Rate hikes ahead for satellite TV fans

C|Net ^ | January 6, 2005 | Dawn Kawamoto

[holymoly]

"This is an industry where there are strong incentives for all the players to compete on product differentiation rather than price,"

Does that explain why DirecTV has 8 or 10 shopping channels? ;)

[Investment Biker]

I have directv and they do have a lot of shopping channels. We are thinking of dropping all cable service because we just do not watch it that much. With HDTV on air I now receive an over on air broadcast a total of 21 channels over the local antenna. While I would miss having access to fox news and the sports channels the rest is really not worthwhile. My wife would bitch but she rarely watches Directv.

[longtermmemmory]

agreed.

Let the public drop the PC channels like MTV, Lifetime, and the new homosexual channel that is going to be foised upon the basic channels.

Some operators pay to be on the lineup others are paid to be there. It would be interesting to see a list of the two types broken down.

[oceanview]

those channels pay to be carried.

[oceanview]

i dropped the Sunday Ticket football pkg this year because the costs were just getting too high.

[bigsigh]

Isn't it time for these services and cable to let subscribers individually select channels as they like and put their viewing packages together?

[holymoly]

those channels pay to be carried.

That's what I was afraid of. ;)

[Gorzaloon]

The satellite companies themselves put the increases down to price of content and to the cost of adding new features to a monthly service.

Yes, content that nobody wants, just any excuse to fill billable bandwidth. You know, the Accordian Music Channel, the Darts Tournament Channel, the "I Love Lucy" channel, and, as you said, a number of shopping channels.

[Mears]

I hope I live long enough to have the plan you suggested.

I don't watch 3/4 of my current choices.Waste of money!

[bikepacker67]

i dropped the Sunday Ticket football pkg this year because the costs were just getting too high.

You obviously don't have your priorities straight! ;-)

[bigsigh]

Yeah, my wife will only have Lifetime, and Home and Garden.

[longtermmemmory]

ever look at the 9000 range? Its all sales.

[oceanview]

instead of watching one game, I found myself endlessly switching from game to game to game - I wasn't enjoying any of them, just channel surfing. they cut in with enough highlights of other games during the local game, to let you see most of the action.

[Bobalu]

Get an old C band dish and receiver from someone that no longer wants theirs. There are lots of them available for the asking, mostly from people that upgraded to the little dish for Dish Network or Direct TV.

You can subscribe to Fox News for less than 5$/yr
Or get a package with CNN/HLN/CNNI/FOXNEWS for 19.50/yr.

A&E/History channels are 12.50/yr as a package.
Most of the other channels that are worth watching are
similarly priced..

I'm so sad though that on Dec31 they stopped feeding Turner Classic Movies on C band :-( I loved that channel... I switched to American Movie Classics though, so at least I have something in B+W to watch :-)

[oceanview]

9000? my channels only go up to 999.

[longtermmemmory]

mine goes to 9900. ?

[AmericaUnited]

120 channels but almost nothing to watch! What's up with that?!

[Squawk 8888]

sn't it time for these services and cable to let subscribers individually select channels as they like and put their viewing packages together?

In parts of Canada there's Look TV that does precisely that. I've been a subscriber for about 5 years now.

[holymoly]

9000? my channels only go up to 999.

mine goes to 9900. ?

I think one of you is on DISH, the other DirecTV. Also, the older DirecTV recievers only go to channel 999.