Two of the big companies that compete head to head for your business are Dish Network and Time Warner cable. While Time Warner is the second biggest regional cable company, Dish Network is a national satellite TV provider. If you have access to both of these companies, you should line up and compare Dish Network vs. Time Warner cable before signing up for cable TV service.
With people looking for the most bang for their buck, cable and satellite TV companies are being scrutinized closely to see exactly how much they are charging. That is the case with both Time Warner and Dish Network, just like all other providers. Which should you choose if price is your number one consideration?
It depends on what you want from your satellite or cable provider. Many cable companies are offering triple play bundles of service, where you not only get your cable TV, but also your high speed internet service and home phone line. Time Warner cable, or TWC, is no different than Comcast or Cox cable in this regard, as they of course would rather make money off of their subscribers with three different services rather than one. If you want all of these services, you can usually get a good deal on a Time Warner triple play bundle.
On the other hand, many do not want a home phone because they use cell phones. Or they don’t have a computer so they don’t want internet service. They are just looking for a high quality cable TV service at an affordable price. If this is the situation you are in, then Dish Network satellite TV is probably the better choice rather than TWC.
Now if you are just comparing Dish Network prices vs. Time Warner cable pricing, you probably won’t find a big difference overall. Lets take a brief look at what each company offers so you can make the right decision when comparing TWC vs satellite TV service.
With Dish Network, pricing is fairly straightforward, and it is easy to figure out the package rates no matter where you live. Dish TV offers the Classic Bronze 100, the Classic Silver 200, the Classic Gold 250, and the America’s everything package. As you can probably figure, the number listed with each Dish Network package corresponds to the approximate number of channels in the package. If you are mainly interested in movies, then the America’s Everything is the way to go, with more than 30 commercial free movie channels.
Dish Network pricing starts at $39.99 for the Classic Bronze 100 and moves all the way up to $102.98 for the America’s Everything package. Right now, the current Dish Network offer gives new subscribers a $15 discount for the first year of service. While these packages do include your local channels, they do not include HD channels, which cost an additional $10 per month. Another extra is the Dish Network DVR, which is another $6 per month up and above the base package price.
Now with Time Warner cable, the price can vary a bit from area to area. Time Warner cable reaches across the country and is in several areas including New York, Ohio, California and Texas. Major cites served by TWC include Los Angeles, San Diego, Cleveland, San Antonio and Austin. In each area served by Time Warner, the company has to obtain a cable franchise and set rates with the approval of local authorities. So while the price differences are minor, you won’t find them uniform in the different areas.
To give you an idea of the rates charged by Time Warner, we pulled up some of the pricing in the North Carolina area served by TWC. Here you will get Digital cable including one digital box, one premium digital tier, as well as basic and broadcast cable for $71.95 a month. Local channels are included, but DVR service is not, that will cost you another $10.95 per month. Time Warner does offer Free HD, but the number of HD channels can vary quite a bit, especially in areas that have not been upgraded yet.
If you aren’t interested in Digital cable and the On-demand features that come with that service, you can get basic cable from Time Warner. Pricing on that is listed from $34.83 a month up to $56.66, so you will probably want to call TWC directly to get an accurate quote. Several add on bundles are available as well. The Time Warner Spanish package is called Nuestra Tele, which can be added for $24.95 a month, or $34.95 a month if you want Spanish HBO programming. The Family Choice offer gives subscribers a package of 15 family themed channels for an additional $12.99 a month. If you are looking for Spanish channels, a better way to go would be the Dish Latino package on satellite.
Additional receivers are another consideration when comparing Dish TV and Time Warner service. Each additional Time Warner cable Box will cost $7.23 per month, so keep that in mind when counting up all of your television sets. An alternative is using the CableCard option for $2.50 a month. Each Dish Network DVR and receiver is capable of delivering signal to one HDTV and one standard definition TV. If you are hooking up more than two sets, you will pay $7 per month for each additional receiver, and another $5.98 per DVR.
