Which Package Do You Have?

[HanoverPretzel]

Which Dish Network package do you have? Are you happy with it? If you had to cut costs, what's the minimum you'd be willing to drop down to before you'd say "Screw it, I'll just rent DVDs or something and go without" (assuming you're off-contract)?

Side note: What's the minimum contract you can drop to while on contract without breaking the contract? Are you locked into what you initially signed up for, or can you switch around over the length of the contract and try out different service levels? Does your first year discount apply to any service level, or do you lose the discount if you switch?

 

[sjvirchow]

I have America's Top 120, with HD Free for Life and an HD DVR. (ViP722) I would NOT drop down to the Dish Family or Dish America packages. No way. All thats on there are shopping and religious channels. Nothing good in my opinion. AT120 fits my needs just fine, and is priced much less than a comparable cable pacakage. (Local for us is Time Warner... unfortunately.) Going up to Top 200 is not worth the extra $15-$20 more a month to me. With the preview channels every month, the AT120 is the perfect package for me and my family.

 

[patrick80639]

I have dish Latino max. I love it, it has all the channels I want and some of those are only otherwise available on the AT250 package. I save about $12 over AT250 and it includes playboy en espanol for free.

I'm not at a point where I would ever drop satellite for renting DVDs or doing the Netflix thing. I watch way too much TV for that to work.

You can drop down to the welcome pack and still fulfill your contract. I think if you drop beneath AT120 you lose the incentives, though.

 

[DanB@Dish Network]

Hanoverpretzel, you're allowed to change programming at anytime to lower your bill. If you'd like assistance with packaging or pricing options feel free to PM your account info to me, and we can review your options.

 

[gdarwin]

America's Everything Pak, HD250 Free, Platinum. With 3 people with different viewing habits I do not see us downsizing....

 

[RobMeyer1]

I have America's Top 120, with HD Free for Life and an HD DVR. (ViP722) I would NOT drop down to the Dish Family or Dish America packages. No way. All thats on there are shopping and religious channels. Nothing good in my opinion. AT120 fits my needs just fine, and is priced much less than a comparable cable pacakage. (Local for us is Time Warner... unfortunately.) Going up to Top 200 is not worth the extra $15-$20 more a month to me. With the preview channels every month, the AT120 is the perfect package for me and my family.

I have the Dish America package together with HD Platinum, after being forced out of HD Absolute. The info above is not correct concerning Dish America packages. Compared to AT120, you mostly lose SD programming which isn't worth watching anyway. I locked out all the shopping and religious channels and am able to find plenty of programming to watch. You should look online at Dishnetwork, and look at the packages yourself to see which package meets your minimum needs.

 

[bebop]

I think he was comparing to the Dish America package, not the Silve/Gold. There is a considerable difference.

 

[nsafreak]

AT 250 + Dish Platinum + HBO & Starz + Multi Sports pack during NFL regular season (for Red Zone) . I could probably drop both movie packages if I had to with all of the movies I have on my DVR and external hard drives along with Netflix. I doubt I could drop beyond the AT 200 as much of a sports fan as I am. I'm glad that Dish Platinum is becoming even more worth it with the addition of the VOD content.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Hanoverpretzel, you're allowed to change programming at anytime to lower your bill. If you'd like assistance with packaging or pricing options feel free to PM your account info to me, and we can review your options.

Thanks, but I'm not ready to change programming packages at this time. Just getting the lay of the land for future consideration.

 

[whatchel1]

Latino Max HD w/ Platinum HD it was the least expensive HD pack that I could get Nat Geo in HD. It was closest to Absolute HD.

 

[daveg]

I have a 622 with top 200 with Free HD for life, free stars for a year, and HD Platinum. However I think I'm going to drop to the 150 package until baseball season starts next spring.
When I wanted to lower my bill I dropped 2 receivers, mirrored my 622 and added an OTA antenna. I also use Netflix.
Most people watch the same 6-15 channels over and over no matter what pack they have. Look at the channel list, figure out what channels are important to you and see what package you can “survive” with.

 

[sA :: Shaggy]

Americas Everything pack, Hd plat, HD250 free for life. Have had AEP since, 1999. its not going anywhere..

 

[DishSubLA]

AEP, Regional Sports Pack (includes Big 10 HD that I do watch a fair amount). Used to have French Bouquet until Dish raised fees. Will greatly consider going to AT 250 (dump premium movie services) once we have sufficient bandwidth and multiple access to Netflix, etc. Most enjoyed channel by the household are at 250 only. I'm prepared to go all the way down to the minimum package should we have financial challenges with a ton of HD material and movies on several external HDD's.

 

[dlharm]

I have Dish America Gold + HD Platinum, I believe the name has changed now, probably due to adding of all the SD channels. With all of the SD channels in the package (Platinum) it is not as attractive of a package now.
I'm not pleased with the $5.00 increase in the Gold package price, considering I'm still down 3 HD channels (ABC Family,ESPNews,Disney) and that very seldom anything is added to the package. Other than that it has a nice selection of HD channels.
Also, Starz free for 1 year.



VIP722

 

[samalex]

We had Top 250 package with HD Platinum but we recently dropped down to the Top 200 plus dropped HD Platinum which saved us about $30/month. I thought about going to Latino Max HD as others have done, but I need to spend some time comparing the channels since I haven't found any spreadsheet on SG's comparing the Top ### packages to the Latino packages. We also do Netflix and Red Box so with this we get pretty much everything we need program wise.

Sam

 

[bobvick]

I have AEP, with free HD, HD platinum free for one year, and Euronews a la carte. I have had AEP as long as I have been with Dish and I have been happy with it, so I will stay with what I have.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Top 200 with HD free +Free Platinum pack for 3 months+ Free Starz for a year.

 

[kalone]

I have AEP, with free HD, HD platinum free for one year. I am very happy with it when compared to cable.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

Latino Max HD w/ Platinum HD it was the least expensive HD pack that I could get Nat Geo in HD. It was closest to Absolute HD.

Nat Geo HD (as well as SD) is in Dish Latino Dos, too.
http://www.dishlatino.com/paquetes/altadefinicion/hd.aspx

 

[Jhon69]

I have AT250 w HD Free,HD Platinum (for 3 months free then plan on paying for it +$10.) + Starz Free for 1 year.

HD Platinum to me (22 extra channels) is a good value for those like myself who need more channel options.