In response to zippyfrog's post above:
I think that we have not seen the endgame of Dish's price strategy when it comes to the RSN disputes. Remember, Dish is still making a pretense of trying to bring the RSN's back, by leaving the channels in the guide, and by continuing to update the dishpromise page. I think that when it is finally clear that the RSN's are never coming back, we will see a price drop at that point. This would be similar to what Dish did with HBO and Cinemax earlier this year, and the reverse of what Dish did about Univision. Remember, with the Univision dispute, all of the Latino packages automatically got a $5 discount, which was itemized as a separate line on the bill. Then, when it came time for the annual adjustments to the package prices, that $5 discount was bundled into the new package price. When Univision returned, Dish immediately raised the prices by $5 again. Meanwhile, the regular price of America's Everything Pack went up as scheduled, despite the loss of HBO and Cinemax. Subscribers to AEP continued to get the $25 credit as a separate line item. Then, when it was clear that HBO and Cinemax would not be returning, the regular price of AEP was finally adjusted. So, I think we are seeing a similar strategy here (only without the automatic bill credit, unless you called to specifically ask for a discount due to the dispute) and Dish is hedging their bet to avoid a repeat of the mistake they made with the Univision dispute. I am guessing there was a lot of outrage (especially from subscribers who did not care about Univision) about the immediate price increase when the channels returned, especially so soon after officially lowering the regular price of the packages. So, as long as there is still a chance that the RSN's could return, Dish is not ready to make that necessary package price adjustment, yet.
Also, it is interesting to note that, on the dishpromise page, Dish still has the same standard boilerplate language about the Fox Sports Nets and NBC Sports Chicago. However, for Altitude, Dish actually seems to be brainstorming ideas, and attempting to make useful suggestions about how they could possibly reach a fair deal. So, it seems that, at least for that market, Dish is still interested in bringing the RSN back. I am guessing Dish still has a long-term deal with AT&T Sports Rocky Mountain. So, as long as Dish is still stuck serving that region with one RSN, they might as well try to offer a complete package there. (Obviously, that same logic does not hold true for the Boston sports market, though.)
As far as the Locals contributing to the price increase, it is possible that many of the local broadcasters have the same deal that the RSN's were requesting: that every subscriber in their region has to pay for the channels, whether we receive them or not. Therefore, however the price is broken out on the bill is completely arbitrary, as it makes no actual difference to the amount we are actually paying to the local broadcasters. I think that it is completely insane that Welcome Pack subscribers (those who actually have the option to drop the locals, anyway) only save $3 per month by dropping them. And the reason for that only being a $3 price difference is entirely due to an arbitrary Dish fee of $9 per month for the primary receiver, that does not apply to subscribers with the locals bundled in, but does apply as soon as the locals are dropped.
As far as any of these deals that require every subscriber to pay for the channels, whether we receive them or not, I think the solution is clear: Dish should actually deliver those channels to every subscriber, since it would make no difference in how much it costs Dish to carry them, or to how much we are paying for our package. Instead, Dish gives us the illusion of choice, and the illusion of savings, when the total bill would still be the same either way.
In response to navychop:
You could try the really cheap basic option I described before: International Basic + Portuguese RTPI (the lowest-priced qualifying international package)
That would only cost a total of $24.99 per month (plus your DVR fees) and it would still give you access to all of those TB's of DVR content on your external hard drives. There is also the option of doing a Dish Pause for only $5 per month for up to (I think) six months at a time. If I remember correctly, though, Dish Pause does not give you access to the external hard drive content. So, you would have to be careful about managing your content, and transfer anything that you want to watch anytime soon to the internal hard drives, before starting the Dish Pause.
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