DirecTV ups HD prices

hybucket said:

Phillip Swann (Yeah, I know, a lot of you don't like him, but...) says in his latest column that D* will be putting a 4.99 price on three of their HD channels now included in their HD 10.99 package. They will add three new HD channels for a total of 6 for the 4.99, but will charge this for ALL customers, not just those with the HR20 that actually GET the other three. I think that is highway robbery!
The article is here, if this comes thru as a link..
http://www.tvpredictions.com/dprices101807.htm

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Uh, they will charge this for ALL customers that want to pay for the extra channel package. It won't be ALL customers, as ALL customers includes many customers that don't get HD at all.

They will charge the same fee for ALL customers that want to subscribe to the additional channel package and/or wish to continue to receive the channels that are moving into the new channel package (HDNet as an example). In some cases customers that only have MPEG2 equipment (looks in the general direction of the HR10-250 users and users of older non-DVR HD receivers) the customers will be paying for channels that they can't, but that will be the choice of those customers as they have opportunity to replace their equipment with equipment that can get the new channels.

Some stubborn customers may not wish to change to the new equipment, and they may be unhappy about being charged more money for fewer channels, but that is their choice as no one is telling them that they have to keep using equipment that doesn't receive all channels.

bdowell said:

Uh, they will charge this for ALL customers that want to pay for the extra channel package. It won't be ALL customers, as ALL customers includes many customers that don't get HD at all.

They will charge the same fee for ALL customers that want to subscribe to the additional channel package and/or wish to continue to receive the channels that are moving into the new channel package (HDNet as an example). In some cases customers that only have MPEG2 equipment (looks in the general direction of the HR10-250 users and users of older non-DVR HD receivers) the customers will be paying for channels that they can't, but that will be the choice of those customers as they have opportunity to replace their equipment with equipment that can get the new channels.

Some stubborn customers may not wish to change to the new equipment, and they may be unhappy about being charged more money for fewer channels, but that is their choice as no one is telling them that they have to keep using equipment that doesn't receive all channels.

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Yes, I was wrong in saying ALL customers..I meant that all customers who get HD.
And while I can't disagree that it certainly is anyone's choice as to whether, if they do NOT have the HR 20, they want to pay the additional fee, I will say, and I am certainly an example of this, that I watch Universal HD and I watch HD NET. I have not decided as yet whether I want to stay with D* when I move in a few months. In the meantime, I will either lose those two stations for several months, or shell out the extra $. I don't think that is fair, when the plan by D* is obviously to get everyone to switch over to the HR20, where they get their 2 year committment or whatever it is this week. To charge customers with an older unit to pay for channels they don't get just doesn't seem right to me. And don't bother to say, if you don't want it , don't get it. I already know that.

hybucket said:

And don't bother to say, if you don't want it , don't get it. I already know that.

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Then why complain?

The answer is that simple. If you really feel that the few channels you'd be able to keep receiving (but would have to pay more money for) aren't worth it, then drop them. Heck, drop all of the hi-def channels at that point if you want as you'd be losing a total of about 8 channels.

You'd still get your hi-def locals with an HR10-250, but lose out on a few months (by your own description and expectation) of hi-def programming on a few channels. UHD and HD-Net (and HD-Net movies) would be gone if you don't pay for the higher package or don't get an HR20 or the non-DVR hi-def receiver (H20?).

There are options.

I don't fault you for not wanting to get into a commitment, but complaining that you are losing programming that DirecTV has opted to move into a new tier just doesn't seem like something to get that worked up over. If the channels are worth it, pay for 'em, even if you would still be missing channels you are missing right now.

Fact of the matter is that none of the proposed price increase happens for a few months anyway.

If I'm reading that article correctly--come 12/15, any current D* HD subscribers (i.e., those of us who currently subscribe to the $10 HD package) who wish to receive the six additional HD channels (HDNet, HDNet Movies, Universal HD, Smithsonian HD, MGM HD, and MHD) will need to cough up (an additional? I assume you can't subscribe to just the HD Extra Pack w/o first subscribing to the $10 HD Programming package?) $4.99/month.

