Free ota antenna email from dish
- Thread starter fishman316
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As has been mentioned earlier, it's most likely related to an expected carriage dispute.
Or, maybe there are markets where, when they add up all the carriage fees, they only break even or lose money each month. In that scenario, fewer local channel subs would actually improve the bottom line. Plus, they would have the satisfaction of sticking it to the broadcasters. 
What leverage does this possibly get them?
Broadcaster: "We want $2/month/subscriber."*
Dish: "We don't have as many subscribers."
Broadcaster: "We want $2/month/subscriber."
There's no leverage. I think PP is correct that Dish either currently or will pays more for the locals than $10/month. By cutting out those who can receive OTA broadcasts, the number of subscribers they need to pay for drops. Therefore their losses drop.
*NOTE: Cost of $2/month/subscriber is made up based on my guess that current fees are around $1/month.
Dish can show the station the numbers and say, "look, customers in your market are DROPPING your channel but remaining Dish subscribers. You're not worth what you're asking" and of course not mention that they are still receiving the channel(s) by antenna.
The leverage comes when a customer calls to cancel service because of a missing local channel, and is instead given a free outside antenna, which gives them a much better picture, plus all of the various sub-channels.
That's leverage between Dish and their customer. comfortably_numb says this gives Dish leverage when negotiating with broadcasters. If anything, this would reduce the number of Dish subscribers to local channels. So instead of telling the broadcaster "We can bring you 50K homes.", maybe it's now 40K. How does that give Dish leverage?
Are you talking about watching via your Dish receiver? Is it a hopper by any chance? I've seen numerous posts about people having issues with hopper and OTA.
That being said, you can have TOO much signal going into a tuner (I'm talking generically, not specifically to Dish). I know that's counter intuitive, but still true.
I have the H3 and I’ve never had OTA issues with my dual tuner dongle
I don't believe I said it's a problem for everyone. But there have been reports of OTA issues.
Start here:
OTA recordings thru Hopper/Joey
I’m not denying that. I’m making the point that I, me personally, have not had issues
I believe the broadcasters try for $X per subscriber in the area. For every potential viewer that Dish has in the area, not how many actually have locals or watch locals via Dish.
Assuming you're right, why would Dish allow subscribers to drop locals? I would assume Dish only has to pay broadcasters for those subscribed to the locals. Otherwise, by allowing people to drop locals, Dish would lose money even faster.
From what I have ascertained, the problem is mostly with the old single tuner dongles, like I have...and with OTA problems.
I would assume this to be the case as well.
A factory reset only affects user settings. It will not replace the current software that is the cause of the problem.
If anyone knows whether the Cleveland, Ohio market is eligible, please post. Thank you.
