I don’t mind Dish Network making a profit, but not a killing.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Absolute was the best deal on television on the planet and has been for years. DISH has been losing money on the package for about 2 years now but kept it as it was hopfull it could negotatiate new contracts for the programming, but unfortunately the programmers did not want to be in the package and wanted all of their channels (SD and HD) to be included.

I believe DISH actually pulled a fast one by offering an all HD package and didn't expect the whiplash from the programmers over the package who were very upset.

Instead of being upset about it be happy as you had the best package available at the best rate anywhere for years. Many of us were jellous of you guys who were able to get this amazing deal. You are not going to find a package like that at a price like that anywhere and thats why it is sad to see it go.

 

[Kb Cool]

Retailers foot the bill & take all the risk for him, E* isn't out anything. That is another & very sore subject for me.........

Regardless, who takes the risk! Charlie or the Retailers! The equipment cost are made up for in "higher programming cost" in the end. No?

 

[whatchel1]

Amazing that the forum Dishnet CSR's stay out of threads like this and the "losing absolute" one, Why?

Death by tongue lashing or type attacks.

 

[Zero327]

Wow, you just really don't know, do you?
It's obvious my previous comment has upset you, for that I am sorry. I am not going to try & decipher this rant nor will I respond to further ones.

*shrug* I "know" quite a bit. Whatever floats your boat. I'm not upset, but if you're going to complain, you should really back it up.

Regardless, who takes the risk! Charlie or the Retailers! The equipment cost are made up for in "higher programming cost" in the end. No?

In some fashion yeah. It still takes them awhile to recoup acquisition costs before a sub can be considered as pure profit margin.

 

[Hall]

Many of us were jellous of you guys who were able to get this amazing deal.

Come on, Scott, there's no "able to get this amazing deal". It was an available package from Dish, just like the AT packages or America or 'metal' packages. There was no secret code needed or special number to call or only available to special customers....

 

[Tyralak]

Wow, you just really don't know, do you?
It's obvious my previous comment has upset you, for that I am sorry. I am not going to try & decipher this rant nor will I respond to further ones.

Yeah, I wouldn't bother trying either. It's a waste of time.

 

[yaz96]

Absolute was the best deal on television on the planet and has been for years. DISH has been losing money on the package for about 2 years now but kept it as it was hopfull it could negotatiate new contracts for the programming, but unfortunately the programmers did not want to be in the package and wanted all of their channels (SD and HD) to be included.

I believe DISH actually pulled a fast one by offering an all HD package and didn't expect the whiplash from the programmers over the package who were very upset.

Instead of being upset about it be happy as you had the best package available at the best rate anywhere for years. Many of us were jellous of you guys who were able to get this amazing deal. You are not going to find a package like that at a price like that anywhere and thats why it is sad to see it go.

Yeah Scott, you had the same chance as us and every other Dish subscriber to get this. Most did not want to take the risk and "lose" all those SD channels they felt were so important back then.....and it really wasn't such an "amazing deal" 3 years ago. I just didn't watch or want SD channels, so why pay for them? I lost channels I normally watched, but it was worth the trade off, and still is today.

And can you explain why this package must die, yet ALL HD Dish America continues to live........

 

[Dah-Henny]

Obviously, SOME channel owners have no problem being sold in an all HD pac, because DA is still being offered. However, the big problem for E*, IMHO, is the Platinum pac being included in HDA. Every time a new channel was added to Plat, the HDA's automatically received it, while the DA's didn't get anything, which really pissed off a lot of subs. Think about it; DA Gold subs are paying $55, and getting less channels than we HDA's are getting for $29. Considering that DA Gold is $55, HDA "should", to be fair, be priced at $65. I guess cancelling HDA, in Charlie's mind, was the only equitable way to deal with his all HD pacs.

I think Charlie had a great idea offering HD only pacs, but some of the content owners, FoxNews for example, refused to play nice. Charlie himself said, in the last chat, that he was a proponent of al la cart.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

And can you explain why this package must die, yet ALL HD Dish America continues to live........

Because they are making money with those packages.

 

[yaz96]

Because they are making money with those packages.

So why not just raise the price? Most of us would be OK with a reasonable increase.

I'm not arguing with you, since you obviously don't make those decisions, but I do wonder why this is happening.


And you said that programmers wanted their HD AND SD channels in the package, So how does Dish America exist, if that's the case?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

And you said that programmers wanted their HD AND SD channels in the package, So how does Dish America exist, if that's the case?

DISH America contains some SD channels from the programmers who require it.

 

[yaz96]

DISH America contains some SD channels from the programmers who require it.

I did not realize that there were SD channels in Dish America.

 

[mike123abc]

It is ironic that the thing that killed this package was not raising rates annually. So, when it came down to it and the package should cost as much as DA Gold + Plat, Dish finally gives in and kills it. This leads to huge sticker shock when people see their price double. If Dish had raised the package price of Absolute $5 every year, there would not be such sticker shock and those so price sensitive would have gradually left as the price went up. I guess the lesson learned by Dish is to raise prices and raise them often, it desensitizes people to the price inflation and they grumble at a slow steady pace rather than fomenting a riot.

 

[yaz96]

It is ironic that the thing that killed this package was not raising rates annually. So, when it came down to it and the package should cost as much as DA Gold + Plat, Dish finally gives in and kills it. This leads to huge sticker shock when people see their price double. If Dish had raised the package price of Absolute $5 every year, there would not be such sticker shock and those so price sensitive would have gradually left as the price went up. I guess the lesson learned by Dish is to raise prices and raise them often, it desensitizes people to the price inflation and they grumble at a slow steady pace rather than fomenting a riot.

That's not the main thing - there is no equivalent to HD Ab.

 

[mike123abc]

That's not the main thing - there is no equivalent to HD Ab.

Well you can get every channel in HD Absolute in AT250+Plat, and more. You can lock out all the SD channels for the look and feel of HD Absolute.

What there is no equivalent for is the screaming bargain it turned into. It was not the best bargain when the package started (people tend to forget Dish was slow adding HD), but it became a great deal by the end and so many channels were added.

 

[Roxor]

Rick Sanchez on CNN spoke his mind (and the truth) and look where it got him.

 

[Hall]

Absolute was a great deal from the start... and got better all the time! New HD channel added by Dish and the question was always "will absoluters get it?" and most of the time it was "yes". Not always, but usually.

 

[hvcomputech]

I still don't have much to complain about yet. I'm saving about $7.00 over D*, My local cable company wants $83.48 for digital package. With E* you get the channels in every room for cable to do that I'd pay extra $26.85 ($8.95 x3), dvr is $10.95 and $4.00 for HD. Before taxes and Franchise fees we're talking around $125.28 (talk about nickel and dimming ya) They didn't raise their rates yet this year yet. Saving around $40.29 (that doesn't include the new E* rates or taxes)

In NY:

TWC monopoly
cable "digital package" $79.95
Digital cable box: $14:25/month
HD cable box: $14:25/month
HD DVR Box and service: $27.20/month
DVR Box and service: $12.95
Plus costs for remotes, local TWC franchise fees and taxes.

So one household with 4 TVs and standard DVR:
cable "digital package" $79.95
Digital cable box: $14:25 *2= $28.50
DVR Box and service: $12.95
HD cable box: $14.25
=$135.00 plus costs for remotes, local TWC franchise fees and taxes.

Dish =$75.00 for top 120
$90.00 for top 200