No, not really. I just think it's silly to automatically blame a channel raising rates a little for Dish increasing rates. There are a lot of dynamics in play there. For example, as I said, Dish could cut it's profit margin, or drop Lifetime type channels to make up the difference, or any number of things. It's possible that ESPN may not ask for a cost increase commensurate with the extra rights fees they're paying, also- I'm sure they'll ask for an increase citing that as one of the reasons, but it may not be quite as dramatic as one would think it'd be based on the increase in fees for NFL, MLB, and college bowl games they've taken on lately. ESPN knows they probably can't actually ask for double their current carriage fee- one would think anyway- but time will tell.
Also, in a hypothetical world where ESPN didn't sign these deals or didn't ask for a fee increase from Dish, do you think Dish would fail to raise rates, or find another reason to raise them? Usually providers price things at the price point that'll maximize profits, it's not all about operating costs. And had ESPN not paid this, NBC Sports Network or some other outlet might have. So it'd still be the same to the end consumer purchasing a package with those channels included.
Lets see, so how is Dish supposed to drop those channels when Disney owns half of them. Disney now owns half of the Lifetime Nets, A&E, History, H2 and BIO. Hearst owns the other half. Suppose NBCSN got NFL or something popular and was demanding base carriage and 100% increase. What is Dish supposed to drop when ComcastNBC owns USA, SYFY, Bravo, Chiller, Cloo, cnbc, MSNBC and whatever else I've forgotton.
Local gas stations actually typically don't make much money on gas. They make their profits on the stuff they sell inside the store. So, they've already kind of made an adjustment like what you described, to some extent.
I own a carwash. My water bill is $700-800 a month. The city has built a new treatment facility and my rates as a business are going to almost double. So now I'm looking at $1400 a month for water, so after gas, elec, water, insurance, payroll, product, mortgage, etc.. I clear about $1500 which goes back to the business because commercial pumps are not cheap when they go out, so I guess you would expect me to eat that rate increase and not raise my rate. So I can eat that cost and lay off my part time employees or I can raise rates and the company has enough operating capital to meet any unforeseen needs and people can keep their jobs.
We'll see. I got a year-long discount and a free Roku box over the AMC thing, so I might stick around for a while. I'm going to see how it goes. There are some bad things about cable, too.
and you said Dish never gives you anything 
I think ESPN's parent company probably wouldn't allow that. They'd likely saw "All or nothing", or at least say you've got to carry ESPN2 if you want ESPN. I've never heard of anyone carrying ESPN without ESPN2, so it's probably a requirement from ABC-Disney that you carry at least those two if you want to carry anything from them sports wise.
I know as I stated above, Disney is going to say all or nothing, that's why I said only ESPN would be in a base package, the rest would get moved to higher tiers or the sports pack
I honestly believe ala carte would cost the average consumer more, yes. Because you're going to have a baseline service fee that you have to pay to stay connected each month, that probably comes with your locals and a few other things. Then let's say you're a well rounded person who isn't into one thing, or you have multiple people in your home with different interests, and then wind up with news, sports, and entertainment packages, etc.. - by the time you add it all up, it'll probably cost you the same or more, and you'll get less. Plus, channels will start adding bits of programming to try to force subscriptions- like all of the sudden the SyFy channel will have a weekly major league baseball game or something. And you'd likely still have to buy FOX News to get MSNBC, and so on and so forth, even if you'd rather be water boarded than watch FOX News- it'd just be "interest packs", not channel by channel. And can you imagine all the headaches and screwups when individual customers all have customized packages with a zillion different options? Imagine trying to get that straight on a troubleshooting call. Could be wrong about all that, but I suspect ala carte isn't going to be a good deal for most people (Maybe it will be for a select few who really just want a couple of channels).
To some people it would be a higher cost, but to most it would be the same and would probably result in a higher quality of programming as some channels would definitely go away. The interest packs seem to work pretty well in Canada. Even with smaller packs, you are going to get some popular channel added to packs with lots of niche stuff, but in the end more people would be satisfied than not.
Most people hate the idea of metered service, especially if you're low income, or trying to watch your spending for whatever reason. It's good to be able to just pay your bill and say "Now I can watch as much as I want" and not have to worry about having to be hyper-vigilant lest you exceed some cap and get slammed with a bill you can't pay, or that you'll struggle to pay. People don't want to be sitting there trying to unwind watching their television set having to be worried and keep track of how much they've watched and how much it costs per hour or whatever. It turns the whole thing into something stressful rather than something relaxing.
How did this happen? Something we agree on
