DISH Guarantees $250 Savings to Satellite Pay-TV Customers Who Switch

[ChadT41]

The smart customers would see the everyday value, and Dish being cheaper on most their base prices.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I agree. Just to use fake numbers here, let's say 100 people are able to marketed. With the high early savings, might get all 100 of them. Let's say 20% leave, and pay the ETF, so the financial hit would only be as if 10-15% left(as far as monetary losses). Now with the lower introduction rate, out of that 100 people, only 85 people sign up. If they lose a single one of those patrons, then they have now not made as much revenue as if they just did the high intro savings in year 1

It's more like this lets say 10,000 people are marketed, 1% responds so you get 100 calls.

Out of those 100 calls 60% don't qualify for the promotion based on credit or no credit card.

Out of the 40 sold, 80% get installed so it leaves with 32 customers.

Out of the 32 customers 18 % churn out in the first year so it leaves you with 26 customers

Then in year #2 you loose another 18% which leaves you with 21 customers.

Then if you take a look at the customers you do loose, 85% of them are non-pay where you loose the other 15% due to moving, or other factors.

The ETF fees rarely get collected. The non-pay disconnects leave with a balance and the ones who are voluntary usually make some type of stink about something and get it waived.

I'll be honest, with the numbers as bad as they are in surprised I made money all these years

 

[Claude Greiner]

The smart customers would see the everyday value, and Dish being cheaper on most their base prices.

There is no everyday value anymore.

There are only 2 reasons why someone would switch to either dish or directv from cable...

A) programming such as NFL Ticket on Directv or an international channel on Dish.

B) Equipment such as a Genie or Hopper.

Back in the day satellite offered more channels, much much better pricing, and had more options such as DVR or a handful of HD channels.

Today when you factor in the bundle from the cable company on your base rate, your not that much better off if you had satellite and bought your internet separate.

The additional outlet fees, DVR, and HD FEES are just killing the advantage satellite once had over cable.

I got a TIVO DVR with my comcast. Spent like $400 on the Romario plus $130 each for the 3 TIVO MINIS.

I pay comcast $119 for extreme 105, xfinity home security and TV. I pay $10 extra for the 105 service and $10 to go to the 220 channel package for a total of $139.

I pay TIVO $9.99/mo which there is no fee on the tivo minis and comcast gives me a $1.50 credit for having a cable card.

That is value.

Go spend $700 for genies, hoppers, joeys and clients and they charge you the same as if you leased the equipment.

Now granted not everyone spends $700 on Tivos, but that's $30 in fees saved with Directv and Dish and probably $60 in fees every month if I would have had the equivalent in comcast equipment.

Even with my employee account that I pay $90 per month for everything on 9 televisions, comcast at $140 is a better value.

I get more channels on Directv including all the sports, but don't watch any of it, where the smaller comcast package works for me with my internet and home security.

Right now I'll keep both, but if I had to pay full price with Directv it would be like $240/mo and I would probably cancel.

 

[ChadT41]

I prices my Dish+cox internet vs similar set with Cox bundle(without phone), and Cox still came out $15 more/month(this was after I removed my employee discount from my dish account for pricing). I did it with DTV, similar set up, no ST, and it came out to $9-15 more. For me, even without the employee discount with Dish, I would still be paying less. I could save money by going to Prism, but their service is by far the worse I have ever seen, and Google may be available someday, but who knows. As far as today's savings, Dish is the clear winner for my setup, and price.

 

[Claude Greiner]

I prices my Dish+cox internet vs similar set with Cox bundle(without phone), and Cox still came out $15 more/month(this was after I removed my employee discount from my dish account for pricing). I did it with DTV, similar set up, no ST, and it came out to $9-15 more. For me, even without the employee discount with Dish, I would still be paying less. I could save money by going to Prism, but their service is by far the worse I have ever seen, and Google may be available someday, but who knows. As far as today's savings, Dish is the clear winner for my setup, and price.

But what are you subscribing to with Dish to come up with that type of savings ?

When I was with Dish I was paying $17 per 722 and I had 6 of them on my account.

Went to Directv with 9 receivers (7 of them being HR24's) and still saved money as my receiver fees dropped from $17 to $6.

Every setup is different.

 

[ChadT41]

AEP, 2H,2J, maintain transfer feature(which would require a genieGo to my understanding). With Cox, I would lose the transfer all together, and their "anywhere" service was anywhere in your home last I checked it out.

 

[Scherrman]

But what are you subscribing to with Dish to come up with that type of savings ?

When I was with Dish I was paying $17 per 722 and I had 6 of them on my account.

Went to Directv with 9 receivers (7 of them being HR24's) and still saved money as my receiver fees dropped from $17 to $6.

Every setup is different.

Extremely uncommon setup. It does make sense for you though so I can see why another provider would work better.

