Dish America still receives a bit of publicity during the semi-annual Dish letters on prices increases. Question: Will retention (loyalty) still sell me this package? These CSR's say "No, no way." It's now up to $68 (add $12 for locals, $80). What channels are in Dish America nowadays? I can't find any list except one more than ten years old. And with the $15.00 HD receiver fee plus $7.00 per Joey, it's quite expensive even for this once cheap pack. If I go with the Local Only option (if it even really exists), that one would be, I think, $25.00 + $15.00 HD fee and $7.00 per Joey. Am I correct on all of this? Getting something relatively inexpensive with locals only might be possible, but it seems nothing is inexpensive for locals + CNBC + ESPN. Where can I find the spot beam maps for Dish? Thanks for any help with these issues..
Dish America pack
- Thread starter TVFanatic2022
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It's real. It may not be available to everyone, but it does exist:
Here is the most current site I could find: James Long .name
Keep in mind that Dish does occasionally shuffle local channels from one spot beam to a different beam that covers the same market, but may reach completely different out-of-market areas, if that is what you are asking. James's site has not been updated since late April / early May, and might not get updated again any time soon in the foreseeable future.
Sorry I could not be any help about the Dish America package. It has been too long since I subscribed to that one, so too many channels may have changed package placement since then.
Have you looked at the Flex Pack, plus the add on packages make it the best offer from Dish in my opinion.
I thought about recommending that. However, for the listed desired channels...
...that would be $52.99 per month for Flex Pack by itself before you get any of those channels. Locals cost an extra $12 per month. CNBC is in News Pack, which is another $10 per month. Finally, ESPN requires National Action Pack for yet another $12 per month. $52.99 + $12 + $10 + $12 = $86.99 per month, which is above the desired price listed in the OP:
So, I can certainly understand the desire to get Dish America. The huge $52.99 chunk, before you even get the first channel you actually want, is an especially tough pill to swallow.
Here is the link to more information about Flex Pack, if you are interested though:
DISH | Current Customer Support
my.dish.com
Add-on package details are available here:
MyDISH
Dish America is currently listed as $67.99 (with locals, another $12) and that combo has ESPN and CNBC which is $79.99. That's slightly better than Flex with the three packages of News Pack, National Action Pack and Locals Pack. Adding on the DVR fee of $15 and Joey (3 of them) fees of $21.00 makes a hefty bill whichever way I go. The Locals Only Pack looks better and better, but I wonder, does the Locals Only Pack have the DVR fee fee of $15 and Joey $21.00 fees? So, Locals Only Pack could still be $61.00 plus taxes.
That is correct. I don't have those fees because I only use a single Wally receiver with an external hard drive attached for DVR. There are no monthly fees, but the trade-off is that I can only watch one channel at a time. The Wally has two tuners, so I can record two channels at the same time, or watch one channel while another one records in the background. If I add the dual-tuner USB OTA adapter, that would allow me to record up to four channels at the same time (two satellite and two OTA) still for no monthly fee.
Additional Wally receivers would be $7 per month (the same price as the Joeys) but then you would lose the whole-home integration by switching to Wally instead of Joey. That is one option to consider in order to save money though, since you would at least eliminate the monthly DVR fee. Wally is not as robust as a Hopper, but it still uses the same familiar Hopper interface. Another trade-off would be that your existing Hopper recordings would not work with a Wally, so you would have to start all over again from scratch, if you went that route.
Is the CNBC stuff available via Peacock? I'd say anything is too high a premium to pay cable or sat for news or business news stations, especially if a streaming option is a possibility. Then the question is, do you need ESPN all the time? Can you pick and choose because you can add and remove the add-on?
Since Locals Only is still being considered as one of the possible options, I thought I would clarify that any add-ons are a moot point with that package. Locals Only is literally Locals Only (plus any free channels that Dish decides to throw in) with no add-ons allowed. When I came back to Dish, there actually were a few add-on options that were not grayed out on mydish. HBO Max was one of those options, and I think there was a half-price offer for Outdoor Pack at the time, but that was about it. Now when I check, I am not allowed to make any changes through mydish at all. So, this policy may vary from time to time, but you definitely don't have access to the full range of add-ons like you would with Flex Pack. This is similar to how most of those Flex Pack add-ons are not available to Welcome Pack or Smart Pack subscribers either.
When I log in to my account, which is the Welcome Pack, I get the option to add Flex Pack add-on packs to my account online, but their is nothing in those packs that I want for the asking price. All the packs are included, even Latinos, Sirius music, and premiums.
Dish must be getting desperate to add more money to their coffers.
Dish must be getting desperate to add more money to their coffers.
Wow, that surprises me! You even have the option of adding National Action Pack, Regional Action Pack, and Multi-Sport? I never expected Dish to make any of those sports packages available with such a small base package. Maybe since Dish no longer carries the RSN's, there are fewer restrictions being placed on Dish by the content owners. If only I could add more packs to my Locals Only subscription, I would be quite the happy camper.
It is possible that these add-ons are part of the reason for the skyrocketing price of even the smallest base packages. In other words, Dish's contracts to make those channels available in each add-on may require that the subscriber have a base package that costs a certain amount per month, without specifying any particular eligible packages. With the last price increase, Welcome Pack may now cost enough to qualify for more add-ons. Considering that the price of Locals Only has been rising even faster than that, I wonder how long it will be before Locals Only also qualifies for add-ons.
Wasn't there a pick-20 package for $20 early on? I would so jump at that!
How long have they been doing that? When NBC turned off NBCSN, I swapped to Flex as Welcome Pack price increase was making it not remotely a good deal anymore. Especially when I got the antenna set back up in the attic and I could kick the locals via Sat to the curb (Thanks Charles!)
I have my TiVo for locals, but my Welcome pack comes with locals that were grandfathered in. I do not know when they started offering packs for the Welcome, but I noticed about a month ago that they were there. They redid their site, so when you go to my programing it shows you your total cost breakdown and under Add on Packages it states:
Explore specialty packages and customize your experience with the perfect add-ons.
But, I see no special 6 month discount offers any longer.
Maybe you need to log in and check your offers under my programing.
Explore specialty packages and customize your experience with the perfect add-ons.
But, I see no special 6 month discount offers any longer.
Maybe you need to log in and check your offers under my programing.
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So, I did that, and I see all of those add-on options. However, in my account, every package has a little box at the bottom saying "You cannot make programming changes."
The only package without that box is MLB Extra Innings, so it looks like I may be allowed to add that if I wanted it.
I also love how it says that I already have the Locals Pack for $12, but it does not say what the other $13 is for.
Locals Pack is not itemized as $12 on my bill. The entire package is listed as $25, as you can see in the picture I posted in post number 2 above.
This same change also took away my ability to turn my purchased receivers On and Off through My Equipment. I am not happy about that.
They're there, at least for me. You have to go all the way down to the Offers section, below the Add-On Packages section.
Like I said before, all I get is a 50% discount offer on Outdoor Pack, and now the site will not let me even add that.
My Dish account says "ADD" where yours says "You cannot make changes", but with no discounts that I see.
The original was 10 channels for $15 but that is when Dish had only around 45 cable channels (not including movie stations)
edit: I posted new info in post #21. It was cheaper than that.
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They still have only 10 channels, the remainder are junk, but they charge a lot more than $15.
I actually watch less than 10 now, plus streaming, but not thru Dish. HGTV, History, Hallmark, HMM, CMT, and AXS and streaming thru Prime. And a few FREE OTA network shows with TiVo.
