Directv Going To Lease Only On 3/1/06

[gbubar]

Ok, I'm stupid. Currently I have a regular Tivo, a H20 & 3 basic receivers. So instead of saying "mirroring fee" they will now show as "lease fee" for the same exact amounts that I am paying now. (Actually that sucks as I paid for all of them). Also the biggee for me. I pay for the repair Insurance. Since they will be "ostensibly" leased on 1 March 2006, will that go away? (I's about 7 bucks per month).
Now in my personnel opinion. This along with no more freaking HD content (I could care less about the so-called lite issue) this year is just about the last damn straw. Cable, here in Stockbridge, is Charter & even though I know they are about to go under any day now (or should with 20 Billion in debtr) I am so close to pulling that trigger
I was on Dish for 3 years & I 'm fed up with them too.
I can't believe I'm about to say this
Help me Ver-ri-zon-1 You're my only hope! (yes I know that BS will never let that happen, but I can have my Star Wars fantasy any way I want )

I am in the same position as lovswr. I have 2 HD DTivo's and 2 SD DTivo's and pay the $7.99 for the replacement insurance. If one of my receivers goes down after March 1st and DTV sends me a replacement I assume I will STILL be the owner of the new receiver. If not, then there is no reason to pay the $7.99 fee each month. I have been with DTV since April 2001 and have been very happy; but, I will look at all my options once my contract period has expired.

 

[HCI]

I think if they want to do a price drop they should have packages without all of the HSN bullS$it. Maybe like something like the al-carte that was mentioned a while back.

 

[fkostyn]

Thats the way I'm reading it also - a whole load a crock of sh$$. If recievers are only leased, I think D* is going to see its churn rate increase, not decrease.

If you pay $300 for a HDDVR and D* STILL owns it - that sucks. AND your still in a committment.

I would like to see a lease option, not a lease only with D* - even E* have a purchase option.

With the new cablecard HD tuners comming out for the PC, I am really tempted to go to a media center setup. The biggest thing I've hated about my cable CO's HD - is the interface (the !@# scientific atlanta stuff)

The other thing, if an owned reciever is replaced by D* after march 1st, and they only want to lease it from there - they dam well better give me FULL purchase credit for it.

 

[dragon002]

I am in the same position as lovswr. I have 2 HD DTivo's and 2 SD DTivo's and pay the $7.99 for the replacement insurance. If one of my receivers goes down after March 1st and DTV sends me a replacement I assume I will STILL be the owner of the new receiver. If not, then there is no reason to pay the $7.99 fee each month. I have been with DTV since April 2001 and have been very happy; but, I will look at all my options once my contract period has expired.

you will still own the IRD

 

[CPanther95]

That would be an invitation for a lawsuit.

Why?

It's a moot point since they will be continuing to sell receivers, but to demand the return of an owned box and replacing it with a receiver that is not owned is not an equitable arrangement.

I don't see this deal as being bad at all. I'll continue to own my receivers and pay the mirror fee - and if the transition to lease is ever attractive enough, I can jump to leasing. As long as the lease fee remains comparable to the mirror fee, that's fine.

 

[lou_do]

The biggest drop will be for total choice premier customers with local channels. They know they must redo their pricing to compete with cable packages. I've also got hints that HD customers might just get the HD Package at no extra cost.

D* needs to take a good look at their pricing structure. That has been a big problem in this area, they have become so much more expensive than cable.
If you take D* TOTAL CHOICE PREMIER package with HD programing it cost you $104.98 a month.
BHN, our local cable company, charges $86.44 for basically the same thing.
Plus BHN has 47 premium movie channels vs D* having 31.
Plus BHN offers 17 local HD and 10 national HD networks vs D* having 4 HD locals (If you are in an available market) and 8 HD nationals.
With BHN there is no commitment, and the only equipment charge is if you rent or lease a DVR.

 

[charper1]

they have become so much more expensive than cable.
If you take D* TOTAL CHOICE PREMIER package with HD programing it cost you $104.98 a month. BHN, our local cable company, charges $86.44 for basically the same thing.

I like the descriptive word BASICALLY

 

[cybertrip]

I'm curious if D* will still be hammering contracts on customers. I'm considering switching to either E* or D*. However I haven't made the switch yet because my cable comes extremely low in price. Mediacom employee benefits

If I can get D* with no contract then I may try both E* and D* out.

 

[dragon002]

and if BHN means BRIGHTHOUSE, they are a regional cableco, nothing more, and a small one at that.
here in w. pa , we have small ARMSTRONG enclaves, GREAT cx service, really cheap monthly bills, and great internet.
when you go national, that is when the problems start.

 

[HCI]

Cybertrip,

There will always be a contract more than likely. They have to pay for the equipment and to have it installed somehow.