 

[Hall]

Extremely uncommon setup

What ?!?! I thought everyone except me had (9) TVs !

 

[Scherrman]

What ?!?! I thought everyone except me had (9) TVs !

I've had access to as many TVs as I could wish for but I just don't need that many. I have six TVs and that's already overkill. I guess technically I have seven but the one is just sitting off to the side not connected to anything. Only five of my TVs are hooked up to receivers.

 

[Hall]

Pffft, we have (2) TVs hooked up to Dish.... We have (2) other TVs - one is XBox only and the other is BluRay only.

 

[nelson61]

[QUOTE="Claude Greiner
..........Today when you factor in the bundle from the cable company on your base rate, your not that much better off if you had satellite and bought your internet separate.

The additional outlet fees, DVR, and HD FEES are just killing the advantage satellite once had over cable.

I got a TIVO DVR with my comcast. Spent like $400 on the Romario plus $130 each for the 3 TIVO MINIS.

I pay comcast $119 for extreme 105, xfinity home security and TV. I pay $10 extra for the 105 service and $10 to go to the 220 channel package for a total of $139.

I pay TIVO $9.99/mo which there is no fee on the tivo minis and comcast gives me a $1.50 credit for having a cable card.

That is value.

Go spend $700 for genies, hoppers, joeys and clients and they charge you the same as if you leased the equipment.

Now granted not everyone spends $700 on Tivos, but that's $30 in fees saved with Directv and Dish and probably $60 in fees every month if I would have had the equivalent in comcast equipment. ......... "

.[/QUOTE]

An excellent summary of why satellite is having trouble holding market share.
Had not thought about it, but why would they not have a lower monthly fee for those that bought their own equipment? Seems to me that "owned" equipment both reduces expenses and makes the customer more "sticky". Seems like that would be something a business would want.

 

[Hall]

Dish, for example, won't give up that add'l revenue stream. They provide customers with a DVR yet charge a DVR fee. You could ask Dish, "Wait, you're charging me a fee for the set-tops primary function (after receiving broadcasts)?". That's how they keep charging people even when they own their equipment.

If you don't get a DVR, I don't know if they charge for a single receiver or if it starts with the second box, if you have one.

 

[MikeD-C05]

There is no everyday value anymore.



The additional outlet fees, DVR, and HD FEES are just killing the advantage satellite once had over cable.

That has been my complaint for the last 5 or 6 years now. The advantage was there when it cost you like $5.00 for each additional receiver and a small dvr fee ,but since 2010 and the changes made to the additional receiver fees , it has been just ridiculous. When I ask for credits now from DISH about every 6 months , it is mostly to pay for my additional receiver and dvr fees that now equal $29.00 - $36.00-depending on the extra joey I sometimes activate. The programming is quite high too now ,but I just keep dropping down to the lower pack to compensate. IF DISH would give us credit for owning my receivers ,which I do and have since the beginning , this would eliminate my need for calling to get money off ever 6 months.

 

[Yespage]

If Dish and Directv would simply lock in your rate for 2 years...

Then the rate increases would be larger.

People need to start complaining to the channels, not Dish/Directv about the escalating television costs. Dish and Directv are about as cheap as it gets equipment wise, and at least you get a good value for your fee with the equipment you use.

 

[nelson61]

Mike bought his receivers. He has a reverse subsidy where he is subsidizing the leased receivers.

 

[nelson61]

All you have to do is look at the cell service models. T Mobil started offering stripping out the cost of the phone and dropping their rates for the service. Market share jumped.

I'd guess the incentive would work the same way for TV but even better since once you bought the equipment your are not only "sticky" but "stuck" since the box can't be transferred to another provider.

 

[david_jr]

My monthly fees alone are now almost double what my entire bill for Satellite was when I first started with Dish in April 97.

 

[Hall]

I don't want to think about what we used to pay for HD Absolute and we did just fine with TV back then !

 

[Yespage]

Mike bought his receivers. He has a reverse subsidy where he is subsidizing the leased receivers.

Aren't the receivers paid for by the leasee, ie why the 2 year deal? No one is subsidizing anyone for equipment.

My monthly fees alone are now almost double what my entire bill for Satellite was when I first started with Dish in April 97.

And the capabilities of the equipment is what, around 100x, from that in '97. No DVR, no HD, no 5.1 DD, etc...

And lets not forget the number of channels you get now instead of the meager offerings back then Discovery and TLC back when they showed great programm...

...ummm... I'd like to stick with my first comment.

 

[Hall]

Aren't the receivers paid for by the leasee, ie why the 2 year deal? No one is subsidizing anyone for equipment.

Dish can claim that point, but if your rate doesn't go down after (2) years, e.g. you've "paid off" the equipment, it's hard to make that point.