Dish Network is greeting their customer base this February with a hefty price increase which may have customers looking to DIRECTV or other cable TV providers. The Dish TV price increase takes effect today, though the news first broke back in December of last year.
So how will you be affected by Dish Network raising rates? Lets take a look at how Dish Network has arranged its pricing for 2009.
First, Dish Network has eliminated the package names that have been around for years, such as the Americas Top 100, or AT100 as it is often referred to. Gone as well are the America’s Top 200, America’s Top 250, and the America’s Everything Pack. Dish Network has renamed these packages to match the Turbo HD names that came out last summer. Here is how the Dish Network packages transition.
America’s Top 100 is now the Dish Network Classic Bronze 100. This package is moving up from $32.99 to $34.99. With local service it moves from $34.99 to $39.99. Price increase of $2.00 a month. Add $10 per month for the Turbo HD Bronze addition.
America’s Top 200 is now the Dish Network Classic Silver 200. This bundle is increasing in price from $44.99 to $47.99 per month. With local channels, it increased from $49.99 to $52.99 per month. Overall an increase of $3.00 over 2008 prices. Add $10 for the Turbo HD Silver package.
America’s Top 250 is now the Dish Network Classic Gold 250. The base package increases from $54.99 to $57.99 per month. With locals, the price of $59.99 goes up to $62.99 per month. Overall, prices increase $3 a month for the 250 channel lineup. Add $10 for the Turbo HD Gold package.
Lastly, the all inclusive Dish Network America’s Everything Pak is renamed the Classic Everything Pak. This was $94.98 last year, and will be $97.98 in 2009. With local channels, the price increases from $99.98 to $102.98. Overall, a $3 per month increase here. Again, the Turbo HD Gold addition can be had for another $10 per month.
One area where Dish Network is making up some lost ground is on their DishDVR Advantage packages. Last year, Dish Network made a big deal over the fact that they were freezing prices on several of their packages. In actuality, they only held the line on the DishDVR Advantage packages, and the Dish Family package. But Dish Network is making up for that with this year’s price increase.
The DishDVR Advantage Classic Bronze will move from $39.99 a month up to $44.99 a month, a $5 increase. DishDVR Classic Silver will increase from $49.99 up to $57.99 a month. Finally, the DishDVR Classic Gold 250 will increase from $59.99 up to $67.99 a month. Thus the Silver and Gold DishDVR packages will both increase $8 per month. So Dish Network customers may have enjoyed lower prices in 2008, they are basically being hit with a double increase in 2009 to make up for Dish Network’s lost revenue, and to bring prices more in line with DIRECTV and cable television.
If you are one of the new subscribers to the Dish Network Turbo HD only packages, you will also encounter a price increase. Turbo HD Bronze is jumping $5 per month, from $24.99 up to $29.99 a month. Turbo HD Silver customers will see their prices move up from $32.99 to $39.99, an increase of $7 a month. Finally the Turbo HD Gold package will increase a whopping $10 per month, from $39.99 up to $49.99 a month. Turbo HD came into the market last summer with extremely low prices for the all high definition channel lineups, but those low prices are quickly disappearing. Rumors of new HD channels have been floating across message boards, but nothing has come of yet for the new Turbo HD packages.
As far as good news, while there isn’t much, current Dish Latino customers won’t feel as much pain. Several Dish Latino packages including the DishLatino Plus, DishLatino Dos, and DishLatino Max will actually decrease slightly if you already have local channels, but will slightly increase without local channels. The pricing is actually the same with or without locals for most Dish Latino packages, so customers may as well sign up for them.
Premium movie channels also remain fairly stable with the latest Dish Network price increase, with HBO going up a buck, and no change to Cinemax, Starz, and Showtime.
Overall, the price increases look to be standard for the course, as Comcast, Time Warner, and DIRECTV all are doing the same. 2009 will certainly be difficult for both satellite TV companies, as Dish Network and DIRECTV fight to maintain and grow their respective subscriber bases. The one disappointment for DishDVR and Turbo HD customers is that their great 2008 rates have basically been thrown out the window.
25 comments ↓
The Dish Network has one of the best offers out there.
nice post .ye sdish network has one of the best offer thanks for sharing
Can’t win em all I guess..some will hate the new changes.
Dish Network offers the most options for television programming out of any other TV provider, cable or satellite. Thanks for the comments.
The only bad thing about dish is that they don’t give their subscribers locals in high definition but their competition does, like cable and direct tv. At least not in Illinois.
Dishnetwork really screwed the customer with this increase. I have the DishDVR setup, they hike my bill by $10 bucks a month! I understand Dish tv needs to make money as much as the next company, but this amount really makes me want to go to DirecTV. At least i could then get NFL sunday ticket
Dish networks are popular these days. Today, there are two major satellite TV dish networks that are ruling the airwaves,Dish Network and DirecTV.
Trust me, Dish is still about 30% less than Comcast. I dumped comcast a year ago for Dish Network and couldn’t be happier. More Dish HD vs Comcast HD and a lower price? A no brainer, Dish Network every time
Just fyi, I am in the process of switching over from DirecTV’s Choice 150 to DISH’s Turbo HD Bronze package at the “new” rate of $29.99/mo ($9.99/mo for the first 6 months) and will be SAVING $27.00/mo over what I was paying DirecTV for a crapload of channels we weren’t using (many were just standard def duplicates of our HD channels).
