I guess some people tend to get more than they really need with their provider, so they have the flexibility to just downgrade.
We're not one that's affected by that. It's a fairly basic setup - a 722, a 322, and a 311. Nothing fancy - one HDTV with DVR, SD for the rest. Only AT250, no premiums except Cinemax for a penny, and only because it's a penny.
I'd gladly drop to AT200 but there's a few key channels missing there. It's frustrating, we probably only watch 20-25 channels total but some of them are on the highest package.
We're not in the situation where we have enough extras to drop them to save money. If that were the case, I'd have done it a long time ago, regardless of the receiver fees.
Right now Dish wants to sock us with a $12 monthly increase,or an increase of 14%. That's ridiculous. Yeah, DirecTV and cable in the area are both raising their rates, but only by $3-$4. Dish is increasing theirs by 3-4 times as much. That's not acceptable.
We're not interested in downgrading the level of our service, but if a different provider can offer the same level of service for cheaper (and right now both DirecTV and cable can), then there's no reason to stick with Dish.