Double Dipping?

On yesterday’s Dish Network retailer chat the new pricing was announced to Dish retailers, and like I reported here in past editions the prices were indeed correct.

I was honestly hoping the information I had was wrong, but unfortunately it was not.

For most people their bills will not go up, for others they may see a $1 or $2 increase, for others their bill may be shooting up $30 or more and for other (lucky folks) their bills may be going down.

I understand what Dish Network is doing but I don’t like it. For many of their higher end customers when they get their bills in February they might be upset as they will be the ones seeing the high increases.

One of the things I don’t understand is that Dish is moving to a whole house DVR fee of $6. When I heard this news I thought it was great and very long overdue, however in looking at the new pricing I notice that with the new monthly equipment fees Dish Network I notice that all the DVR’s cost $3 more a month then non DVR receivers.

My question to Dish Network is as, is Dish Network double dipping for DVR services? Why is Dish Network charging an additional $3 a month for something that is supposed to be included in the $6 whole house DVR fee?

Some folks will say that the DVR’s require more programming and are tougher to support since they have moving parts inside, but I say if that’s the case then what is the $6 DVR fee for?

Over the past 24 hours I have seen lots of complaints from Dish Network customers on SatelliteGuys. As I read them I notice that most of these people have 4 or more DVR’s on their accounts. Many of these folks are not your normal Dish Network customers. Looking at the pricing changes most regular customers will see little to no increase on their bills, unfortunately it is the power users of Dish Network who will see the biggest changes to their bills. Dish Network will be launching a new website explaining the changes and showing you what your bill will be, unfortunately they will not be launching this website until February 1st.

Dish Hit A Nerve
Seems like Dish Network hit a nerve with the folks at DIRECTV who yesterday put up a video on its website at DIRECTV.COM.

The video looks just like one of Dish Networks commercials which compares Dish Network to DIRECTV. The popular ads from Dish Network ask the question, “Why would you ever pay more for TV?”

The DIRECTV version closely matches the Dish Network spot and brings to light some fees that Dish Network charges such as the $5 programming change fee (which is actually a downgrade fee) which is charged when a customer downgrades programming, the fee for not connecting your receiver to a phone line (again this is wrong… the $5 a month phone line fee is only applied to certain model dual tuner / dual output receivers and this fee is being done away with as of February 1st.) and a $25 fee for putting your account on pause. (I don’t know about the last fee as I haven’t heard of that one.)
For as much effort as DIRECTV put into the ad, at least they could have got their facts correct and hit Dish with some of the things that DIRECTV does better that Dish does not do, among them their easy to use Video On Demand service, their on screen sports scores feature and the ability to use internet based TV Widgets.

I personally think the current Dish “Why Pay More” campaign is a great campaign and it sure attracted a crowd at CES in the Dish booth.

DIRECTV’s new ads are also decent and are celebrity filled, but at the end of the ad I always find myself asking where I can get all those great HD channels for only $29.99… I know you can’t get them for $29.99… but thats the way the ads make it sound…

Have a great weekend everyone!