Are there any D* MPEG2-based (non-premium/PPV) HD channels that aren't part of the HD Extra Pack? I'm asking because if not, then yeah it would suck for me to be stuck w/ an HR10-250 for which the only MPEG2 HD channels I can watch on it will require me to pay $4.99/month. To put it another way--it would have been nice if D* would let us HR10-250 owners continue to watch what remaining MPEG2 HD channels still remain for a bit longer like it has been all this time, w/o having to pay extra for it.

UHD and HD-Net (and HD-Net movies) would be gone if you don't pay for the higher package or don't get an HR20 or the non-DVR hi-def receiver (H20?).

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bdowell--forgive me if I misinterpreted your comment (above) but are you saying that if one has an H20/HR20 HD receiver, one will not be required to pay extra in order to receive the HD Extra Pack? If so, then I didn't see anything in the article that insinuated such; as I said above--if you want those extra six channels, you have to pay extra for it (assuming of course you have the proper equipment to receive those channels)...even if you're already subscribed to the $10 HD package.

As best I can tell, come December 15, it'll work like this:

Discovery Channel HD, ESPNHD, ESPN2HD and TNTHD will be the only channels you'll get on MPEG2 (HR10-250, H10) receivers and in order to get them, you'll still have to pay the $10 fee (or is it $10.99?) in order to get those channels.

In order to get HDNet, HDNet Movies and Universal HD -- 3 channels you would have been getting as part of the approx. $10 HD access fee charged in the past, you'd have to pay an additional $4.99 a month to get the new package -- on top of having to pay the $10 HD access fee.

If you want to get *all* of the HD channels that DirecTV is offering, then you'll have to replace equipment. Either get an HR20 or HR21, or an H20 -- an MPEG4 compatible receiver (which also receives the MPEG2 channels).


Losing 3 channels sucks, and honestly, paying $10 a month for the few remaining MPEG2 channels would suck too, but you can get new equipment and get those channels and a lot more that are being sent down in MPEG4 format.

If you must have TiVo and want hi-def, then for now DirecTV is pushing you aside. On the other hand, they are offering fairly nice pricing on new equipment as long as the people taking that equipment are willing to accept a commitment of at least a year (for non-DVR receivers) or two years (for DVR receivers).

Consider the other options though - move to FiOS (if available in your area) and pay for a Series 3, or perhaps get a TiVo HD box, or accept the DVR that is provided by the FiOS provider. If not FiOS, then you are looking at cable and with a lot of uncertainty floating around switched digital video services, you could be paying a lot of money for a TiVo box that won't receive squat in the future. Cable companies would be glad to offer their own DVRs too, but many of them work far, far worse than the HR20 does and have just as many, if not many more restrictions on their functionality than an HR20 does too.

bdowell said:

...but you can get new equipment and get those channels and a lot more that are being sent down in MPEG4 format.

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I've had the DirecTV people trying to sell me on the new DVR for a while now. It just looks awful to me, and I don't much feel like giving in to them on this one. They need to get things back in gear with TiVo.

bdowell said:

Consider the other options though - move to FiOS (if available in your area) and pay for a Series 3, or perhaps get a TiVo HD box, or accept the DVR that is provided by the FiOS provider. If not FiOS, then you are looking at cable and with a lot of uncertainty floating around switched digital video services, you could be paying a lot of money for a TiVo box that won't receive squat in the future.

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True, true. We have an HD cable Tivo, and local cable service via Comcast; at the moment, there's no FiOS at our location yet. The difference between DirecTV and Comcast used to be a yawning gulf--Comcast had an all-analog system long after it should have gone digital, and didn't even have a decent selection of channels for an analog-only system. Now, the channel selection difference just isn't that big a deal, and the biggest difference up till now was that DirecTV not only had a better HD selection but also had more HD on the way (or so I thought--I had not known they were planning on abandoning the MPEG-2 boxes). Now that DirecTV is chopping off three channels of HD, it just is hard to find a reason to continue with 'em. It's always possible that the cable situation will get screwed up, too, and then I'll have to decide which screwed-up situation is less bad, and maybe that sends me back to DirecTV. But boy oh boy, I am paying those people a lot of money every month to get treated this poorly.

