DISH Guarantees $250 Savings to Satellite Pay-TV Customers Who Switch

[lparsons21]

One of Mediacom's deals around here is $140/month plus about $7 access fees for locals and sports.

That includes :
a TIVO box made for them
a slew of channels which includes most everything
all the premiums
50/5 internet
IP phone service

So bundling at literally top level for TV and one step down from fastest internet is a pretty good deal it seems. Of course it depends on what full retail is after that 1st year, and on that they stay pretty mum.

 

[david_jr]

Used to be satellite was a no brainer. Factor in your Internet and telephone and is no longer a great deal

I guess that depends on where you hang your hat. Here your choice is Dish, Direct, OTA or books. I think books is the best option, but the fam doesn't agree of course. As one of my kid's T-shirt says "TV is gooder than books!"

 

[ChadT41]

I guess that depends on where you hang your hat. Here your choice is Dish, Direct, OTA or books. I think books is the best option, but the fam doesn't agree of course. As one of my kid's T-shirt says "TV is gooder than books!"

That's when you throw the book at them... Pun intended.

 

[Bronxiniowa]

How do your customers like the Mediacom TIVO unit?

LParsons21 I can't speak for Claude, but in Des Moines Mediacom uses the six-tuner Pace MG1 with TiVo firmware. I have had it for about a month and a half, and it strikes me as reliable, easy to operate, versatile in its recording and season pass options, and on the whole, I haven't found anything about it I don't like. It records anything on the EPG, including all my local sub-channels.

 

[lparsons21]

LParsons21 I can't speak for Claude, but in Des Moines Mediacom uses the six-tuner Pace MG1 with TiVo firmware. I have had it for about a month and a half, and it strikes me as reliable, easy to operate, versatile in its recording and season pass options, and on the whole, I haven't found anything about it I don't like. It records anything on the EPG, including all my local sub-channels.

Thanks for the feedback. The Mediacom website still shows the 4 tuner version and this location tends to be far down on the old upgrade list, I wonder whether they are now using the 6-tuner version or not around here.

How's the HD and SD PQ? And are most of the VOD in HD now? And have they given you any clue how much it will cost after the promo period?

thanks

 

[Bronxiniowa]

Filmed shows and movies are exceptionally sharp and clear in HD, down to the lines on actors' faces. The SD PQ, even in stretch-o-vision, is superior to what I was getting with DirecTV.

Now I will say I just replaced my main TV, a 7-year-old Pioneer plasma, with a larger Insignia 60hz LED that I got on sale for $380. While the picture is far sharper and brighter than on the Pioneer, on an order of magnitude, I am seeing motion blur on live sports, which I don't recall seeing on the Pioneer -- but that set may not have been sharp enough to disclose all the imperfections.

Bottom line is I'm more impressed with Mediacom's programming and PQ than I thought I would be.

Haven't tried out their VOD yet, but I'll take a sampling and let you know.

They tell me my monthly cost will rise $20 after the first year. We'll see.

 

[Mochuf]

In response to bundling, Satellite is still a better deal if you are not lazy. If you are lazy you can pay a little less and get less with bundling.

With DISH, Voicepulse for phone, and calling Charter every three months to renew my discount for internet I have no doubt I pay less and get more than if you are bundling with one company. I have with DISH better equipment, more reliable service and the programming I want including off of 118 than I would with cable that so far has not disappointed this winter in too many outages, much better VOIP phone service with many more useful features than with any cable company, and still save on Internet as long as I call to renew discount. In fact since Frontier has mounted a campaign to get people to switch internet service, Charter gives me more of a discount then I ever got before.
In addition the real savings in bundling at least with Charter and FIOS (Brighthouse sometimes) is with their lower tiers and not fastest internet. After promotions, get the higher tiers and faster internet and bundling loses much of it's savings compared to not bundling and using Satellite. (Because unbundled is ridiculously high compared to what I pay with DISH, bundling just brings it down from ridiculous)

So do you have Charter's 60mps internet tier? And what is your total cost for internet/phone/tv?

 

[Bruce]

So do you have Charter's 60mps internet tier? And what is your total cost for internet/phone/tv?

It is easy to figure out

Say if he has Dish 250-$84.99
Boxes, say 2 and he has posted before he has a 722, so guessing $12-15
Voice pulse-$14.99-19.99 a month
Broadband,their 60 down promo price is $39.99 a month.

So total anywhere from ( rough numbers)-at least $152 and up.

 

[Tampa8]

Pretty good summation!
DISH with Top250 two DVR's and fees $102
Voice Pulse unlimited statewide calling and 250 minutes long distance $15 You can block any annoying call by name, number, partial number, you can send it to back to itself, to a dead end, etc. If expecting an important call I can have that number or all calls go to other phones in sequence till one of the phones answers.
It even includes the voicemail service YouMail a service again one of the best out there and it easily works with any mobile device.
Charter 60 MBPS $44 (Won't give the $39.99 all the time but will sometimes who knows why)

Total $160.00
Keep in mind that is for the highest TV package, (Not AEP) two, three tuner DVR's (OTA) that are in my opinion better than most Cable has, possibly the best internet phone service there is, and a very fast internet speed. I do have to call Charter to keep that price every three months, sometimes they will go six months as they just did last month.