 

[lou_do]

I like the descriptive word BASICALLY

Basically meaning there may be a few different networks on one that the other doesn't have. I didn't count the beans.

 

[lou_do]

and if BHN means BRIGHTHOUSE, they ar a regional cableco, nothing more, and a small one at that.

here in w. pa , we have small ARMSTRONG enclaves, GREAT cx service, really cheap monthly bills, and great internet.

when you go national, that is when the problems start.

Correct, it is Brighthouse.

My point, it is like saying if the little Mom & Pop store on the corner can sell it for $86.00, why does the big volume box store have to sell it for $104.00?

 

[Jimbo]

A few pages back, in the report about all this, it was stated that your mirroring fee would become your leasing fee, Does that mean I will be leasing my 2 H10's for $5.00 p/m, st one free, right ?

What happens if I want to get 2 HR-20's when they come out, and turn off the H-10's.
I was hoping to buy the 2 HR -20s , I hate addl monthly bills.

I don't see the HR-20's coming out before March 28th.

No word on what the lease charges will be, I can't believe I can rent a NEW HR-20 for 5 dollars a month.

If they wanted to do things right, the lease would END when you have reached the value of the receiver.

Dropping prices a bit would be a nice change of pace.

Dropping the 10.99 HD fee would make a lot of people happy, and maybe get more people into HD.

Of course, D* would never tell the public this info, they will probably drop it on everyones lap at the end of March.

Jimbo

 

[raymo721]

How would this effect a retailer like Weakness who upgrades Tivo's with the larger hard drives? Would they not be able to get the new D* dvrs to upgrade?--Ray

 

[Stargazer]

I wonder how affordable this wi-max broadband service will be and if it will be available everywhere or if it will have limited areas.

 

[mjitkop]

How would this effect a retailer like Weakness who upgrades Tivo's with the larger hard drives? Would they not be able to get the new D* dvrs to upgrade?--Ray

I don't know about WeaKnees specifically but I was wondering the same thing for customers in general.
It seems to me that if you don't own the hardware anymore, you won't be allowed to modify it (upgrade to a bigger hard drive). What if you do modify it and comes one day they tell you you must give your receiver back for another model? If they see that you modified it, are you gonna get in trouble financially? Probably, I would say.

 

[Digital Dude]

Scott - broadband via satellite or DSL?

I have wireless broadband. It is a small 11"x8"x3" antenna that mounts on top of your house. It works like microwave transmissions. The wireless is on Cell towers and works within 4 miles of the towers. Our price is $29 a month for 500kps down/256kps upload. My ISP just signed a contract with Direc to sell direc, just add VOIP.

This from Celerity website

How It Works
Celerity Networks provides high speed Internet service via a state-of-the-art wireless broadband system. Unlike DSL or cable modem we do not depend on the availability of legacy telephone or cable TV infrastructure. Unlike satellite our performance does not suffer from the delay associated with a 23,000-mile path up and down.

A small 3” x 11” antenna mounted on the customer’s roof connects directly to one of our base stations located within a distance of 2-3 miles. The base stations are in turn connected to a high-speed ethernet-over-fiber connection to the Internet. The air-link between the customer and the base station is a proprietary system that uses authentication and encryption to protect against rogue users and attackers.

The customer antenna connects to a broadband router via a standard CAT 5 ethernet cable. A surge suppressor and grounding is included to protect the customer’s equipment from lightning or static discharges. An AC adapter powers the antenna over the CAT 5 cable.

The router acts as a firewall to protect the customer’s home network from Internet attackers and is an administrative demarcation point that allows customers to build their home network independently. Celerity Networks believes that home networking is an area of tremendous innovation that we wish to support. Customers do not pay extra for multiple computers and are free to use the Internet however they like, subject only to their own restrictions.

Pics attached..



from... http://www.celeritynetworks.com/howworks.htm

 

[Tom B]

This news is, of course, from the same company that told retailers it would begin offering significantly viewed channels on 11/9/05.

 

[Proc]

It wouldn't bother me if D* goes to a lease system. I don't see any advantage (in my case anyway) of owning the equipment. I bought an H20 last night and now have an H10 and D10 that I "own" sitting back in the boxes they came in collecting dust. I would assume that if you lease, D* would be responsible for fixing and/or replacing any defective receivers.

They may drop the price of the Total Choice Plus for those with locals? And possible drop the HD package price too? Sounds good to me.

 

[hancox]

The biggest drop will be for total choice premier customers with local channels. They know they must redo their pricing to compete with cable packages. I've also got hints that HD customers might just get the HD Package at no extra cost.

I'm selfish, but I hope they only do this for TCPr. Why? As someone with only one premium pack (sports) - it's the only way I could ever sell the Mrs on TCPr!