Why is alaska and hawaii treated diffrently when it comes to HD?

[goaliebob99]

I have allways wondered why Alaska and Hawaii are treated diffrently when it comes to New hd and packages. If a coustomer has a big enough dish to recive the channels, then why are they limited in there packages. I understand that there are geographic restrictions and some channels are put on a spot beam for smaller dishes. But I have allways found it amusing that these coustomers are not treated like how we are in the lower 48. We are one country and the last time I looked, alaska and hawaii are not terriotories, they are states, hell if they have the dish, and can get them. Give them the same package we have down here! :up Why limit?

 

[djmaui]

The Ceil 2 conus signal @ 129 misses Hawaii and is apparently available in some parts of Alaska w/ a 6 foot dish or so. That seems to be the big HD shortcoming for Hawaii at least.

We in Hawaii get the limited 110 conus HD content (but no platinums) as well as several HD channels on a 110 spot and 129 spot, though many of these are duplicates.

Duplicates not included:
110 conus - 8 channels
110 spot - 18 channels
129 spot - 38 channels

We are missing about 16 HD permiums and 20 or so HD Nationals that the contiguous 48 states get.

Echostar 14 is headed for 119 next month and two strong spot beams each for both Hawaii and Alaska are planned. This should be enough space to bring HI and AK into the first world of DishNetwork HD.

 

[AKGolf]

I agree with goaliebob99 obviously since I do have a big enough dish to get all of the HD if allowed to. When they do free previews on HD channels that are normally red in my guide, I can watch them just fine. For some reason the blackout doesn't apply to movie channels and I do get the new Showtime west channel.

I haven't tried calling Dish in a while to see if they can turn them on, but I'm also hoping that Echostar 14 will fix our problems.

The best solution would be how they handle the SD channels, if the channel is in your tier and you can see it you're good.

 

[redsalmon]

I agree also. This dates way back to the days when SCIFI went HD and even thou the transponder came in 5 by 5 Dish wouldn't turn it on for us. Now that was irritating to say the least. The same for the new national networks that show in red. We're capable of reception but Dish has the same mentality regarding them, and that is Tough S__T!

 

[neljtorres]

And how about us in Puerto Rico We can't recieve HD on 61.5 with a 5.5 bird but dish is not allowing it!

 

[Jim5506]

Back in the days, congress meddled and made AK and HI special cases so the continue to be treated as such even if it is not necessary.

WAG??

 

[neljtorres]

And how about us in Puerto Rico We can't recieve HD on 61.5 with a 5.5 bird but dish is not allowing it!

I am trying to fix my first quote that we in PR can recieve 61.5 with a 5.5 dish and for alot of customers here dish is not authorizing all the people only some from down here that can get more HD from that 61.5

 

[Pepper]

Sounds like "moving" time to me.

 

[AKGolf]

Sounds like "moving" time to me.

Except that locals are now on spot beams and although we could get all of the HD the only spot beams we can get are the ones in our current location.

 

[Pepper]

I agree wholeheartedly with the premise that Dish should allow you to subscribe to the "normal" packages, especially if you have a big enough dish to get good signal from the required CONUS transponders. It's definitely an artificial limitation.

I think there are still a couple of DMAs on CONUS aren't there?

 

[Claude Greiner]

I think one of the issues is excess transponder capacity not being available.

I don't think Dish wants to be in a situation where they max out all the capacity on their spot beams, and have something happen where they can't deliver what was promised if a satellite or transponder goes bad.

The one thing I learned about being in this industry is that its ok to under promise and over deliver, but you can't promise someone something and under deliver.

Sure there is a handfull of people complaining now they don't have enough HD channels, but if everyone was given those HD channels and a key transponder died tomorrow, im sure 100 times more people will be on her complaining that something was taken away and that they deserve a discount or should be allowed to get out of their contract.