Price Increases

The past few days we have been looking at pricing changes coming to Dish Network, the new simplification of the rates have been very confusing to many folks including myself. As I talk more and more to people that work for Dish it appears we are not the only ones confused.

Some folks are upset about the Dish price changes (all while the rumor is that Dish will not be increasing the cost of its programming fees.) and are saying that if Dish raises rates then they will look at moving away from Dish to other providers such as AT&T’s UVERSE service or Verizon’s FiOS service.

Folks looking to move to those service might be disappointed to learn that both services will also be increasing their rates in the new year.

In two leaks both posted to DSLReports.COM it was noted that AT&T UVERSE customers will see a $3 to $5 increase in their bills when new prices go into effect on February 1st, 2010. In addition AT&T announced that the Filipino TV package is changing from $21 a month to $25. New UVERSE customers will be charged a $29 one time service activation fee.

The price increases for Verizon’s FiOS service seemed the most severe with leaked documents showing that customers can look forward to a rate hike of $10 to $20 depending which bundle the customer is subscribed to.

In addition some new FiOS customers can look forward to a $360 early termination fee if they decide to leave the service. The contract however is pro rated and decreases for every month a customer has service.

While nothing has leaked out about a price increase coming to DirecTV, we have heard from various sources that a rate increase is coming and will take effect in March. Commercial DirecTV will be paying more soon as dealers are reporting to me that packages such as the commercial In Room Choice package will be going from $270 a month to $285 a month, commercial locals from $34.99 to $39.99 and ESPN is going from $3.85 to $4.25. With the commercial rates having such a sharp increase one can only ponder whats in store for DirecTV residential customers.

It seems like a bad time to be increasing rates, but unfortunately for all providers the costs of programming keep increasing. I don’t know about you but when I hear on the radio that a sports star has just signed a new multi-million dollar deal, I know that my entertainment rates will be going up sometime in the future. Unfortunately no matter whom your television provider is you rates are going to go up, its the nature of the beast.

Programming Disputes

Normally this time of the year we hear of programming disputes. It is not uncommon to hear of a messy public dispute as we count down to the new year. On the satellite front there is nothing new to report as of yet.

However just because we don’t hear anything does not mean there is nothing going on. Case in point was this week Dish Network dropped the popular Russian service RTVi and RTVi+. Just a few days after these two Russian channels today DirecTV issued a press release that it is the exclusive US Satellite provider of RTVi.

Dish Network told its retailers that the RTVi channels were removed “in an effort to improve our programming and keep our industry-leading prices low.”

Dish Network has replaced RTVi with CTC which according to Dish Network “CTC is among the top-rated channels in Russia and offers the best new dramas and variety shows.”

It looks as of now the big programming dispute people will be keeping an eye on this year is the one brewing between Time Warner cable and Fox. If the dispute does not get settled by the new year Time Warner cable customers in New York City area could be without local Fox affiliate WNYW channel 5 in the new year.

Both companies have been pointing fingers at each other and have launched consumer website explaining their side of things, Fox has its website at keepfoxon.com and Time Warner has its site at rolloverorgettough.com.

If we hear of other major disputes we will be sure to pass them along.