 

[dvrexpander]

I have Cable Comcast Internet... Blast package because I do a ton of things online. I have Dish TV - mainly for ESPN, movie channels and news. Now if I was within the distance to get OTA for the local market without putting up a 20foot + antenna on my roof I would have likely cut Dish and built some kinda multi media setup to save the money but like me and many others you just can't do it without losing what you enjoy. The issue with prob 90% of the Satellite customers is that its all they can get. Comcast TV service is the only one in the area and it runs but only so far from any main city area. The majority of customers sat co's have are in rural locations and were lucky back in the days with a pair or rabbit ears from analog feeds which are no longer there.

 

[Bruce]

Pretty good summation!
DISH with Top250 two DVR's and fees $102
Voice Pulse unlimited statewide calling and 250 minutes long distance $15 You can block any annoying call by name, number, partial number, you can send it to back to itself, to a dead end, etc. If expecting an important call I can have that number or all calls go to other phones in sequence till one of the phones answers.
It even includes the voicemail service YouMail a service again one of the best out there and it easily works with any mobile device.
Charter 60 MBPS $44 (Won't give the $39.99 all the time but will sometimes who knows why)

Total $160.00
Keep in mind that is for the highest TV package, (Not AEP) two, three tuner DVR's (OTA) that are in my opinion better than most Cable has, possibly the best internet phone service there is, and a very fast internet speed. I do have to call Charter to keep that price every three months, sometimes they will go six months as they just did last month.

Still too much for me, while I could easily afford it, I refuse to bend over and take it from the Cable/Sat. Companies.

I have now gotten my bill down to $82, since now Comcast has Blast Plus TV which is basically the Starter Package with no sports ( I only watch the NFL ).

We get every channel we watched before and want ( not many since we watch mostly online) and a few others that I don't care about, the X1 DVR and the HD DTA box we also get the Extreme 105 speed at no extra charge because I agreed to a contract which I am ok with because that means that my prices stay at $82 for 2 years.

Also bought a Modem (6141) for $40, so no more $10 a month modem fees.

For Home Phone, bought a Magic Jack Go which, to my surprise works great, that is $40 a year, so no more having to pay that to Comcast.

 

[Tampa8]

Magic Jack does work very well, I use it on my smartphones.
Just to be clear, I'm not professing the $160 I spend isn't expensive, my only point is a comparable bundle won't be much less, or any less, possibly more. (As an example I included the phone your $82 does not, my phone service has a tremendous asset of blocking calls Magic Jack does not)
Next problem, I can't get the price you quote in Ct. It's $93.95 with all fees in the Town next to me (Comcast Not available in my town) with the same speed internet and NO phone. AND that is only for one TV outlet. Anything more and I mean anything really drives the cost up.

In the end, I can see it still holds true for sure where I live, apples to apples the cost is going to be about the same, likely less using DISH and getting the other components to your own liking. Gives more choices and could be better options. Obviously that requires three separate bills.
Where bundling saves is over the Cable providers own costs if not bundled. But with some competition as we now have even that isn't exactly true for internet, I'm only $5 over the bundled cost.

 

[Claude Greiner]

So do you have Charter's 60mps internet tier? And what is your total cost for internet/phone/tv?

$89.99 for a charter triple play. Plus $6.99 for each box.

I'm a sales agent for them along with Comcast, Time warner cable, cox, mediacom, brighthouse and great land connections.

 

[dishfan82]

If Dish and Directv would simply lock in your rate for 2 years then less customers would leave. My wife's been nagging me to go back to Dish that we'll be switching back in the fall.

 

[dare2be]

If Dish and Directv would simply lock in your rate for 2 years then less customers would leave. My wife's been nagging me to go back to Dish that we'll be switching back in the fall.

Then the promotional discounts they offer would likely be less. I wonder how many fewer subscribers they would attract vs. how many would leave early. I'm sure the bean counters have figured it all out to do what they do now.

 

[ChadT41]

Then the promotional discounts they offer would likely be less. I wonder how many fewer subscribers they would attract vs. how many would leave early. I'm sure the bean counters have figured it all out to do what they do now.

Plus the ones that leave early make up a small difference with the ETF as well.

 

[Claude Greiner]

The problem is the discounts are heavy in year 1.

They would be better off moving $15 in discounts from year 1 to year 2 to lessen the blow

 

[dare2be]

My point still stands. If part of the discounts are moved to year 2, then the initial discounts aren't as impressive, and they attract less new customers. You know many more customers will only look at the immediate savings vs. how many would cancel early out of the 2-year agreement.

 

[ChadT41]

My point still stands. If part of the discounts are moved to year 2, then the initial discounts aren't as impressive, and they attract less new customers. You know many more customers will only look at the immediate savings vs. how many would cancel early out of the 2-year agreement.

I agree. Just to use fake numbers here, let's say 100 people are able to marketed. With the high early savings, might get all 100 of them. Let's say 20% leave, and pay the ETF, so the financial hit would only be as if 10-15% left(as far as monetary losses). Now with the lower introduction rate, out of that 100 people, only 85 people sign up. If they lose a single one of those patrons, then they have now not made as much revenue as if they just did the high intro savings in year 1

 

[Claude Greiner]

My point still stands. If part of the discounts are moved to year 2, then the initial discounts aren't as impressive, and they attract less new customers. You know many more customers will only look at the immediate savings vs. how many would cancel early out of the 2-year agreement.

Your incorrect. The problem is that the smart customers are asking the questions and when they see the real price and the fact they are in a 2 year contract it scares them away.

The only ones the big discounts attract are the wrong customers who don't plan on keeping the service anyways