I don't think I'll be in a big hurry to pick up another DVR unless somebody finally comes out with something good. I have hated the user interface on everything I have ever seen other than the TiVo; my brother had one of the new DirecTV boxes for about a day and sent it back. Meanwhile, we're already a four-TiVo household; we picked it up in '99, only a year or so into our DirecTV subscription, and I always thought the synergy of these two (DirecTV and TiVo) was unstoppable.

Argh. DirecTV is frustrating me, and it's surprising because I have always had the best service and the best customer service experiences with them. Comcast stinks; its predecessors stunk, it stinks, and it will continue to stink; but I'm not running out back and farting around with a new antenna and all that business just to take on a DVR I don't really want to see in my house. As I said: Argh.

Kurt

KurtBJC said:

I've had the DirecTV people trying to sell me on the new DVR for a while now. It just looks awful to me, and I don't much feel like giving in to them on this one. They need to get things back in gear with TiVo.

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I know this will likely invite RS4 in to the discussion so he can bad mouth the HR20 more or call people that say the HR20 isn't a bad box TiVo bashers, but here goes for the I don't know how many-eth time...

If you are really hung up on keeping TiVo, then it is getting ever closer to being time to crap or get off the pot. As others have said, DirecTV and TiVo are barely working together now with no new boxes in the works. DirecTV doesn't want to share the DVR fees that they collect, and don't want to share the the income from the hardware. That could possibly change if they opt to change direction under new management, but the numbers of people that absolutely refuse to switch are fairly small and easily absorbed in the regular 'churn' that DirecTV goes through on a monthly basis.

For each customer that absolutely refuses to switch to a new receiver (and away from the TiVo boxes), DirecTV is absolutely adding new customers that are buying into the 'MOST HD' promise that they are making (and delivering on). While there are customers that absolutely must have TiVo, the bulk of the customers that DirecTV has have DirecTV because they offer the best programming packages at the best prices for those customers.

There are football lovers that are subscribing to get Sunday Ticket, NASCAR fans that are subscribing to get that package, etc. And there are many people that are getting the new hi-def packages because those packages are the best offering of HD programming for the money.

I wouldn't say never when it comes to TiVo and DirecTV but I would say that holding out hope for that marriage to be patched back up would be a bit like expecting a miracle.

Moving to cable will be my solution as well.

And I'm sorry, but when you take away something I currently am paying for - then put it somewhere where you call it "optional" - thats a rate hike because I have to pay more to get what I currently have now. Call it whatever you want but if I've paid $X for Y services all year and now you take half (or a portion) of that Y service away and want to charge me more to get it back - even if you throw something else in. Thats a rate hike.

As for the HR20, I wont go near it with a 10 foot pole yet. I've spent too much time on the dbs boards reading about endless issues with it. No thanks. You know how many missed recordings my HR10-250 or T60 have missed in 6 years? How about none. Not one. All my locals come HD via strong OTA signals anyway and thats really 80+% of what I watch anyway. I dont want some elaborate solution where I have my 10-250 plugged in as a backup box somewhere. 6 months from now, maybe it will be better, but until then I'll pass.

Am I the only one that's not shocked by DirecTV raising their prices for HD programming? They've been hawking the addition of 70-100 new HD channels for many months and everyone has been eagerly awaiting them. What everyone fails to realize is that these new channels are costing DirecTV billions of dollars to provide and the money has to come from somewhere. AFAIK, any existing mpeg2 standard definition channel that's getting a companion mpeg4 HD channel is included in whatever base package that provides the mpeg2 channel at no extra cost. If there are mpeg4 HD channels that do not have a companion mpeg2 channel then I can see a valid argument for charging an additional fee to receive them.

However, DirecTV is pulling a fast one by charging extra for channels that used to be part of the original HD package that was eventually replaced by the HD access fee. The way I see it, anyone that is paying the HD access fee is already paying for the three channels currently in the lineup but slated to be moved to the new HD package.

Let's face it folks, your rates are going to go up with any new channels added to the lineup so live with it. Fortunately, I have FIOS and don't get charged extra for the same channels. I fully expect that to change when their HD lineup gets beefed up to start competing with the new DirecTV channels, but for now I'll just sit back and listen to the DirecTV subscribers whine about it.