Rate Increase for DirecTV

[bleodler]

The nation's two largest satellite television providers plan to raise their rates. EchoStar, owner of the Dish Network, said Wednesday its rates would go up next month. Its rival, DirecTV, said it has similar plans in the works.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/artic...hive/2005/01/06/BUGI7ALN5I1.DTL&type=business

 

[hdtvtechno]

bummer oh no. socks

 

[LOBO2999]

This news SUCKS

 

[Smthkd]

I guess the feel like $90.99 for Premier + 10.99 for HD package plus 2 extra receivers @ 4.99 = $111.96 is too cheap. That's friggin $1343.52 per year! What the ****!!!

 

[h0m3rs1mps0n]

if they do raise the rates, call and downgrade services. the only voice D* is gonna hear is the almighty $

When calling in, simply state 'I would like to downgrade my services because of the price increase.'

I can tell you now though, next to no one will be doing this. Instead people will call and yell at the CSRs as though it was their decision. And that accomplishes nothing at all.

However there will be a little reason for downgrading in D*s system and then the big wigs will see 'hey, you know we lost XXXX amt of revenue per subscriber because of this price increase. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea...'

They may not revert a price change but it may really make them think about doing it again any time in the near future.

The real reason D* prices are going up is because of the following:
NFL Sunday Ticket contract renewal
New satellites and the cost to transmit X amount additional HD channels
New features to the receivers (mosiac channels)
New development of D* receivers
New D* database going live soon (and boy have the had updates out the wazoo in the last month)

If you feel these aren't worth paying 1-3 extra dollars a month for, downgrade service so your voice is heard.

 

[jim tressler]

he we go.. the start of the yearly rate increases....

 

[DobyMax]

You have to pay to play. This isn't new in any way of life. I don't think four rate increases in 10 years is bad at all.

 

[Neutron]

At least Directv's rate increase would be going to something. Look at their roadmap for the rest of the year.

DISH on the other hand has no roadmap so their rate increase doesn't seem valid to me.

 

[Crazy 1]

Well, sounds like $85.97 is not enough for D* from me. Two extra recievers+ Total choice plus w/ locals+ HBO, MAX, Starz. I guess I'll have to do a little down grading. Plus the new interactive features will not even work with my current recievers. What incentives is it for me to pay more to them. Maybe if we would stick togather and vote with our wallets D* would take notice. But I highly dought that anyone will, they will just open up there wallets and say here you are, Take as much as you want.

 

[Chuck W]

D* and E* have to be care with these rate increases. granted they haven't had too many of them, BUT cable is starting to come back down. Cable isn't necessarily coming back down on their cable TV ONLY rates, but a lot of companies are now packaging things like Cable internet/phone service, together with cable TV, and selling it for bulk price price, which, in turn lowers the price of the cable TV service.

I know a couple people who have left Directv and gone with these "everything" for 1 low price deals. To be honest, if it weren't for the lack of HD channels on my particular cable system, I'd be serious about switching too.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, satellite has got to be conscious of the fact that they just can't compare their prices to the cable TV cable only price. They have to compare it to the lower "package" prices(of the cable TV part of them), cable companies are offering.

 

[ShadowEKU]

D* and E* have to be care with these rate increases. granted they haven't had too many of them, BUT cable is starting to come back down. Cable isn't necessarily coming back down on their cable TV ONLY rates, but a lot of companies are now packaging things like Cable internet/phone service, together with cable TV, and selling it for bulk price price, which, in turn lowers the price of the cable TV service.

I know a couple people who have left Directv and gone with these "everything" for 1 low price deals. To be honest, if it weren't for the lack of HD channels on my particular cable system, I'd be serious about switching too.

Anyway, what I'm saying is, satellite has got to be conscious of the fact that they just can't compare their prices to the cable TV cable only price. They have to compare it to the lower "package" prices(of the cable TV part of them), cable companies are offering.

its funny.. my phone company (Bellsouth) now offers DirecTV with a 10 dollar a month discount. Im not on it but it is strange.

 

[MikeD-C05]

At least Directv's rate increase would be going to something. Look at their roadmap for the rest of the year.

DISH on the other hand has no roadmap so their rate increase doesn't seem valid to me.

Who do you think is going to pay for the up coming mpeg4 conversion and the new FCC mandated one dish solution for the top 36 markets ? The customer of course. The broadcasters aren't clamoring for an increase. Notice that Dish didn't blame anyone company like Viacom or Disney for this increase like last year. This is to pay for the new advances in technology and Dishnetwork's cost to operate. Directv has the same cost in their own hd plans ; the spaceway satellites and the mpeg4 conversion as well. Dish always is first in the increase and Directv follows everytime.

