"I swear I had a $5 price increase last year to even though the rep told me it had been 2 years since the last increase!"
No programming package increase last year, but fees went up.
Actually there WAS a $5.00 increase in most programming packs last January and there was an increase in Hopper fees last year too. Most of us were grandfathered if we had our second hoppers activated before a certain date in May of 2012. Our dvr fees were grandfathered at $10.00 as well. OF course all this is ending come this month as everyone knows now. But there were two increases in the same year: one on programming and one for equipment.
Multichannel.com has an article from December 19 of 2012 that lists the price increase for January of 2013 as between 7% and 20% with most programming packs rising by $5.00.
Smart pack went from $24.99 to $29.99. / $5.00 increase.
Welcome pack went from $14.99 to $19.99 / $5.00 increase.
Top 120 went from $44.99 to $49.99 / $5.00 increase.
Top 200 went from $59.99 to $64.99 / $5.00 increase.
Top 250 went from $69.99 to $74.99 / $5.00 increase.
AEP went from $104.99 to $119.99 / $15.00 increase.
Certain sports channel bundles also went up between $2.00 to $4.00.
There was a "price freeze" that DISH announced in August of 2011 that lasted till January of 2013 after DISH suffered a larger than expected subscriber loss in the second quarter of that year.