EchoStar Dishes Out 3% Rate Hike
By Linda Moss -- Multichannel News, 12/31/2006 7:00:00 PM
EchoStar Communications’ Dish Network will raise its rates an average of 3% next year.
The nation’s No. 2 direct-broadcast satellite provider, with just over 13 million subscribers, said last week that it is increasing the cost of its “America’s Top 120” package by $3, just over 7%, to $42.99 per month. Its “America’s Top 180” offering will also go up $3, or roughly 6%, to $52.99.
EchoStar is also boosting the rate for its “America’s Everything Pak,” now $84.99 a month, by $5 to $89.99.
The DBS company said it will not change the cost for its “America’s Top 60” tier, which will remain at $29.99 per month, guaranteed through January 2008. The rates on several other Dish offerings are also staying put, including $19.99 for DishFamily and $24.99 for Dish Latino.
“While each region differs, most cable companies are increasing the prices of their basic packages, some as high as 6.8%,” EchoStar said in a statement. “We are proud to say that Dish Network’s increases are well below cable increases, continuing our reign as the lowest-cost all-digital provider in the pay-TV industry.”
Dish is also rebranding several of its packages to more accurately indicate how many networks they include, since “America’s Top packages actually have 40 to 80 more channels than what’s indicated in their names,” according to EchoStar.
The America’s Top 60 tier, for example, will now be renamed “America’s Top 100,” reflecting the expansion of the package to include services such as NFL Network, ReelzChannel and, starting in February, 32 Muzak channels.
America’s Top 120 becomes “America’s Top 200,” and America’s Top 180 will be renamed “America’s Top 250.”
As part of its changes and at the request of customers, Dish Network is simplifying its HDTV packaging.
To that end, Dish HD packages now can be added to any America’s Top packages for $20, according to the company. For example, Dish HD Bronze will become America’s Top 100 with Dish HD.
For the new year, Dish Network is also extending a 7% discount to Dish DVR customers via a new bundled offering, Dish DVR Advantage.
That bundled package includes America’s Top 200, plus local signals, a dual-tuner digital video recorder and professional installation of up to four TV sets for $49.99.
Dish Network claims that with the savings provided by the DVR Advantage Package, existing customers can offset most or all of any increase in the cost of their programming packages by converting to the new DVR offer.
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