Greetings from 36000 Feet In The Air

Communications has come a long way, as I type this I am flying over 36000 feet on a Delta 767 with all the comforts of home. Each seat is equipped with a 7 inch screen with 18 channels of Dish Network at my disposal, plus live high speed internet.

I have traveled a lot but this is the first time I have had both live television and WIFI and I kind of like it.

I am headed to Las Vegas for the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show and I can’t wait to get there.

One of the things I am looking forward to getting is the straight scoop on this networks new simplified pricing that goes into effect on February 1st.

Over the weekend some internal Dish Network documents were leaked to me, which informed employees of the new pricing. And it appears there have been some changes since the time I posted the rumored new pricing.

The biggest change that I can see is that Dish Network will be forcing their customers to subscribe to locals if their locals are available to them. According to the leaked document it states, “Effective 2/1 our core packages will generally be priced to include locals. Today if a customer doesn’t want locals they can get the package for $5 less. On 2/1 that choice will no longer exist with the exception of the markets where we do not provide locals. In these markets customers will get the package for $5 less.”

One of the issues that is confusing a lot of Dish customers is the new monthly hardware pricing. According to the document it states, “On 2/1, we are modifying our monthly equipment fees. Currently a receiver can have as many as three fees: an Additional Outlet fee, a DVR Service fee, and a TV2 Receiver Connection fee. Going forward, each receiver will only have one monthly fee.

Different receiver families will have different monthly fees depending upon the features included in the receiver. This is similar to how cable companies charge for their receivers, and thus many households should be familiar with this concept.”

It kind of scares me that they are trying to price things like the cable companies. Many people moved to satellite to get away from the cable way of thinking.

As we posted before the receiver costs will be as follows.

Duo DVR Receiver - $17
Duo Receiver - $14
Solo DVR - $10
Solo Receiver - $7

Your first receiver on your account you will get it for free, so the first most expensive receiver you will get included at no charge in your base package, then there will be a charge for each additional receiver. In addition if you have a DVR there will be a $6 DVR fee that covers all DVR’s on your account. (And if you upgrade in February to a Dish 922 DVR with TV Anywhere (Sling) then your monthly DVR fee for the account will be $10.

The “America’s Everything Package” folks will be getting a price decrease of $3.99, however the price no longer includes DVR fees.

Also going down in price will be the all HD Turbo HD packages that will be renamed “DISH America” packages. The cost of these packages is going down $5 a month. No word however if many of the missing HD channels will ever be added to these packages.

Still while it seems like the pricing is straightforward and easier to understand many of the members of the SatelliteGuys.US forums are confused by the new pricing. For many people they will see little to no increase, but for others with many Dush Duo DVR’s on their account, their bills will be going up. My own personal account will increase over $30 under the new pricing.

It will be nice to walk into CES this week and finally talk with them about the new pricing and get some straight answers on the new pricing. I also look forward to seeing what surprises they have in store (and I am told there will indeed be a few.)

But alas for the moment I am not going to worry about the new pricing, I am sitting here on a plane and I have live TV and internet, what more can you ask for?