I checked the prices for a nearby Charter system and the prices on the promotional bundle were discounted by $81/month for the first year. The price would almost double to $167/month in the second year.
Bundles include phone and internet and DVRs and tons of stuff I don't have. I can tell you that the rack rate for just my TV package (phone and internet aren't relevant to this discussion) is $80, no discounts. That's about the same as AT250 ($80 at Dish) plus HBO/MAX/SHO, or "Everything" ($125) minus Starz. I don't know what it costs to add HBO/MAX/SHO to AT250, but I can guess it's probably around $25. So with Charter, after promos expire, I'm getting a package for $80 that would cost me $105 at Dish, plus HD fees, DVR fees, lease fees, mirror fees, probably another $40 or so. That makes my bill about half what it was with Dish, plus I get 60 more HD channels. And if I had Dish in every room like I do now with cable, that's probably another $40 in fees to add those 4 rooms. That's a huge difference. Granted, I provided all my own equipment, probably $600 or so in all for DVR and live tv access in 5 rooms. But my savings made all that back in the first year or so.
My current discount for TV is $20 per month for a year, bringing my $80 package down to $60. I've never had a Dish bill that low, even when I first signed up. I'm not interested in any bundles. I'll keep my $3/month Ooma instead of Charter's $40/month (or $20/month with discounts) phone service. Internet is another subject, but $40/month for 64Mbps isn't bad. That goes up to $50 in a year.
Even if you were to break down the bundle that you found and take out phone and internet, you're probably down to about $100 for the TV part, which is still cheaper than Dish.
Anyway, I've done the math many times, and cable is still the bang for the buck by far in my market.
And, yes, no Disney for years referred to the HD versions of the Disney family of channels (ABC Family, etc.). I don't watch SD anymore, especially uber-compressed satellite feeds.
