.. Time Warner has before too.. Your really not safe with any provider...
Lawsuits, Contracts and More
- Thread starter sahilm
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That's true, but with a couple important caveats. First of all, most cable companies and Directv, in general, are less likely to drop significantly viewed (i.e. not counting stuff like G4 or hypothetical channels devoted to knitting) channels and, when they do, generally resolve the disputes more quickly and get the channels back up on the air. For example, I remember reading that, yes, Time Warner dropped MSG (A New York RSN) due to a dispute, but it was back up in a few weeks, whereas Dish dropped that channel years ago and it never came back. That's the example I can think of off the top of my head, but it seems like it's not a completely isolated thing. Also, sometimes Dish never picks up big channels, like the YES network, which airs Yankees games in New York, cable usually eventually caves even to new expensive channels if they have most of the area's home teams on.
The other thing is, with Dish, and this part is also true of Directv, you're more likely to be under contract. So, if you lose a channel that's important to you, you're stuck missing it, or paying an early termination fee plus shipping for sending your receiver back. If you're with cable and they drop your favorite channel, you're usually not under contract and can literally call them up and cancel with no fees or penalties, and drop your equipment off for free at a local office. Having said that, cable is starting to move toward a contract model, so it may be losing that advantage it had over satellite, but as of now it seems like you've often got a choice of a good promo with no contract or a slightly better promo with a contract, and cable generally doesn't require contracts for equipment upgrades whereas Dish does.
You know, though, one thing I will say that is a big advantage for Dish, and Directv for that matter, is that they are national services that are easy to get answers about. Like if I want to know if Dish or Directv has a channel, I can just ask and be told the channel number it's at or the package it's in or whatever. If it's not carrying something, it's easy to verify and request.
One issue I ran into with cable is that because all these different little local areas had slightly different channel lineups and packages, I often had trouble getting answers to stuff. Like for years cable carried a local sports network, but not it's part-time overflow channel for when it had two games in one night. Then they added the overflow channel for a year or two. Then they dropped the overflow channel. I tried contacting the company at the time and no one seemed to have any idea if they carried the thing, why it was dropped, or what the heck I was talking about. Now I'm looking into maybe switching back to cable, and I'm having trouble figuring out if they've brought it back or not, because it's a very local question. Like it's carried to the west, the east, the north, and the south of me, and seems to always have been. For whatever reason, my fairly small city dropped it suddenly and it's like no one really made that decision or knew it was gone.
I remember one time talking to a fairly high up person on the ladder with the cable company about a full-time non-sports channel that he insisted I had and gave me a channel number. I flipped to it, it wasn't there. And then he double checked something and was like "Wow, I guess you really don't have it." and had no idea why. I was talking to him about something else, and it wasn't a big priority thing because I wasn't desperate to watch the channel (I think there was one big thing on it I wanted to watch that was airing once- like live coverage in the Senate of some important debate), but I mentioned it as an aside because it was a real oddity- they carried C-SPAN and C-SPAN3, but not C-SPAN2. Like, no one would logically carry the first C-SPAN and the third one, but not the second one, it was clearly just something that was overlooked. If they only had bandwidth for two and an intentional decision was made to carry two- it would have been C-SPAN and C-SPAN2 with 3 being the one not carried.
With Dish or Directv, the channel lineups, other than local OTA and RSNs, are basically national, so the top guys are making the calls and there aren't things that are overlooked like that. If something is there or not there, it's because a decision was made on it by someone with some authority.
Anyhow, I think there are pluses and minuses to all of these carriers. I complain about Dish a lot in these forums, but frankly, there are some areas where it is better than cable and Directv. Keeping channels on the air isn't one of the areas where it's better. They do tend to lose more watched channels for longer than the other two providers most people have access to, on average. They're very stubborn about retransmission fees and tend not to cave- even if it means losing a lot of subs over a channel that's off the air for years and years. They save 50 cents a head and lose 50,000 people or whatever and don't blink.
Thanks for your response, it was detailed, and gave me a lot of information.
Frankly, sports networks are something I really don't care about. I actually resent having to pay for ESPN when no one in my family watches sports.
On the other hand, we are huge junkies of local networks. Frankly, don't care much about ABC, but during September to May I can't imagine a month without CBS.
What I want to know is, from someone like you who seems to be well informed, what are the realistic chances of CBS or other locals being cut. I know I run the risk with everything, but what's the realistic chance (and for how long).
sahilm said:
There's no way to predict in general, and specifically, there's no way to know when your locals will come up for contract renewal. Even if they come up for renewal, there's no way to know whether or not they will reach an agreement or if there's a dispute how long it will take to resolve.
The question is, can anyone guess if this lawsuit will stop contract renewals. Also, how long will this thing take to actually go to court?
You can always find out if your locals are owned and operated by the network directly or a local independent affiliate. The locally owned ones probably do not care too much about autohop since it does not skip over their local news commercials where they really make the money, plus they are collecting a retransmission fee from Dish.
Since LiL is a statutory copyright grant (i.e. the networks cannot claim copyright violations for satellite retransmission), I do not know if the networks can really force locals not to contract with Dish. Someone with much more inside knowledge would have to answer that.
Not everyone live in the city or any where near a transmitter. You guys seem to forget satellite tv is the only option for many customers that live in remote location. My location for one is not that remote, and I can't even get OTA.That's why having a VIP receiver with a built in OTA tuner(s) is.......priceless.
Unfortunately, I live in central NJ, which means I get the New York locals. New York is the headquarters of all four major broadcasting companies, and if I'm not mistaken, since they are flagship networks, they are all owned-and-operated by each network.
in my time with dish i saw 5 or 6 channels either dropped temporarily or permanantly (ny sports, FX, disney hd come to mind)
with direct its been 1, and i honstly never watched it (G4)
but at the same time dish did add some channels that were nice, epix1 and 2 for example
its really a crapshoot.
what is the main reason your wanting to switch?
with direct its been 1, and i honstly never watched it (G4)
but at the same time dish did add some channels that were nice, epix1 and 2 for example
its really a crapshoot.
what is the main reason your wanting to switch?
He's talking about local affiliate commercials during regular primetime programming. IE. local car dealers, local attorneys, ads for the upcoming news program (film at 11:00).
They make a shipload of money from selling local commercials for prime time airing. I would guess it is as much, or more than, their local news half-hour.
