I thought I saw it all until I watched an ad for a new show coming up on AMC, Game of Arms.
Price increases in February 2014 (UPDATED!)
- Thread starter lparsons21
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I just don't agree that when your are already hiking your programming prices you should then as a company, double that with more equipment fees and hikes. Common sense tells you that if you already have a problem retaining customers and attracting new subs , you don't double team with increases all at the same time. I don't have any charts that show anything , just years of working in business and I know how customers think. The time for this type of strategy is fast coming to an end . If you read the new thread I started , Joe Clayton the ceo of DISH talks about this and other things about DISH's future and their strategy.
I agree that the market is saturated and also mature. But if you want to differentiate your company from the competition you must do something that people like. For instance Netflix is charging only $7.99 a month for streaming and they now have over 30 million subs. Hbo on the other hand is now charging $19.00 a month and they only have 20 million subs. Guess which company is going to continue to grow and which one is going to keep on offering 1/2 off promos for 6 months ? Netflix is offering at a cheap price something of value and Hbo is offering the same old movies with a few aging original series thrown in for even higher prices. Volume of subs makes up for a lot of profit problems. Or you can continue to fee to death and hike the fees on the remaining subs who stay with your company. IF a sub no longer feels you offer something of value for their money , they will CHURN. This is happening to all sat and cable companies as the younger generation is not subbing to either and the older generation is dieing out daily. DISH used to offer something of value- low price programming- that differentiated them from the competition. Now the programming is cheaper than the competition but only because they added a lot of new fees and hiked the fees that were already there to make up for it. Read the thread I started about Joe Clayton and it talks about this and other things in DISH's future.
I think Dish really needs to come up with some cheaper programming packages to keep people. Right now Dish's strategy has been to come up with great technology that the customer will love. They feel that if the customer has a product they really love, with archived shows as well, they will be a sticky customer. Just look at all the members here that keep paying because we would never give up our setups. While it may not be the best strategy, it is still a strategy to keep customers.
Guilty!
This has worked for a while, but the stickiness is wearing off. If the NFL would offer a RedZone streaming package, that would definitely change things.
Yeah, but which looks better to the average customer...a hike in both programming package and fees, or double the hike in programming package alone? Yeah, it's all just marketing voodoo to keep the prices from looking like they are not skyrocketing as much as they really are, just like the 2-year "freeze" on package rates, and only the bottom half of the customer base (the non-savvy customers) would get fooled by it, but for Dish to prevent profit margins from shrinking, the money has to come from somewhere. Meanwhile, content providers like Disney continue to grow their profit margins year-by-year, now reaching the mid-teens.
I note that the following domain names are still free:
loopingrerunsofmindlessdrivel.biz
loopingrerunsofmindlessdrivel.com
loopingrerunsofmindlessdrivel.info
loopingrerunsofmindlessdrivel.net
loopingrerunsofmindlessdrivel.org
loopingrerunsofmindlessdrivel.us
Perhaps we can embarass or shame some of these channel providers... Nah. They are unashamed, even though they should be.
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Doesn't the higher cost start with the actors getting $300,000 per episode(week) to make a half hour comedy and there are several persons in each comedy making that and more. I wonder what a grip makes. Everyone is so greedy nowadays. Directors, actors, sports people, tv station owners, networks, cable companies. Where does it stop? We are paying for all of these costs.
Viewer demand plays a role. When ESPN et. al know they can get exclusive rights to a league, pre-pay billions for TV contracts to a league, then the league has a financial windfall which raises franchise profits, and then the players unions strike to get their piece of the windfall, raising salaries and salary caps. Vicious cycle.
Up until now it has pretty much been a monopoly. But, now there are starting to be real alternatives, and cord cutters are slowly growing in numbers. Right now none of my nieces and nephews really watch traditional TV. They watch the shows they like online. They are big users of Hulu, Netflix and the channel's web sites to watch shows.
Its starting to show up in cold hard facts now, as total paid tv subscribers across all providers declined in 2013 Q2 and 2013 Q3. I suspect 2013 Q4 will show the same loss of subscribers
Oh, I wouldn't worry about that too much. Looks like OTA doesn't have a bright future.
Unfortunately I think that is true. Since OTA went digital it became a viable alternative for most Americans (note I said most not all since I know a lot cannot receive). Just when it seems like it could be a revival of OTA, the OTA networks want to become cable channels!
But you do agree that to continue on this path will eventually kill the goose that laid the golden egg ,so to speak? Customers will only pay so much for a service and when price is almost as high for Fees to use the great technology as the programming is , you have a problem. My parents will not even hear of getting a hopper if it means paying one penny more a month. Getting them to stay with DISH over the years has been a real hassle. I have to do the bill paying and all the finageling with DISH to get discounts and freebies in order to keep them going. I am sure that many older people in their 70s like my parents, are similar in wanting to keep costs down. I'm in my 50s and I have worked overtime to keep my costs down and it is really getting old trying to counter the increases in both programming and FEEs that seem to come now every year with DISH.
The only thing I can figure is that the content providers have decided that the current sat/cable model is not going to be around much longer and they are tying to milk it for all they can, before they eventually cause the total destruction of the entire industry model. Or worse the government actually steps in and demands ala cart with out Forced bundling -which would be their worst nightmare. They have to see the writing on the wall with the demographics between younger generations never taking pay tv and the elder generation is dieing out. I have noticed that ABC is trying to force digital rights now with DISH . They seem to be desperately trying to hold on to the old model they've always known, but also their contract renewal extortion actions are forcing the end of that very model.
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Yes, I agree. There will be a drastic change, but only after the current model comes crumbling down. Before evolution comes revolution. I welcome it. We all just need to ride out the storm the best we can for now. I envision a Sat-delivered streaming/ondemand system where ala carte, on demand and streaming packages are in abundance and are delivered via sat with no data caps in place of traditional channels. Circumvent the traditional cable-based ISPs and deliver it over the existing satellite infrastructure. Dish and Direct will survive, and the consumer will get more granular choice in their content in the long run.
I currently pay 126.00 per month for Dish Everything pack. No HD. 322 dual tuner SD receiver.
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