Suprised to see Dish now costs just as much as Comcast

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jrbdmb

jrbdmb

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Apr 5, 2004
863
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Every year or so I get the itch to see if there is any reason to switch away from Dish to DirecTV or Comcast. Usually the Comcast comparison ends when I find that a comparable package costs $20 or $30 more than Dish.

Funny thing is, this time when comparing a large HD package (no premiums) and enough receivers for my FR / 2 BRs / kitchen / basement (2 of these DVRS) Dish and Comcast come out to within $1.50 of each other. Now I still prefer Dish DVRs, but with the increased lease fees / DVR activation fees / service plan fees etc. Dish is no longer the deal they once were, no matter what their marketing team says. As a result I am now considering Comcast seriously for the first time in about 10 years.

(Note that I used the standard, non-promotional price for Comcast.)

Have others found this to be true as well?

P.S. - Dish has better DVRs and a few more HD choices than Comcast. But Comcast has all local HD feeds including PBS, carries Comcast-Philly that is not on Dish, and doesn't try to charge me $$$ to fix / replace leased equipment or charge a separate service plan fee. And to be honest I probably don't have to worry about Comcast dropping channels due to yet-another-contract-dispute that happens far too frequently with Dish.
 
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You are right... but just watch out for Comcasts equipment fees as well.. like for example here they charge $2.49 a month per remote control.... And HD DVR's I believe are not around $22 a month... (Plus remote control rental fee of course!) :)
 
No remote fee here, and HD-DVR is $15.95, HD Rcvr is $8.00, SD-DVR is $8.95, SD Rcvr is $7.45. I know it varies by what area you live in.

PLUS, Comcast has as many HD channels, and ones that DISH does not have. (Rainbow, Disney/ESPN,etc.)

AND no $15.00 fee per receiver when you drop them.
 
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According to their web page here near Philly HD DVRs are $15.95/mo. If that turns out to be bad info then Comcast will cost around $10/mo more.

But Dish's new receiver fees of $7 (non-DVR) to $17 (Duo DVR) have really eliminated any difference with Comcast as far as pricing. I'd bet that most subs not in a 1-receiver household have really gotten hammered by the Dish price increases of the past year.
 
You did do a good job of comparing apples to apples as best as possible. I do agree with Scott, there can be other and or higher fees than Dish has. But your point is well taken, the gap has narrowed. I just wonder when the economy gets better, will cable go back to increasing more per year then Dish or Direct as they generally have in the past?
 
These are the fees in my area: (Chicago) Were on an all digital system.

HD-DVR (Add $15.95 per month)
Please select the number of additional outlets you would like to have High-Definition Digital Video Recorder (HD-DVR) service on. The price is per box.



HD Digital Box (Add $9.95 per month)
Please select the number of additional High-Definition (HD) digital boxes you would like. The price is per digital box.




SD Digital Box (Add $6.95 per month)
Please select the number of additional Standard-Definition (SD) digital boxes you would like. The price is per digital box.
 
I'll go even further than the OP - I've actually have said this for the past several years, & you can now throw alternate video providers like U-verse & FiOS into the mix as well.

When clients have asked me about switching to provider X - I ask why & if they tell me "it's to save $$$", I ask them have they THROUGHLY looked at ALL charges that new provider is going to want for their particular setup. Most of the time, they find out that, in fact, they are NOT saving nearly as much as they thought - & in some case, it turns out that it's going to cost MORE!

The common problem is, as long as you have programmers like ESPN requiring providers to put most/all their channels in even the cheapest base packages, you just ain't going to save all that much money amongst these providers. The ONLY thing that is different in my area, is the fact that Comcast has NOT yet rolled out World of More for us, while right now they offer less than 50 HD channels in total. People that are wanting more HD channels are now switching in droves to DISH, DirecTV & now U-verse. (it just now finally got turned up in my neighborhood) And WOM is not going to get going until at least the end of this year. (they are not shutting off expanded basic analog until at least the end of October) But once that happens, then people will probably start switching around providers even more.

To be really honest with you, the only thing that really keeps me on DirecTV now, is that I do NOT pay any DVR fees (lifetimer) nor now the HD fee for 2 years, as well as being grandfathered on TC+, which gives me all the prog I want. If I lost my free DVR, I just might start looking elsewhere, as I'm getting real tired on waiting for DirecTV to put more national HD up. :rolleyes:
 
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If you can get REAL FiOS (I am talking Fiber to the home... not the FiOS which is just an old renamed cable system) then go for it. There is no better value out there and no better video quality...

As far as UVERSE goes, its about the same price as satellite, and the HD service is limited... here in CT now you can watch up to 3 HD streams and 1 HD stream in your house at a time. For many this might not be a problem, but if your someone like me who only watches HD and has 6 HDTV's then it might be an issue. :)
 
jrbdmb said:
According to their web page here near Philly HD DVRs are $15.95/mo. If that turns out to be bad info then Comcast will cost around $10/mo more.

But Dish's new receiver fees of $7 (non-DVR) to $17 (Duo DVR) have really eliminated any difference with Comcast as far as pricing. I'd bet that most subs not in a 1-receiver household have really gotten hammered by the Dish price increases of the past year.
Click to expand...

You bet right on the increase. My bill went up about $20 per month in the 1 and half years that I have had dish. I do like the service, but will search other providers at the end of my contract. I can accept price increases, but not $20 in just 18 months.
 
Equipment is what keeps me with Dish. If any of my older receivers go out, I will just replace them with 211's instead of dual tuner boxes. I think Dish should be giving customers with owned equipment a break though. I have bought all of my receivers for the past 11 years never leased anything from Dish. They are not subsidizing me with anything, yet I am still hit with the same ridiculous fees as people leasing equipment.

