The OFFICIAL DISH / HBO Thread

Lol there's some truth to that.

As a general answer lets say At&t negotiated the same deal they wanted with DISH. Perhaps Orby saw more value in it than DISH, that they had to have HBO for now to make an impression.
Let's also not forget that Dish was comparing the proposed new contract to their old contract for HBO. Orby never carried HBO before, so they really had no basis for comparison, to help them decide whether the new contract was a good deal or not.
 
That's you. I think there are very few other Dish customers who would pay $18 a month for four channels of HBO.
Four channels are better than zero channels. This dispute has dragged on long enough that some Dish customers (who do not have streaming options available, and who really want to avoid switching to Directv) may be desperate enough to get HBO back that they would gladly accept that deal if Dish offered it. In the grand scheme of things, it is really not that long ago that Dish charged $18 (even $19 at one point) for HBO, although that was for all of the channels.
 
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Maybe Orby sees offering HBO, whatever the contract terms, as a way of boosting its customer base by poaching those Dish customers that want HBO but refuse to deal with DirecTV.
If Orby offered HBO as a stand-alone package, without requiring a base package to get it, then they might be a good supplementary service to add to having a Dish subscription. They are certainly no replacement for Dish, by any stretch of the imagination.
 
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We have no idea. Dish has no idea. AT&T/HBO had crazy demands that Dish could not agree with. If they would have, all of our rates would have gone up. Dish finally did get a new agreement with Univision, but we did not get our affiliates here in the NW (Portland or Seattle), plus no El Rey channel.
Check out this uplink report. Your affiliates should be back now. I told you that you would only have to wait until the next wave of bringing back Univision affiliates, whenever Dish got around to it. ;)
Uplink Activity Updates » Blog Archive » 5/13/19 at 4:21pm ET (v01) – 10 changes seen
 
I read recently from one of the companies that specializes in media industry research that HBO gets, on average, about $7.75 per month for each customer who subscribes through a traditional distribution partner (cable, satellite or telco MVPD). (I don't recall the exact figure but it was somewhere in the $7.60 - 7.90 range.) That's the wholesale rate that HBO charges Comcast, Charter, etc. and then the cable company sets the price they actually charge their customers. While a lot of operators used to charge a little more, maybe $16 to $18/mo, it seems like about everyone has pulled that down now to $15/mo to match HBO's direct-to-consumer pricing for HBO Now. That's also what Amazon, Roku and Apple charge to subscribe to HBO as a streaming channel through their own apps.

If you sign up for HBO Now directly through the HBO Now website and they handle the billing, then they're getting the full $15/mo. If you sign up for HBO Now inside the app you downloaded from an app store operated by Apple, Google, Roku or Amazon, then that company handles the billing and they take, I think, about a 20% cut of the $15, leaving $12 for HBO. Either way, with HBO Now, HBO is bearing all the operational costs of encoding the streams, running the servers and paying for the bandwidth to deliver the streams.

If you sign up for HBO as an add-on inside another streaming app (e.g. Prime Video, Hulu, The Roku Channel, the new Apple TV app), then they handle the encoding and streaming operations as well as the billing, so they take a bigger cut. Not sure of the amount but I think I read it was ~30%. That would leave $10.50 for HBO.

Assuming all that is close to accurate, you can see why HBO would prefer folks to subscribe to them via streaming. It's more profitable. On top of that, HBO also gets lots of valuable user data when you stream rather than watch on a cable/satellite box. Streaming gives them much more accurate info about what their customers search for, what they watch, at what point they stop watching shows, etc. Netflix says that kind of user data is invaluable to them. (That said, many who get HBO through a traditional MVPD do stream HBO too, using the HBO Go app, which gives HBO user data but at the cost of providing the streams.)

And, of course, AT&T plans to transition HBO to even more of a direct competitor to Netflix this fall when they launch an expanded streaming service that will be centered on HBO content, but with lots of additional complementary content. They've said that the current standalone HBO service will continue to exist, and obviously HBO doesn't want to dump the vast majority of their customers who subscribe through traditional MVPD partners, but it seems clear that AT&T sees HBO's future as *mainly* a streaming service.

When you take all of that into consideration, is it really any surprise that AT&T is playing hardball with Dish over HBO carriage? I imagine their thinking is "If Dish customers want HBO, let them subscribe via one of the more profitable streaming options that we actually prefer. And if they live out somewhere internet service isn't available, that means their only pay TV options are Dish and DirecTV satellite. Some of those folks will ditch Dish and come to our DirecTV service so they can get HBO, which would be great because DirecTV is absolutely hemorrhaging subscribers."
This would make sense. When I was with Comcast, they charged $20 a month the tier of HBO channels. Then, they charged $20 a month for the tier of The Movie Channel, channels. So, obviously Comcast was in it for the cash and grab. It was $20 for each individual package (HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, The Movie Channel, and Starz). The Encore channels were actually given as part of a base package. Whenever I saw what Dish charged and what customers got I knew then I wasn't ever going back to Comcast.

