Who's to blame for these increasing tv costs?

[dare2be]

My TV costs have been cut in half.

 

[AZ.]

The best way to see TV costs go down is to turn off the TV (and cancel all subscription services). As said, it is supply and demand.

I feel its more accurate of a statement to say, "Its what the market can bear"....and you can see some have had it, and started to cut cords.

 

[sam_gordon]

So consumers give more money to MVPDs. That's because MVPDs are paying more to channels. That's because channels are paying more for the programs/events. That's because programs/events are paying more for the actors/directors/coaches/athletes/producers/et al. Of course each step of the way means profits to someone (except the consumer).

All it's going to take to break the cycle(at any point) is enough consumers to tell the providers they're not going to pay. If enough MVPDs tell ESPN (pick a channel) they won't pay $x, the price will drop.

 

[Bobby]

This is an entirely different story but the context fits. Back in 1977 you could buy a pound of coffe for $1.25. Just about all of our coffee came from Columbia in those days. The Columbian coffee providers decided that they could make a ton of profit by raising the price. Just about overnight the price of coffee went up to $7 a pound. Restaurants put a surcharge on a cup of coffee overvthe menu price. The people of America boycotted coffee. Nearly everyone stopped drinking it, even with the headaches that came along with that. It took about a month and a half for that boycott to make a dent. Coffee dropped to about $3.50 a pound and most were happy. The price of coffee nearly tripled in the end and I'm sure the industry was tickled. From a personal viewpoint, I held myself to one cup cup a day even though I was drinking about two pots a day in the past. Today I hardly drink coffee at all, just when I have an occasional breakfast out.

 

[dare2be]

I get the same caffeine from Diet Mt. Dew without the coffee breath.

And I never pay more than 1.00 for a 2-liter.

 

[navychop]

Coffee is bad for you. I drink that nice healthy soda stuff instead.......

 

[patmurphey]

Before anyone blames Dish look at their profit margin. They do stand up to providers and are excoriated for it. Go figure.

 

[sam_gordon]

Before anyone blames Dish look at their profit margin. They do stand up to providers and are excoriated for it. Go figure.

Regarding the bolded... https://ycharts.com/companies/DISH/profit_margin
2016
Q4: 8.21%
Q3: 10.70%
Q2: 10.28%
Q1: -3.32%

 

[Mochuf]

The blame lies on the customers. Everytime a channel threatens to go down on any provider, customers threaten to leave, or do leave while screaming that the provider is too cheap to pay the channels. Then get pissed at the annual price increase caused almost solely by customers not allowing business to work. Consumers are the dumbest thing to happen to business. They say "I'll vote with my wallet", well thanks for screwing the entire market every time a channel has a contract renewal with a different provider.

I certainly vote with my wallet. I couldn't give a rat's ass if anyone thinks people like me are the problem. All I care about is MY bottom line. I switch providers every time my promotion rate expires and currently pay less for tv, internet and phone than I did 7 years ago. These extreme promos show that providers charge too much for their service and could probably charge 10-25% less and still be profitable.

 

[pattykay]

Not the guy who was Upset about a Free preview being to short and felt he deserved a credit.

That was me, and I actually got the discount on both of my Dish accounts. If you are going to call me out for doing that, do so in the appropriate (Starz) thread, not this one. I pointed out a clear case of false advertising on Dish's part, and Dish should be held accountable for it. Giving the free month of Starz and StarzEncore to the few customers who would actually bother to complain probably costs Dish a whole lot less than it would have cost Dish to actually leave those channels in free preview for everyone for the entire length of time that was originally listed on the Dish free preview web page.

 

[rvvaquero]

All I care about is MY bottom line.

These extreme promos show that providers charge too much for their service and could probably charge 10-25% less and still be profitable.

They charge what the market will bear, just like most businesses in most industries. We can argue about if it's moral or ethical or not, but it is fact. Just like you stated above for your purposes, all they care about is the bottom line. That's why they're in business.

 

[Troch77]

That was me, and I actually got the discount on both of my Dish accounts. If you are going to call me out for doing that, do so in the appropriate (Starz) thread, not this one. I pointed out a clear case of false advertising on Dish's part, and Dish should be held accountable for it. Giving the free month of Starz and StarzEncore to the few customers who would actually bother to complain probably costs Dish a whole lot less than it would have cost Dish to actually leave those channels in free preview for everyone for the entire length of time that was originally listed on the Dish free preview web page.

It was extremely relevant right here in this thread.
It certainly wasn't false advertising.
More like a mis-print .