Cox still uses the crappy Motorola boxes in Tulsa and SA boxes in OKC. 30hrs of HD storage just doesn't cut it and no 30sec skip forward button, not mention SLLLOOOOOWWW as molasses.
I think Cox may actually have more HD channels than Dish in Tulsa. I know they have ESPNU and AMC in HD.

If the new Cisco DVR's ever show up in Tulsa and are as good as I have heard, then I will have to take a hard look at Cox. For now Dish or Directv is it and it just isn't worth switching to Directv right now.
 
Anymore it's more a matter of each individual's situation for both programming desires and equipment. I have E* now and not going anywhere but have had both D* and Concast and had no problems with D*, but I avoid Concast just on attitude alone and in my area they are much higher than either satellite provider. Sometimes there are people you just don't want to do business with.
 
Well, let's see....

I have Dish with:
America's Everything - $99.99
Multisport - $7.00
HD Platinum - $10.00
Solo Receiver - $7.00
DVR Service - $6.00
HD 250 Free - $0.00
Total - $130.99

Now to replicate with Comcast with their regular prices, not a one year graduated reduction:
Digital Premiere - $132.99
Solo Receiver - $7.00
HD DVR - $15.95
The Movie Channel - $19.99
Total - $175.93

The Comcast Premiere package has Multisport included. The Dish Everything package has The Movie Channel included and includes my 722 DVR.

So I get Dish for $44.94 a month less for everything and I get about 50 extra channels, many in HD. I get The Platinum HD package whose channels mostly are not available on Comcast.

In all fairness, Comcast has wonderful VOD but it's not worth $45 a month to me.

Now that's my kind of math!
 
Hopefully the FCC will require all MVPDs (cable, satellite and Telcos) provide a gateway device based on open-standards in every home starting in 2012. This way we can buy our own Consomer Electronic products and free outselves from the Cable and Telco cartels.

Next up...a la carte so we can free ourselves from the programmers shoveling you-know-what down our throats that we don't want nor need. As much as I enjoy FiOS, I am only a stones throw away from OTA only.
 
jrbdmb said:
Every year or so I get the itch to see if there is any reason to switch away from Dish to DirecTV or Comcast. Usually the Comcast comparison ends when I find that a comparable package costs $20 or $30 more than Dish.

Funny thing is, this time when comparing a large HD package (no premiums) and enough receivers for my FR / 2 BRs / kitchen / basement (2 of these DVRS) Dish and Comcast come out to within $1.50 of each other. Now I still prefer Dish DVRs, but with the increased lease fees / DVR activation fees / service plan fees etc. Dish is no longer the deal they once were, no matter what their marketing team says. As a result I am now considering Comcast seriously for the first time in about 10 years.

(Note that I used the standard, non-promotional price for Comcast.)

Have others found this to be true as well?

P.S. - Dish has better DVRs and a few more HD choices than Comcast. But Comcast has all local HD feeds including PBS, carries Comcast-Philly that is not on Dish, and doesn't try to charge me $$$ to fix / replace leased equipment or charge a separate service plan fee. And to be honest I probably don't have to worry about Comcast dropping channels due to yet-another-contract-dispute that happens far too frequently with Dish.
Click to expand...

Having just switched from Comcast to Dish, I have gotten a better deal, however all in all prices are pretty comparable across the board with *all* providers, my reasoning for switching was mainly do to the horrible compression on HD channels comcast is allowing. I had Comcast still in place the weekend of my Dish install, and did an A/B comparison, and hands down, even with the compression Dish has, it was/is still miles better than the mess Comcast was making on the HD channels in my area. If I paused the same show on both providers, I noticed a sharper image with Comcast, (Dish seems a little soft) However, when actually watching television like it was meant to be watched (with it actually moving) it has macro blocking from Hell! Certain HD channels were literally unwatchable. I notice some macro blocking with Dish as well, but it is nothing as distracting as Comcasts.
 
Bobby said:
Well, let's see....

I have Dish with:
America's Everything - $99.99
Multisport - $7.00
HD Platinum - $10.00
Solo Receiver - $7.00
DVR Service - $6.00
HD 250 Free - $0.00
Total - $130.99

Now to replicate with Comcast with their regular prices, not a one year graduated reduction:
Digital Premiere - $132.99
Solo Receiver - $7.00
HD DVR - $15.95
The Movie Channel - $19.99
Total - $175.93

The Comcast Premiere package has Multisport included. The Dish Everything package has The Movie Channel included and includes my 722 DVR.

So I get Dish for $44.94 a month less for everything and I get about 50 extra channels, many in HD. I get The Platinum HD package whose channels mostly are not available on Comcast.

In all fairness, Comcast has wonderful VOD but it's not worth $45 a month to me.

Now that's my kind of math!
Click to expand...
We get all the FiOS channels (minus HBO/MAX)...plus phone service...plus 25/5 Internat...one HD DVR...and cable cards for a TivoHD and a Sony HD DVR all for $186 and change. We could live without the phone service...
 
Of course I remember...

And yes the VOOM days were fun... we all wanted to see them survive but all knew there would be a huge crash at the end and we couldn't turn away from watching it. :)
 
My only choice for broadband internet is with Comcast so I check their cable options often to see if they are competitive. Seems I have to pay at least $30 more per month for less programming and I'm not even including the fact that "moving" isn't possible.

I also don't understand the point of bundles with them. The cost of the internet and tv package seems to be the same regardless if separate or together.

Maybe once we get "The World of More" in my area things will be different.
 

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