It's a good thing I hardly watch any of those stations (well, I watch CBS OTA). With the exception of South Park, which I'll direly miss, Good riddance to the MTV's and such . Hopefully Dish will come out on top .

To every controversy, spin, spin, spin ...

DISH will be making the channels go dark by refusing to pay for them.

das

However, even with the fact that DirecTV charges US$42.99/month for the Total Choice Plus package, it's still way better than what Comcast is charging in my area: US$46/month for half the number of channels DirecTV offers! To get Comcast with the same number of channels as DirecTV with Comcast's Digital Cable service is a big increase in price per month!

I expect a major switch to DirecTV, especially now with the US$29.95/month for the Total Choice package for the first six months.

Personally, I'm glad that Dish Network has the balls to stand up to Viacom, I'm tired of DirecTV and cable companies bending over and paying whatever is asked of them (and passing it on to customers).

I'm not. I watch a lot of VH1, Comedy Central, and MTV. I want my channels back or Im switching to Directv plain and simple.

I am sure a lot of other people will too... I mean come on Dish. Wake up and smell the coffee here, Viacom's channels are some of the most watched and most popular. Nick is the #1 kids network for goodness sakes.

They are not going to survive without th channels, but I am quite sure Viacom can without the support of the Dish Network.

Comedy Central is now running promos declaring it is only available on cable and DirectTV.

Most interesting.

TVLAND just said that it was only available on cable and Directv as well, but we still get it on Dish (so far).

I made the switch from Directv to Dish Network just yesterday. Directv just went ahead and upped my bill by $3 on channels that I barely watch. They would not work with me on an upgrade of satellite to get NASA and RFD-TV(horse shows), a DVDR, adding two more rooms for a total of 4, and I wanted to get the Golf Channel verus from having to buy the enitre sports tier. I've always liked Dish Networking programming packages better. Directv also wanted 4.99 per extra receiver.

Since I am not a fan of the NFL, it made no sense for me to stay with Directv. Now I have 4 rooms and a DVDR all for free . Directv wanted hundreds of dollars for me to upgrade. Only when I mentioned I was having Dish Network installed did they want to do a little of something.

I commend Dish Network for making this stand without automatically passing the costs on to it's customers. I really will not miss f*&*%*g Ozzie and his spoiled kids along with the phone puppets on Crank Yankers that much until a resolution is made.

If you think Dish Network will never raise rates, you have an unpleasant surprise coming.

Even if they raise their rates, I like their programming better. Just my preferrence. What I get now compared to the same thing with Directv(along with upgrade costs) is less expensive. I will miss T Memme though!!!!

I've been with Dish for many years. Yeah, this kinda sucks but its only temporary. If it went on for a long time I might consider switching but a week or 2 is fairly insignificant in the whole scheme of things. By the time directv/cable is able to come out and set you up everything will be back to the way it was.

Anything you miss on the dropped channels can easily be caught up on in the zillion reruns each of them run when the channels return. The only exception would be CBS (which I lost since i'm one of those markets). But I can get it for free with an antenna anyways so its just a minor inconvenience since I can't record them for the time being.

Two questions about Dish/DirecTV...


Am I correct in thinking that neither of these offers local ABC stations?

When they advertise the price being $39.99, is that for only one receiver or for as many as you like?

That is not correct. ABC is available.

That is for one receiver. For DTV, each additional receiver is $5 per month.

Not necessarily. As I said in the other thread, my parents had a Dish network install set up last week (it was two weeks after they'd ordered it) and the guy called the day of install and said he couldn't do it because he didn't have the parts. They told him to shove it, called direct TV, and got a 2 room system installed free the next day.

I certainly wouldn't reccomend Dish to anyone given dropping these channels (just pay the damn fees like cable and direct already) and their lack of service in the experience of people I know personally.

As a former DISH Network employee (not a customer service lacky), I'm not surprised by this. I currently have DISH because of 2 reasons: 1) I already had a PVR and wanted to keep it without buying a new one, and 2) HBO Comedy.

DISH is the master of spin, and 9 times out of 10 when a channel gets pulled due to negotiations, it's DISH doing the pulling. Their rates are not that much different/better than DirecTV's rates, so all of these "stands" they keep taking against high prices aren't having much of an affect.

