Why does DISH charge DVR fee or VOD fee?

[tcj2001]

As per me, DVR functionality is not a service provided by DISH or any satellite provider, it is a funtionality of the DVR which you have purchased, then why should DISH charge customer for features of DVR like pause, skip back, skip forward which DVR does it for u, not DISH.

Any comment on this?

 

[jsanders]

As per me, DVR functionality is not a service provided by DISH or any satellite provider, it is a funtionality of the DVR which you have purchased, then why should DISH charge customer for features of DVR like pause, skip back, skip forward which DVR does it for u, not DISH.

Any comment on this?

They are charging you for the program guide that you download from the satellite.

 

[tcj2001]

That does not make any sense, program guide is downloaded by all receivers, they dont charge non dvr receiver for downloading program guide.

 

[mike123abc]

Dish used to not charge for the DVR service, but you had to pay $$ for the box. Dish discovered people would rather get the box free or discounted and pay $5/month extra for it. It is a marketing thing, it has been discussed endlessly, do a search...

 

[Stargazer]

They are not charging for the EPG, they are charging for the DVR service and sometimes give a reason for this is due to the money they subsidize in giving the customers deals on the DVR's then the DVR fee makes up for the hardware.

Basically it is a way for Dish Network to make more money in the long run, they do it because they can, it is another way for them to increase their profits.

Some people still pay a good bit of money for the box and you still got your DVR fee.

 

[DarrellP]

Charlie claims it's to pay for the new, bigger hard drives. Obviously he has not done any price shopping since the newer, bigger drives are cheaper than the old, smaller drives they were using. The truth is (IMHO) they need the extra money to pay their programmers overtime ;-)

 

[JosephF]

They are charging for it because the competition does and it is another way for them to make money.

Additionally, by charging the fee, they were able to lower the upfront cost of the unit, allowing more people to get DVR units.

Personally, I would have been fine with this, had they also given an option of paying for the receiver upfront without having a monthly DVR fee.

 

[DarrellP]

Agreed Joseph, I would much rather pay $299 up front than pay $199 + $5 forever.

 

[jsanders]

That does not make any sense, program guide is downloaded by all receivers, they dont charge non dvr receiver for downloading program guide.

My 6000 receiver has a whopping two hour program guide in it, and a good portion of the time I have to switch to the channel that says, "Info Not Available", only to see the channel listing pop up 30 seconds later.

My 921 has a 9 day program guide in it that allows me to record all kinds of stuff with ease.

I have no idea what the 301 does, hopefully better than the 6000.

If we are just subsidizing the lower cost of a box, I would just like to keep my head in the sand thinking that I am paying for the 9 day program guide vs. an intermittent two hour guide......

 

[ken]

They are just out to screw the guys that pay the big bucks for equipment. They have a lot of b---s charging a VOD fee to people that just paid out $1000 for a 921. I'm going to stick with my POS 721 until it dies and then switch to DTV where the equipment is a little better quality.

 

[Mike_H]

Why does DISH charge DVR fee or VOD fee?

Because people will pay it.

 

[dlsnyder]

Because people will pay it.

Because Charlie saw that people would pay it for Tivo. That got him thinking that maybe he was missing out on something. What he failed to realize was that what people paid for with Tivo was a value-added service. The basic standalone Tivo box would function like a glorified VCR without the subscription, much like a Dish DVR without the guide. If the 510 would do something of value that the 501 or 508 would not then I would agree with the fairness of the fee. As it is I agree with Mike_H and add "because he can".

 

[Stargazer]

I also think it is "because he can" fee. If it was to help make up for the reduced price of hardware and larger hard drives (in which hard drives do get larger for the same price over time) then he would not have a reason to charge the DVR fee for those that pay retailer price for the receivers.

 

[Tyralak]

As per me, DVR functionality is not a service provided by DISH or any satellite provider, it is a funtionality of the DVR which you have purchased, then why should DISH charge customer for features of DVR like pause, skip back, skip forward which DVR does it for u, not DISH.

Any comment on this?

Why does Charlie charge the DVR fee? Why does a dog lick his b---s? Because he can.