Dish Drops & Adds HD Channels
It might be SuperBowl Sunday, and while the game hasn’t started yet for many HD fans Dish Network has already earned a penalty.
Dish Network HD customers woke up this morning to find out they have a new high definition channel “CI” (Crime & Investigation) added to their lineup. But the happiness was soon gone as HD fans noticed that Dish Network also removed a HD channel from their lineup as well. The channel removed overnight was the Smithsonian Channel HD.
Tuning to Smithsonian you see a yellow screen showing the following message “Dish Network regrets that we no longer offer this channel.” And advises customers to check out Dish Networks website for more details.
Checking out Dish Networks website shows their PlatinumHD package and the logo for Smithsonian HD was replaced with CI HD in its place.
Another interesting find at Dish Networks website is they updated the site with all the new promotions that begin today as well as the new pricing for Dish Network customers.
As we reported here before in The Satellite Dish, Dish Network is raising most of its rates starting today. These new prices are now listed on the Dish Network website. To make things more interesting is that many Dish Network customers have not been notified of the price change and in fact their bills for February do not show the new pricing. Dish Network customers who bundle their service from AT&T and Century-Tel have already been notified of the pricing changes.
There has been no word from Dish Network if the new pricing is only for new customers but with Dish Networks other partners notifying customers of the pricing change it will only be a matter of time before other Dish Network customers are notified of the pricing change.
Enjoy the big game today!
Mike commented:
Yep. First Voom, now Smithsonian. My contract ends in April. I'm looking around.
At from st. paul commented:
I upgraded my HD service on 2/18/09 after my new HDTV was delivered and installed by Dish. I must say they did a good job. I called a couple of days later to upgrade to Platinum for only one reason, The SMITHSTONIAN HD. At the time of the upgrade I was never informed that SMITH has been discontinued. When I called all pissed off for two reasons:1. dropping a useful educational channel for another ( worthless ) crime channel that I do not need and 2. the fact that they did not inform me at the time of signup that the channel was no longer offered. They said they have no control over channel offering. They said they will offer me some other movie package if I want to drop Platinum HD package. My response was that I may just drop them altogether for their disconnect form what customers really want, even if it cost me 12.50 per month for the remaining contract term.The rep apologized (from the Phillipines I suspect) she was totally powerless to remedy this situatin. I hung up.
sucker commented:
Keep an eye on your bank accounts because dish will keep billing you even after U dump them, and good luck getting ahold of customer service. royaly pissed me off 2 years ago.
Fergus commented:
DISH is unbelievable! As so many others, I subscribed to DISH HD for the extremely fine quality VOOM HD channels. It seems that DISH is all too willing to drop high quality, intelligent programming for the everyday brainless channels with pseudo HD quality. Thanks to the Digital OTA TV change, I can receive 12 channels, most in HD. In truth, the visual quality of Over The Air HD is far better than DISH is delivering now. My 2-year contract is over in November, but I may pay the fee to get out early. I am so tired of the total lack of respect that DISH has for its customers. Let what you see here be a warning to all that are looking to buy television programming. DISH will most likely drop your favorite channels and you will be stuck in a contract! I will never sign another contract for services of any kind. I have been disappointed for the last time!
Paul commented:
I originally signed up with DishNet because of the VOOM HD channels. Those were beautiful channels, real 16:9 1080p HighDef. So then they dropped those and replaced them with mostly inferior HD channels. The only good replacement was the Smithsonian HD channel. So now they dropped that one for yet another 4:3 fake-HD up-converted SD channel. This is just unbelievable. Is there any reason left NOT to switch to DirecTV, maybe just to stop the abuse? I am canceling my DishNet subscription right now.
elliott h commented:
i once had dish. since they did not carry my yankee channel the yes network i got rid of them. they wanted me to stay but they kept dropping channels and all the contract disputes. listen direct tv is no bargin but it seems they always work thigns out why dish cannot i do not know why.
Harris commented:
Why is anyone suprised here?
They took down 15 great Voom channels in one shot?
Dish network is the worst! Im disconecting today.
kbnews commented:
Unfortunately it may get worse before it gets better. Smithsonian may return but not before other Showtime channels drop any time now due to a contract dispute.
Bob commented:
My DISH commitment runs out April 2009 - I'll be dropping DISH altogether. Not so much for the changes (although that's part of it), but the complete disregard for customer service from their top echelon. The poor blokes in the CSR ranks are doing their job, but the management needs to reexamine their customer value proposition.
rigor commented:
from what i have seen, smithsonian channel offered unique programming not available on any other channel. and it seemed to me to be HD 24/7. crime and investigation seems to me to be almost entirely upconverted SD reruns that are on other channels. i am seriously considering dropping the entire dish hd package
ANGRY commented:
First it\’s the Kung Fu and Monster channel.Now the Smithsonian !?! COOME ON DISH !!!! I can think of a junk HD channel to remove and that would be Universal.For GOD SAKE,BRING BACK Kung Fu, Monster and the Smithsonian channel.
Tali commented:
This SMITH is one of the most educational channels and a favorite … and they dropped it a for a crime channel. Unbelievable. Put the SMITH channel back. I guess that switching from Direct to Dish was not a good decision. They as bad as the other one
Dick commented:
I made my switch to FIOS two months ago and never looked back. Dish is notorious for dropping channels suddenly and it is almost a business run by gangsters. Not to mention they refuse to add FNCHD, BoxBusinessHD, etc. Can you imagine going to a restaurant, while you order beef steak, they gave
rotten pork and tell you: \”This is what we want you to eat here\”.
I hope every Dish HD customers will drop their service ASAP!
Shoufeng Yang commented:
I will contact all major business news outlets and institutional investors of Dish Network, their (DISH) blunt ignorance of customer needs and sleazy practice set new caliber for terrible subscription service industry. I am dropping Dish today and am sure many many Dish customers will be extremely angry, as it is a high quality channel with original programming and w/o any ads.
It is a sad day for Dish customers!
