Yep ! You make any changes to your networks package and you are no longer grandfathered and you will have to pay the full price for each network package; $5.99 each . Another way Dishnetwork is helping it's customers in low package pricing.
This is just like the other wonderful fees that Dish has added in the last couple of years.
1) the wonderful dvr fee for 4.99 - does nothing on the 921/510.Get the same features for FREE on the 721/501/508dvrs.
2) the wonderful phone line connection fee for 4.99- on the 522/322 and soon the 625 dvr - you pay if no land line connected .
3) This ota guide information on the 921- this fee is a trick fee. You have to have your locals for 5.99 from Dish in order to get your guide information for you digital ota local stations that you get for free, over the air. **One note if you have the 811 hd receiver you get your ota guide information for free and it comes from the psip stream broadcast from your local ota stations instead of your Dish locals being mapped to your ota station equivalents.
I am sure there are more to list that I have forgotten ,but the main point is that Dish is now run like a cable . They even are pushing more and more customers to the lease option. For some reason this makes Dish look good on the accounting books. Dish used to provide the low cost option in price and giving people something for their money. Those days are gone. They still provide the lowest ADVERTISED price. What they don't tell you is that you will be paying all these additional NON ADVERTISED fees. Oh they tell you in small print at the bottom of their advertisements. But most people don't read the small print and get screwed . They find out when the first bill comes. You can even pay more with Dish and the non advertised fees than Directv and the same equivalent package and dvr receivers.
But Dish must be doing something right according to Wallstreet investors. They are still selling for 33.00 a share and have actually made some profit in the last couple of years. While Directv sells for 16.00 a share and have NEVER made any money.
The difference is Directv is actually trying to provide something for your money now. They have pushed into Digital hd locals . You can even get the distant hd signal in the networked owned station areas like Dallas , New York, La, etc.
Directv also does something right when it comes to the dvr fee; one fee per account for 4.98. I look for the new dvr coming out to be dvr free. IN fact the new whole house media server coming out this year , will be a dvr and you can use it on all your tvs in your house and it is spoused to have like 4 sat tuners and 2 ota tuners. I don't know the specifics about price or any other fees but the point is Directv seems to be cutting fees and adding value and new hd channels while Dish is adding fees and adding nothing except fees and price increases for the same old programming. Directv doesn't even charge you a 5.00-10.00 ( regular- adult programming)downgrade fee like Dish does when you drop programming.
Don't get me wrong I loved Dishnetwork at one time and I am still with them . I hope they will correct some of this but as long as Dishnetwork is in the hands of the cable like bean counters I don't look for things to change . I see more and more people will be leaving Dish for the competition at the rate things are going. :shocked
