FiOS, Comcast DVR Rate Hikes > Crap costs baby.

reply to CableTool

Re: Crap costs baby.

Sorry to say, but if you call that Big Dish pricing reasonable.. I'd be willing to start my own satellite company.. would you bring your like minded friends?

The prices, in some cases, may be slightly cheaper, but if you dig into it more, they really are much more expensive.

You also, with big dish, bear ALL the costs of hardware which does play some in their pricing. Add that to your total cost of ownership and big dish is not a good deal at all.
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"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..."

huh? »www.bigdish.com/satala.htm

most people only watch a handful of channels. why not just pay for the ones you WANT to watch? i don't get this. is it the illusion that you are getting more by paying your cable company for those 60 channels that you don't watch? seems like a better value? doesn't make sense unless you watch a lot of channels and/or work for the cable company.

reply to fiberguy

IF you only have one television, and IF you are only interested in a select group of channels and IF you don't go great gonzo on the purchase of the antenna and receiver, a C band installation is cheaper. Marginally. But that is rapidly vanishing because you now need not only a receiver that does Videocipher, but more and more you need to have an mpeg capable receiver as well.

I think the great attraction is still being able to wander around and pick up different things. But now I have access to hundreds more stuff and there's still nothing on.

reply to morbo
What do you think will happen to those "reasonable" prices when the content companies lose tons of money when the vast majority of watchers switches to ala carte. People who support ala carte really have no clue the ramifications of a switch.

reply to fiberguy
Fiberguy do you have an inkling of what you are talking about?

Blank comments like this amaze me, "The prices, in some cases, may be slightly cheaper, but if you dig into it more, they really are much more expensive." Hell you sound like you work for or represent a cable pigopoly. They told me for years that I would not get dish reception in storms although their rlocal feeds are sat based, lol. They told me I would have to have 2 phone lines for dsl, lol.

Anyways back to the point, proof is in the pudding. Great Lakes area cable minus dvr was 76.95 per month digital and expanded basic through Charter's headache of a service they called cable tv. Dishnetwork charges me 54.99 a month for Americas top 120. NO HARDWARE costs! I have also made about $450.00 bucks by referring friends. That is nine people I have referred and THEY ALL LOVE IT! Cable is so passe'
That's more than a little savings there Fiberguy.

All I can say is that I would be willing to pay 75.00 a month for the superior service I get from DishNet. Sheesh now I sound like a Dish rep, lol. The dvr is AWESOME! My wife and grandparents can figure it out.

Satellite satisfaction all depends on the installer.

For my use DirecTV would have cost just has much or more then Comcast then I would have to Pay about $700.00 to lease a dvr plus Dvr fee. Dish was out of the queston as the cost was to much.
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Caddy

reply to DoubleK
Upon reflection, I do not wish to post.

You're not worth it..

reply to Matisaro
the people will be able to make the clear decision of whether to continue and pay for the higher price of the channel or not. as it is now, you have have few options besides turning off your cable or downgrading to the next lower package (if it's even offered as part of it).

i refuse to believe that the current system is in the best interests of the american people--it's in the best interests of cable/satellite providers and the "crappy" channels.

reply to morbo
C-band is able to do it because of two reasons:

1. It's a niche market (not only compared to cable, but *especially* compared to small-dish).

2. The equipment is mostly already paid for (C-band satellites are *old* and getting older, and the costs have long been recovered).

3. C-band programmers price the offerings as basically loss-leaders (those that do nothing else, which is basically NPS, are rare, and NPS is privately held; the others also sell programming for small-dish and/or nonresidential consumption).

Also, even big-dish offers tiers (in fact, tier consumption even for C-band is greater than ala carte; how many big-dish programmers still offer realistic ala carte today?).

reply to morbo
this has been covered countless times and was even agreed upon by the FCC until Mr. Martin the Anti-Cable witch took over. Programming costs WILL go up if Ala Carte replaces the current system. Consider this: most programmers own multiple stations. MSO's receive discounts on contracts by carrying all of the programmers networks. MSO's also receive discounts by placing networks on certain tiers. It guarantees a certain amount of eyes which helps the programmers sell advertising on those networks. If the programmers can't guarantee those same viewers because the network isn't on the standard cable package anymore the costs for that channel will go up. Those costs will be passed straight on the consumer. You might pay $1/mo out of your current cable bill for ESPN now, but if Ala Carte takes over you could pay $10/mo for it (I'm only using those figures as an example, they don't necessarily represent true costs). So for $50/mo now you get 70 channels, but with ala carte you get 10 channels for $50 or $60, depending on your chosen networks. Plus, all of the variety we currently have could go away if networks can't keep advertisers and don't have a large viewing audience now. Wave goodbye to niche programming.
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three6ohchris

i agree, programming costs WILL GO UP with a la carte, BUT what will also happen is that channels will have to price themselves competitively else they will go out of business. there's no way that 10 channels would (or should) cost $50 or $60 under a la carte while 70 channels cost $50 under the traditional system.

this FUD about a la carte and how it will somehow cost MORE for a fraction of the channels is cableco's wet dream.