 

[jerryez]

And every time I cut my Dish package to save money the damn cable company raises my internet fee. Cox raised the cost $5 in Jan 2016 and $5 in November 2016. that is $10 in one year, which is almost a 14% INCREASE IN 10 MONTHS. plus they added a cap to streaming usage with a $10 fee when you go over the cap each month, which could add up to hundredsof dollars each year. Rape! Rape!

 

[comfortably_numb]

It's usually always market forces (supply/demand) and what the market will bear that is to blame for price. If you are creative, think outside the box, and explore all your options, you can usually come up with a solution that works within your budget. For instance, Dish has that $20 Welcome Pack. I have that, plus MLB.tv for baseball when in season, an OTA antenna on my roof, and Netflix. You may not get EVERY channel you want, but maybe you can get close. Or find enough entertainment on the channels you do get to keep you busy.


Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!

 

[dare2be]

It's usually always market forces (supply/demand) and what the market will bear that is to blame for price.

Usually. That would hold true if there was true competition and consumer choice instead of collusion and oligopoly.

 

[comfortably_numb]

Usually. That would hold true if there was true competition and consumer choice instead of collusion and oligopoly.

We're lucky we still have 2 satellite TV providers. They've attempted to merge before


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[wvman]

I really don't want to leave Dish. I've been happy with the H3 and haven't had many issues with Dish but the dilemma I'm in is my wife watches Bravo and if I drop below the Top 200, she loses it . If we drop to the 120 plus, I'll lose the MLB , NBA , NHL and NFL network channels I watch. My total bill equals to 107 a month as I have a h3 and one joey 2 and the top 200 pack. I'll save $10 if I drop a package below but channels I actually watch will be gone. Is it the channel networks or Dish to blame for the increasing costs?

I don't know what to do as I have a year left on my contract. I don't ask for discounts often but i wonder if I'm better off paying the termination fee and coming back. I was told if I cancel now, Dish can charge the fee within 20 days at anytime as the Rep said there was no set Day they do it.


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Dish watches whose buying what and they redesign their channel packages accordingly. I sold Dish for several years and I fielded a lot of complaints from customers who were upset when they were forced to go to a higher package to get the channels they used to have in the lower cost package. They would split up channels like Fox Movie Network and AMC because they knew customers who liked both would probably switch to a higher cost package to keep from losing one or the other.

It's a money game. Several years ago, they came up with a package known as Dish Pix. It allowed you to pick 10 channels you liked and buy them separately rather than in a big package format. A lot of customer loved it and when their sales of the higher packages started to tank, they added restrictions on which channels you could pick, which were usually a bunch of crappy channels no one wanted, and when customers stopped buying the package, they eventually did away with it altogether.

They also did away with the Starz/Encore package. Both were combined and was a really good deal. Eventually they said if you had the package and dropped it, you couldn't get it back and you had to purchase Starz and the Encore package separately. When people didn't drop them as fast as they liked, they started cutting them off and when the customer called in raising hell, they would give them the old song and dance that someone from that address had discontinued the service.

I had so many customers complaining about them doing that I knew they weren't lying, but what could you do when they had all the marbles? DirecTV gained a lot of customers because of their dirty tricks.

 

[dare2be]

You give too much credit to the provider in their placement of channels in packages. Most of that is controlled by the rigorous contract negotiations that occur with channel owners. Most of the time, the channel owner conglomerates have more of the leverage to dictate which packages their channels appear in.

 

[ChadT41]

Channel owners did away with ala carte options. You're interpretation is way to skewed. The timelines are correct, however, that's where it ends.

 

[dishcomm]

I really don't want to leave Dish. I've been happy with the H3 and haven't had many issues with Dish but the dilemma I'm in is my wife watches Bravo and if I drop below the Top 200, she loses it . If we drop to the 120 plus, I'll lose the MLB , NBA , NHL and NFL network channels I watch. My total bill equals to 107 a month as I have a h3 and one joey 2 and the top 200 pack. I'll save $10 if I drop a package below but channels I actually watch will be gone. Is it the channel networks or Dish to blame for the increasing costs?

I don't know what to do as I have a year left on my contract. I don't ask for discounts often but i wonder if I'm better off paying the termination fee and coming back. I was told if I cancel now, Dish can charge the fee within 20 days at anytime as the Rep said there was no set Day they do it.


Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys mobile app

The problem is bundling and the near insane bidding for sports programming.
Plus, and I am a fan of certain spectator sports, is that sports programmers vehemently oppose having their services places on sports only tiers. This is because if non sports fans had a choice to not have any sports oriented services as part of their subscriptions, the cost to those that do want them would become cost prohibitive. And there would end the gravy train.
Now, as far as interest channels such as Bravo, providers look over the demographics of the viewers and use that information to decide in which tiers these most favored channels would be placed.