That was also with the old AT&T bundle discount of $5.00/mo, so technically we’re saving $32.00/mo. The Choice 150 (without a bundle) runs over $68.00/mo with DirecTV. The Bronze HD pack with DISH is only over 50 channels, but ALL HD and no repeat channels or garbage channels that no one ever tunes into.
Add the locals and the 4% tax and you’re looking at a hair over $36.00/mo for the DISH pack compared to over $68.00/mo for DirecTV. No brainer.
The first 6 months alone will save me over $53.00/mo! More than enough to handle the etf fee from DirecTV. Btw, the only option below DirecTV’s choice 150 is their Family package and unless all you want is ABC and Disney, that’s simply a terrbible option. I have no idea why they even offer that. And it costs the same per month as the TurboHD Bronze pack (and that is before the imminent price increase takes effect for DirecTV)!!! No ESPN, no ESPN2, no TNT, no TBS, no USA, no SCIFI…..pretty much NOTHING.
If you’re searching for the best deal and return on your money for HD TV, DISH is currently the way to go. Hands down.
I just got a “courtesy” call from Midcontinent.
Starting in June they are Jacking the price of my package 6% !!
What a joke.
For crappy service and unreliable equipment i get my rates hiked.
Not so much
FYI
Northland Systems in Mandan has great service on Dish Network systems
Porting our land line onto our Verizon wireless account $10 month instead of T$30 and havent decided about internet yet but will most likely add an aircard as well + i can take it with me camping and on vacation.
Nice work on this blog. Rarely can I find a site that evaluates products and services like satellite TV so thoroughly. Also tons of good cable TV reviews here!
Just noticed that my Dish Network price went up on my bill. At first I was a little upset, but then I did a little comparison with comcast and Direct TV. I found Dish Network prices were still the lowest available in my area, so cant really complain
Thank you for the overview of Dish TV rates. As someone new to the United states it is interesting to see all of the cable and satellite services available to citizens. From my research, the Dish Network price seems to be better than my local cable corporation and lower than Direct TV satellite too.
All I have to say is thank God for Dish Network. I dropped cablevision a month back, the Dish Network prices were about $40 less than cable TV. Still keep the kids and wife happy with plenty of channels and keep my wallet happy saving some coin.
Dish might have raised rates, but they are still way cheaper than Time warner! What a rip off they are.
The Dish Network prices really arent that out of line. I had Time Warner for about 5 years, then I moved to an area that has Comcast. Both Time Warner prices and Comcast prices are so much more than Dish Network, its actually unbelievable. What I was really surprised at was that DishNetwork has much better customer service when you compare them with Time Warner, or even comcast for that matter. Even better, I have so much more HD and a better DVR than I ever had with Time warner cable or comcast as well.
Well it looks like plenty of companies are getting in on this game. Just did a little research and found out that my AT&T U-verse bill is going to be going up quite a bit in 2010. While they started off pretty competitive with cable, it looks like they are going to be sticking it to me. May be the time to check into Dish Network or Directtv in the new year.
Dish Network could hike their rates another 20 bucks a month and they still would be less than Time warner. If you have Dish Network, thank you lucky stars. im stuck with Time warner and have no idea when I will even have the option of Fios.
What a joke! Six months ago, Dish offered me $10/month off for 12 months to sign up with them for 2 years. Now they just jacked my rate $8/month plus tax. And they have the nerve to tell me that I have to abide by the contract but there is no limit to what they can charge. I am out of here.
Is this considered breaking T.O.S? I know with cell phone companies if they do this you can break your contract with no penalty? Is this true with Dish Network? Please advise.
I love Dishnetwork but I hate the increases every year. The increases are never moderate increases. My bill recently increased by $5.66 monthly ($67.92 annually). pretty soon they will charge us separate charge for each button on the remote. When and where does the Greed ever end?
I switched to Dish network 9 months ago, I called them today and asked why my Duo Receiver is now $14 a month instead of $5 I have been paying all along. They pretty much told me to screw off and change my programming to save money. Now I’m debating paying the ETF and switching back to my Cable provider who has a Triple play package of Cable, Internet, and Phone for 99.95 a month. It will be cheaper for me because I pay for a home phone just so Dish can plug into it and not charge me extra on my bill. Also I am limited to 4 Tv’s with Dish Network and with Cable I can have as many as I want. The customer service was total crap to say the least. They did not help me at all and you could tell they were reading from a script just telling everyone the same thing. My bill increased by 16% and if you multiply that by the number of people who have Dish Network.. Hmm.. sounds alot like they are trying to rake in the profits just like the oil companies and Bank execs.. Crooks and Thieves.. thats what they are..
I have duo dvr’s in five rooms and my bill went up 50.00 a month. I own all the dvr’s and Dish is charging me 68.00 a month to use them. The programming cost remains the same, but now I am charged a ridiculous price to use my own equipment??????
Just got my recent bill from Dish network. My bill went up $35 because I have six receivers. Duo DVR’s were $5 + $6.95 now $17, Basic went from $5 to $7 and Duo’s went from $5 to $14. I owned all receivers but one. Time to switch back to cable. At Mediacom got two DVR’s and extended basic plus star and encore for 12 months for $65 per month. I still can watch most channels on the other 4 TV’s . These stupid companies need to learn not to punish their loyal customers. 10 Years with Dish Network. Bye Bye…
DishNet equipment pricing has become horrible. even if you spend $300+ to buy your own HD DVR, you pay $17/month. If you lease from DN, you still pay same. That’s crazy. They don’t want you to own equipment so that you are at their mercy. Have you ever heard of buying your own car and still be forced to make lease payments?
DN – get real. Be reasonable ….
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