Comedy Central is one of the main channels I watch, and the kids watch Nick...both now gone. No South Park, no Spongebob. Yes, I'm pissed. At least i can get CBS off air in HD, although I don't watch anything on CBS (excpet for the NFL). If this is true about a lousy 6 cents a months DISH won't ante up, then this is absurd on their part. There's no way Viacom is asking for a $4/month increase. Maybe they want a TOTAL of $4/month per sub. DISH pulled this crap with ESPN awhile ago, now this. And considering the majority of what I watch and now in a 2 year contract, $1/month doesn't quite cover it.

While they try to get out of liability by stating programming and packages can change, I'd be the first on board with a class-action lawsuit for more damages if this continues much longer...or demand they release me from my contract. We shall see...

And FYI, DISH is stingy in every way when it comes to how their company is run, including how employees are treated and how their equipment is manufactured.

I KNEW I shoulda just gone to DirecTV and got a Tivo (especially since my PVR keeps missing half of American idol and Curb Your Enthusiasm due to time shifts which their PVRs are not built to accomodate.

I think there are bad experiences everywhere on installs with both services. In my case I got 4 rooms and a DVDR for free with Dish. They were on time and very professional. I could not upgrade my Directv to what I wanted without forking out a lot of money to Directv. I had previously had Dish Network in the late 90's and gave Directv a try in 2000 when I moved.

Even with the Viacom issue, it still seems like I get more channels with the Dish than Directv. I did lose Oxygen (I'll miss Girls Behaving Badly and the ever so famous old lady call in show) and Fine Network now being on Dish.

But if you are an NFL fan(which I am not) Directv is the way to go. I can't afford all those season passes anyway so Dish is better for me.

If it is true about it being only 6 cents a month to carry Viacom networks, I would pay it. Where is Dish's $3-$4 figure coming from when Viacom says it would only be 6 cents?

I still got my Directv equipment and Directv was kind enough to tell me to call back if I need their service again. We'll see.....

Well, after this and the PVR issues I've had, I'm switching to DirectTV. The cost is comparable, the number of channels is very close, and I want Tivo, dammit! DirectTV's ordering number has added a bit to their message about how if you're a Dish Network customer, you should switch because DirectTV will never take away any channels from you.

While I'm not sure who's telling the truth overall, I believe Viacom's comment that said they could never charge Charlie Egan less than they were charging Rupert Murdoch. I just don't think cutting very popular channels was the best decision for Charlie to make. Ah well. Don't know enough of the true story to have a moral stance on it, I just know that I want those channels, and I want Tivo.

X

On the Charlie Chat last night, Charlie repeatedly denied that it was only 6 cents, saying that if it was that little they'd have signed the contract in a heartbeat. He wasn't sure where they came up with that number either.

There are a number of issues you have to keep in mind about the whole deal. Its not just negotiating the rates for a single channel. Viacom wants to increase the rates of the ones that got dropped, PLUS force Dish to add a bunch of other new channels too. Maybe the 6 cents is the increased cost of CBS only, but they conveniently leave out the part where they are forcing Dish to buy a bunch of new programming in order to get that 6 cent increased rate (or to get the channel period).

They might be back sooner than later anyways:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...chostar_viacom

Yeah I don't think Charlie would fight them over a 6 cents increase. Any info on the new channels Viacom is pushing?

I thought the new channel they were pushing was "Nick Toons" and that Dish wanted to dump "Nick Games and Sports" & "Noggin".

local radio guy has Dish and said there was a recorded message played with the head of Viacom's home phone number

They also want them to rip up there existing contracts with SpikeTV and two others (can't remember, think one was MTV) and sign new ones that are more expensive....

NickToons rocks! Well at least my son thinks so. Right now I am very happy that we have digital cable, though we are still considering DirectTivo.

From Viacom's perspective, why wouldn't they want their contract to include all of their channels? I'm sure Discovery Networks carry similar contracts so if you want Discovery you have to take TLC, BBCA and all of the other Discovery channels.

I guess the dispute is resolved?
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...chostar_viacom

That wasn't so bad.
They're already back on.