Why rent Dish Online when free elsewhere?

[ronjohn]

I am going to start watching Heroes season 3. I have a Netflix account, so I can watch the entire season up to this point with that account(not free). However I was searching for other ways to watch it and I noticed:

On the NBC website you can watch episodes 13-17 for free.
On Hulu, you can watch episodes 13-17 for free.
On Dish network you can watch a few episodes(can't remember which) for a 24 hour rental at 99cents.

Why is it that Dish is charging for programming that other people have for free?

 

[BigTimMN]

maybe not everyone wants to sit in front of the PC to watch their shows?

its 99 cents, its a fair price for some extra convienience.

Also, is it commercial free on dish?

NBC makes money by selling ads on their site, as does Hulu.

NBC may require the payment as part of the agreement allowing Dish to show the episodes.

 

[ronjohn]

I am using PlayOn(UPnP) to watch the Netflix and Hulu shows on my TV, not the computer. I believe that the DirecTV H20, or whatever the receiver number is, can watch UPnP videos.

I have not rented a Dish Online television show to see if it has commercials or not. That could be the difference. 99 cents is a pretty steep price for avoiding 2 30 second comercial spots, and only having 24 hours to access the video.

I do realize that Itunes charges for episodes and that Netfilx charges a service fee, but they provide the entire season instead of the most recent 3-4 episodes.

 

[kvnfl]

The PS3 Blu Ray player/Media Center has an internet browser. It can stream AV stored on a network connected PC/laptop and search for AV on the internet.

 

[aperry]

I have a PC hooked to my living room 65-inch DLP TV, so I'm all set for watching any online videos.

 

[VinceT3]

I agreee.. the dish online stuff finally has some free content... but the things you would watch cost money are a pain in the rear to page down to.. if I want to watch something I'll flip over to netflix.. I'm so close to cutting dish out all together.. for the price of netflix and OTA .. why bother with dish?

 

[allargon]

Well...not everything is available on Netflix/Hulu. The ESPN stuff damn sure isn't free. Moreover, the Netflix stuff isn't free, it's just part of your Netflix membership. However, Netflix is a nice value proposition. However, it's HD quality is worse than Dish's. That's saying something.

BTW, what are you doing for a DVR w/ OTA? Please don't say Myth, Media Center or some other PC based solution, as that's not really a no brainer setup for the average person.

 

[ronjohn]

I looked at TimeWarner cable on demand, and the latest NBC series are in their free content. They have about twenty stations/networks with such free content. If Dish wants to make claims that they have on demand just like cable, then they need to provide the same level of free content as cable.

 

[smoeke]

The PS3 Blu Ray player/Media Center has an internet browser. It can stream AV stored on a network connected PC/laptop and search for AV on the internet.

+1

Ps3 is a great method of watching streaming media

only problem is my daughter is addicted to little big planet,so i have to fight with her to use "MY" ps3