As for now, I still see AT&T as purposefully trying to practice unfair competition with its primary competitor.
 
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$20/month per each individual package?!?! Wow, that's robbery if I ever heard it! :eek:
While it was not quite that bad, Directv's premium package pricing compared to Dish was one of the reasons I first switched to Dish. I had a bundle deal of HBO and Showtime from USSB for only $17.95 per month. When Directv took over USSB, they wanted to charge me $24 per month for the same thing, if my memory is correct. I forget what Dish's pricing was at the time, but I know it was cheaper than that. Also, Dish had the Superstations, which I really wanted, so switching was a no-brainer.
 
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I wonder why it took so long to get these Univision locals back though? Anyone know?
Well, I already gave you my speculation, that with so many affiliates across the country needing to be added, Dish chose to break down the list and add them in waves, rather than trying to add them all at once. This is similar to the way that Dish started adding local Ion affiliates around the time that they were negotiating with Ion, and it also reminds me of how Dish phased in the HD locals carry one, carry all requirement.

Another guess would be that these particular affiliates are not actually owned by Univision, so Dish needed more time to negotiate a new contract with the company that does own them. Or of course, it is also a possibility that this group of affiliates was simply an oversight, and Dish was not aware that they were still missing until you started posting about them here. :)
 
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While it was not quite that bad, Directv's premium package pricing compared to Dish was one of the reasons I first switched to Dish. I had a bundle deal of HBO and Showtime from USSB for only $17.95 per month. When Directv took over USSB, they wanted to charge me $24 per month for the same thing, if my memory is correct. I forget what Dish's pricing was at the time, but I know it was cheaper than that. Also, Dish had the Superstations, which I really wanted, so switching was a no-brainer.
I also had the Superstations quite a few years back, but didn't watch them very much after they took off or cancelled most of the programming I was watching on them, so I dropped them. I really enjoyed the distant locals, but Congress took care of that...
 
I also had the Superstations quite a few years back, but didn't watch them very much after they took off or cancelled most of the programming I was watching on them, so I dropped them. I really enjoyed the distant locals, but Congress took care of that...

Going to LA a lot in my younger days, I got to be a real fan of the old news crew at KTLA, Hall Fishman, Larry McCormick, Stan Chambers, etc. But they are all gone now, but I still watch the insane high speed car chases and all off KTLA. I will keep the Super Station pack as long as Dish continues to carry it. I have been concerned that since they stopped selling the Super station package, Dish in time was going to drop it. I am happy they haven't. I do have access to the KTLA news off a stream, but having it on Dish is much better. It is great to watch the news team from different cities. The Super station pack is unique as no one else carries it. I think there is a super station pack on Canadian TV though.
 
Well, I already gave you my speculation, that with so many affiliates across the country needing to be added, Dish chose to break down the list and add them in waves, rather than trying to add them all at once. This is similar to the way that Dish started adding local Ion affiliates around the time that they were negotiating with Ion, and it also reminds me of how Dish phased in the HD locals carry one, carry all requirement.

Another guess would be that these particular affiliates are not actually owned by Univision, so Dish needed more time to negotiate a new contract with the company that does own them. Or of course, it is also a possibility that this group of affiliates was simply an oversight, and Dish was not aware that they were still missing until you started posting about them here. :)

Good point. In the case of KUNP/KUNS they are both owned by Sinclair, I was a bit surprised when Dish lost Univision, the locals, not owned by Univision were dropped too. There must be something in their contract. I guess Dish/Sinclair could have made some deal to carry a sub channel from that local, to keep it on. But I guess that was not in the cards either.
 
A remake of the season is not going to happen, this is typical HBO, people were not happy with The Sopranos ending either.
I think the ball is in Charlie's court and HBO is not coming back to Dish until Charlie is ready to bring it back, since there is now an app for HBO there's no rush to get a deal done.
For all those that had to have HBO just for GOT. What many GOT was punked.

'Game of Thrones' Fans Demand HBO to Remake Season 8 in New Petition - Geek.com

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A remake of the season is not going to happen, this is typical HBO, people were not happy with The Sopranos ending either.
I think the ball is in Charlie's court and HBO is not coming back to Dish until Charlie is ready to bring it back, since there is now an app for HBO there's no rush to get a deal done.

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Now if only there was an app for HBO on the Hopper Duo and Wally.
 

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