Dish is the leader in something ; PRICE INCREASES! Oink, Oink, Charlie!!

 

[mcsj]

Directv has the same cost in their own hd plans ; the spaceway satellites and the mpeg4 conversion as well.

Also, the cost for some other plans... including:

- Invest in bandwidth for a whole bunch of useless shopping channels and no-one-care channels.
- Reducing meaningful channels so there's nothing to watch on the TC tier, makes people think that they need to subscribe to a higher tier.
- Invest in hardware to overcompress the picture quality.
- Invest in public relations to make the world think that they are not as greedy as E* and cable companies.
- Invest in developing receiver boxes that are no better than those manufactured by other companies.

 

[dtanderson]

So, the people in the forum jumping over to D* because E* raised their rates will get hit with increases soon and maybe more than the ones at E*

 

[rad]

While nobody likes to see the price of things go up, it's a fact of life. Now nobody has any idea what the increase would be and on what but everyone's getting upset. IMHO, if it's 2% to 5% I can live with it.

 

[Stargazer]

Dish Network knows that they have a chance once a year to increase the price so if they have to pay some if not all of that increase to program providers thats money that they can have for themselves for extra profits. Sometimes that money is needed for other things such as upgrading technology with receiver swaps, card swaps, satellite launches, etc.

These program increases are higher than 2-5%. If it was 2% we would be looking at a 50 cents to a buck increase in their packages but at 5% it would be a buck to two bucks and thats not quite it either. It is $2-3 so that makes it 8% increase in AT60 ($2 increase), over 8% on AT120 ($3 increase), 7% on AT180 ($3 increase), and seeing how AEP got a $4 increase and no increase was dealt on the Premium Movie Packages then its an even larger increase in a way, depending on how you look at it, or lower if you base it on the total price. Now if this type of increase only happens every two years then it would not be so bad but even if they increased it a buck ever second year then that has to be figured in as well and still makes it higher than inflation.

 

[DIRECTV_Mole]

Notice that Dish didn't blame anyone company like Viacom or Disney for this increase like last year

From SkyReport.com, 3/9/2004: Ergen Defends DISH Move Allowing Viacom Nets to Go Dark

"EchoStar CEO Charles Ergen was not optimistic about DISH Network keeping viacom networks and CBS owned-and-operated channels in certain markets on the satellite TV service, telling viewers of his monthly 'Charlie Chat' Monday the programming was set to come down at midnight last night.

"And late in the evening, EchoStar said it was left with no choice other than to remove viacom's owned-and-operated CBS stations [a laughable premise, since these networks were being illegally offered by DISH; the subject of what at the time was an already ongoing feud between Viacom and DISH]and its nationally distributed cable/satellite channels as of midnight Pacific Time. EchoStar made the announcement about the channels going dark at 12:45 a.m. Eastern Tuesday/10:45 p.m. Mountain Time Monday...

"The 'Charlie Chat' program contained televised graphics criticizing Viacom, suggesting the programmer wanted $200 million in additional fees and $350 million for channels considered as having low viewership, although the graphics didn't offer specifics. Another graphic said 'Viacom refuses to be reasonable.'"

The fact is, ALL multichannel video carriers (not just E* and D*) have seen an increase by about 40-50% in the rates that providers charge for programming, which is more or less constant with the rate of inflation. In the face of this, D* has only had 3 price increases in its 10-year history, a total baseline rate increase of only $7. Compare that to the ANNUAL rate increase averaging between 5-7% by the average cable company

 

[dmcclure]

I'm okay with a modest increase, in a time when inflation is a little over 3% per year and my pay is increasing as well. However, I do think this begs a change in how channels are acquired and packaged -- I, for one, have little use for many of the new channels. . .Discovery 4, 5 and 6. . .History Channel Greatest Films of Hitler. . .and the lifestyles of crackers you can't even begin to care about.

If they offered per-channel subscriptions, they could save the cost of a couple of satellites. . .

Also, they could make their money if their pay-per-view movie selection was not such crap. The greatest non-hits of last year. . .the Drew Barrymore Film Fesitval. . .the teenage-kid-tries-to-get-laid flicks, etc.

My $.02.

Dave

 

[cr0mag]

Bottom line.... Nearly every business has price increases. The real question is are the increases warranted? In the case of another 2-3 dollars a month for D*, I wouldn't complain too much because IMO they would still be providing value. If the increase went to $10 per month, that would be different. They are naturally seeing increases in their cost of doing business and the only way to offset those charges is to raise their rates. If you really, really don't agree with their increases you may be challenged to find an alternative provider whose rates don't increase more frequently and at a higer percentage.

 

[CsrLiz344]

The thing about the D* increase is, if you have recently committed to a year contract, you won't see an increase until your 1 year is up.