Retailer Chat Recap 12/12/13

[dvrexpander]

I am still wondering why Dish still offers the SD channels! All new receivers convert DOWN to SD if necessary. I know there are a ton of people with SD only receivers, but doing like cable TV has been doing, phasing out analog channels on their lifeline tiers, is something Dish should do.

Essentially start with the less popular channels telling people if they want to keep the channels, they can. They just have to call to upgrade their receivers for "free" (with contract extensions). Eventually (over a couple/three year period) they can have their entire customer base with MPEG4 HD receivers (which can down-convert to old analog NTSC TVs) an no need to carry both HD and SD versions of channels!

Even if many call to upgrade receivers sometimes its pointless as they can't get HD anyway due to LOS issues - I love explaining this to people in a forest when they call and are barely getting say 110 and 119 but insist they should get HD and were promised HD by the CSR's whom obviously been to their home and seen the views all around, you argue and argue for a few mins then leave its that simple.

My take on the HD Free for 2 years then charge is just pure lame and stupid on Dish's part. They WILL lose customers because of it while some may haggle for it to stay on or get other incentives to remain, many will switch otherwise most will just not even pay attention till again its charged and they raise holy hell thinking they should get everything free and right then. I do agree HD should be free anyway as it should have been a norm years ago but as I stated above not everyone can get it anyway so for some its pointless to argue for.

I expect a $2 at least increase on the total bill I have, but here is the complaint I have with that - NO ESPNU IN DAMN HD YET!!!! I mean WTF!! Make me pay more yet not give me what I should have gotten years ago and give me back the HD channels they took away with the Disney crap. Here we are nearly 3 months in contract talks and we haven't gotten nothing, not even an official word on the talks yet.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Looks like the promotions are remining the same through June.

But one thing changing is HD Free for life is going away for NEW customers.

This is a big step BACKWARDS. HD Is the norm now , not the exception with most households. This is as stupid as charging $10.00 fee for SD or Color tv. With all the cord cutting going on out there and all the subs are just looking for a reason to switch providers when their 24 month commitment is up , why give them even more reason to quit DISH by jacking their price another $10.00 a month? After all the price on the programming is going to go back up to regular price and add to that the yearly price hikes that come and that add anywhere from $5.00 - $10.00 on your bill and add any new DISH fees that they think up to you bill + the new HD FEE and you can see that CHURN will be the word at the end of the second year of all new subs.

WHAT A STUPID MOVE!!!

 

[Stargazer]

I thought it was HD only on eastern arc since only the latest MPEG-4 receivers are used on that arc and that the receivers downconverted the channels to SD. I haven't messed with new eastern arc install for a while and most have HD these days it seems.

Seems like a lot of wasted bandwidth to have SD and HD. Can they not take SD off of eastern arc claiming they offer it on western arc or is Dish Network required to offer SD on the same dish as HD as part of their agreement with the companies?

 

[Dr.Pepper]

I had a customer come in so I'm behind now.

I am seriously not happy with the change to the HD promotion. All this will do is cause more turnover after the customer's contract is up.

This.

Hell, they might as well provide Directv's 800 number.
A lot of these people aren't going to put up with with paying an extra $10 a month for HD when they can switch over to Direct (or another provider) and get new customer discounts.

 

[Stargazer]

It would only affect new customers so they might tell their existing subscribers that if they switch that they will never get the lifetime discount again as a way to talk them into staying a subscriber.

 

[DishSubLA]

It would only affect new customers so they might tell their existing subscribers that if they switch that they will never get the lifetime discount again as a way to talk them into staying a subscriber.

People don't want to pay the $10 extra, so that argument won't matter a whit to someone who has a cable company, a Telco (AT&T Uverse or Verison FiOS) and DirecTV with whom to play musical chairs over 6 years before starting over with the original provider and never having to deal with Dish again.

 

[psdstu]

+1

 

[dishrich]

I thought it was HD only on eastern arc since only the latest MPEG-4 receivers are used on that arc and that the receivers downconverted the channels to SD.

ONLY for all the local channels...NOT the national sat channels.

 

[TNGTony]

Apples & oranges; any/all legacy cable systems that have NO analog channels, STILL offer SD feeds of HD channels, including local channels. (eg: when Comcast did it's analog reclaimation prog, they did & STILL have SD-only DTA's, that will NOT pick up HD feeds)

Time Warner started doing this in earnest last month here in the SW Ohio market. All the receivers they are using as "free" for a year, $5 bucks a month starting Jan 2015 for folks who what the current package are HD compatible. The channels are available in both SD and HD. The box only has SD outputs, but it receives HD signals and down coverts them.

I didn't know the programmers still insisted on the SD channels. I wonder if part of the contract was that all people who can see the channels now would be able to see it if only the HD signal was broadcast if that would make a difference?

 

[whatchel1]

I thought it was HD only on eastern arc since only the latest MPEG-4 receivers are used on that arc and that the receivers downconverted the channels to SD. I haven't messed with new eastern arc install for a while and most have HD these days it seems.

Seems like a lot of wasted bandwidth to have SD and HD. Can they not take SD off of eastern arc claiming they offer it on western arc or is Dish Network required to offer SD on the same dish as HD as part of their agreement with the companies?

They put like 18 MPEG4 SD chs per tp.

 

[eurosport]

All this "$10 HD fee" is nonsense. HD is simply the standard now. When little-dish TV first came out, it replaced analog TV, but there wasn't a "$10 Digital fee" now was there?

 

[rjruby]

RCN locally charges $5.50/month for a SD converter box and $11.95/month for a HD converter box.

 

[dishrich]

Time Warner started doing this in earnest last month here in the SW Ohio market. All the receivers they are using as "free" for a year, $5 bucks a month starting Jan 2015 for folks who what the current package are HD compatible. The channels are available in both SD and HD. The box only has SD outputs, but it receives HD signals and down coverts them.

Link please?

First, did you stop to consider ALL the subs out there now, that already have legacy SD-only boxes? I HIGHLY doubt TWC is changing all of those out to newer boxes - so considering all those older boxes CANNOT downconvert an HD (only) signal, they would NOT be able to stop transmitting all those SD (dupes) at this point in time. (think WA on E*... )

Now what I HAVE read from TWC, is that they are now doing channel reorgs, that besides putting everything in "categories", they have reprog BOTH SD & HD boxes, so that the SD boxes ONLY show SD channels, & HD boxes ONLY tune to HD channels (& channels ONLY available in SD). BUT, they are still broadcasting BOTH discrete SD & HD feeds; there is NO "downconverting" of HD to SD channels for SD only boxes. And actually, since TWC has been using SDV, they really do NOT have the bandwidth limitations of a non-SDV system...so they really don't have that much of an incentive to eliminate transmitting SD dupes.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/residential-home/tv/my-channels.html

Where can I find High-Definition (HD) channels?

The new lineup is no longer broken up by HD and SD channels. HD converters will show you the best signal available of a channel or program, which is usually HD. SD converters, meanwhile, will show only SD channels.

 

[dtanderson]

I had decided a couple months ago that I am going to ditch the dish (cut the cord) as my New Year's resolution. I am canceling my Dish subscription at the end of this month. I am just going to do OTA with Netflix/Hulu to supplement my viewing needs. I am tired of getting nickeled and dimed with all the fees and constant price increase. I do not even watch half the channels that I am forced to pay for

 

[tedb3rd]

When new customers sign up, their contracts will be over when they will have to pay $10 for HD. At which point you call and threaten to cancel your service, they send you to a supervisor, and you get the HD fee waived. You can still get "HD Free For Life" but you'll just have to call once a year to threaten to cancel to get it.

 

[dare2be]

When new customers sign up, their contracts will be over when they will have to pay $10 for HD. At which point you call and threaten to cancel your service, they send you to a supervisor, and you get the HD fee waived. You can still get "HD Free For Life" but you'll just have to call once a year to threaten to cancel to get it.

That's apparently how it works with DTV too.

 

[Laddyboy]

When new customers sign up, their contracts will be over when they will have to pay $10 for HD. At which point you call and threaten to cancel your service, they send you to a supervisor, and you get the HD fee waived. You can still get "HD Free For Life" but you'll just have to call once a year to threaten to cancel to get it.

All this does is get Dish another batch of customers with a negative opinion of the company after they are forced to call and fight for the $10. Why would they not just quit and go elsewhere and get the promo deals that are even more attractive by $10 per month than before? Most people don't enjoy fighting.

 

[cryptotech]

I had decided a couple months ago that I am going to ditch the dish (cut the cord) as my New Year's resolution. I am canceling my Dish subscription at the end of this month. I am just going to do OTA with Netflix/Hulu to supplement my viewing needs. I am tired of getting nickeled and dimed with all the fees and constant price increase. I do not even watch half the channels that I am forced to pay for

I am doing the same but have also added a new TiVo Roamio to the mix for OTA DVR capability.

 

[lparsons21]

All this does is get Dish another batch of customers with a negative opinion of the company after they are forced to call and fight for the $10. Why would they not just quit and go elsewhere and get the promo deals that are even more attractive by $10 per month than before? Most people don't enjoy fighting.

Switching isn't as good a proposition as it once was. Or at least for many that like the more advanced gear. We've been spoiled with all these tuners and wouldn't want to give them up, and that means when you switch you pay some upfront money.

For me it would take a Genie + HRxx to match what I've got with the 2 Hoppers I have. So there's $199 upfront or about $8.30/month if you calculate it out, to the bill I would get from Direct. And with Direct, you get 2 years of free HD, but then have to call just like new customers would need to do as their contracts end.

It's a little less onerous to switch from D* to E* since the upfront cost to have 2 Hoppers is 1/2 the price of an additional HRxx.

I've been playing the numbers this morning as I usually do at the 1 year mark, to see what is in my best interest. Staying with Dish just makes more sense at this time. My total bill for the next few months will be right around $100/month and here's what I get for it:
T250
HBO, SHO, Max, BB@Home
2 Hoppers

Even with new customer discounts, past the first 3 months, I can't get a bill that low with Direct even dropping down to Choice Xtra as a new customer.

 

[lparsons21]

I had decided a couple months ago that I am going to ditch the dish (cut the cord) as my New Year's resolution. I am canceling my Dish subscription at the end of this month. I am just going to do OTA with Netflix/Hulu to supplement my viewing needs. I am tired of getting nickeled and dimed with all the fees and constant price increase. I do not even watch half the channels that I am forced to pay for

I've looked at doing that a few times, but just cannot make it work for me.

I like to watch boxing and golf and neither are available in any sane sense without cable/sat service. And to get the channels that have quite a few boxing matches, I have to sub to fairly high levels of base programming with some premiums thrown into the mix.