Now pricing isn’t everything when comparing TWC to Dish Network, so lets look at a few additional considerations. Finding your favorite channel is of course important when you are looking at selecting a cable or satellite TV company. Both Dish Network and Time Warner carry all of the regular cable television channels you are used to including CNN, Fox News, ESPN, and Discovery. Where you may find some issues is when you look into some of the second tier sports channels out there.
In particular, if you are a big NFL fan you probably won’t be to happy with the hard line Time Warner cable has taken when it comes to carrying the NFL Network and the new RedZone channel. The NFL and Time Warner cable have been battling for years over carriage of the network over the cable system, and it looks like there will not be a resolution for the 2009 season. The NFL also rolled out a new channel airing just on Sundays called the RedZone channel, and while it has been picked up by Dish Network on their Multi-sport tier, it has not been picked up by Time Warner yet. Neither company has access to the NFL Sunday Ticket package, which is locked up with DIRECTV through the year 2014.
Other out of market packages are fairly even when looking at TWC against Dish Network. Both carry the NBA League Pass and the NHL Center Ice packages which usually run about $200 per season. Dish Network does not carry the MLB Extra Innings or the MLB channel, while Time Warner does, so that may be a factor in your decision if you are a big baseball fan.
Now when it comes to high definition, both Time Warner HD and Dish Network have been working hard to roll out as many channels as possible. Dish Network is considered the national HD leader, offering access to more than 140 channels currently. While Time Warner’s channel count is a bit lower in most areas, they are doing better than most cable TV companies. Time Warner expanded to about 100 HD channels in the New York City area in February, 2009 mainly in response to all of the high def being offered by Verizon FiOS. While this is great for some served by TWC, others continue to wait for the cable company to upgrade their network so more HD content can be added. Call your local Time Warner office to find out exactly how many HD channels are in your area when comparing services against Dish Network.
One area where Time Warner beats Dish Network is in the on-demand programming available. Similar to other cable companies like Comcast and Cox, Time Warner has upgraded their cable TV network so that there are nearly 10,000 on demand programs available at any given time. Now many of these are just short clips, and who can really watch 10,000 shows? But it is a feature that becomes fairly addictive in that there is always something on, and you can watch episodes of your favorite shows that you may have missed in the past. Dish Network does offer Pay per view movie on demand, but not much more than that. The alternative is to record your favorite content on the Dish DVR so you can watch it at your convenience.
Speaking of DVR devices, which is better? The Dish Network DVR vs Time Warner’s DVR. When it comes to capacity, the Dish Network DVR wins hands down. The Dish TV DVR holds 55 hours of HD content, or up to 350 hours of standard definition content. The current Time Warner cable DVR’s hold 35 hours of HD, or up to 80 hours of standard def content. While Time Warner DVR’s will do the trick when it comes to recording and playing back programming, the Dish Duo ViP 722 has been praised by CNET and others for its functionality.
A final consideration when comparing Time Warner against Dish Network is the other services available with cable TV that aren’t with satellite. Bundles include your choice of digital cable TV, TWC digital phone, and Road Runner high speed internet service. Usually the best Time Warner package deals come into play when you are a new customer signing up for all three services. Depending on the level of service you want, you can get all three services for around $100 per month for the first year. Be sure to confirm with Time Warner what the price is after the deal is over so you know what to expect as far as regular pricing goes.
So there are a few of the factors to consider when looking at Dish vs Time Warner. Hopefully you will find the package that fits your needs at a great price.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
As a new customer (less, than 3 month) with Direct TV,I found out that this company is not customer service oriented, and not interested in customer satisfaction. Price, service, and receiving what you are entitled of course is the consumer priority. After todays experience with Direct TV I believe their priority is money. I made a mistake by not being aware of what I was entitled in the begining to only learn there is no way to receive the fourth box I was allowed. I did not noticed I was entitled with the offer to have 4-room with direct tv. Calling Direct TV and explaining the situation was to no avail. If I want the 4 th receiver I will have to pay because they will not honer their offer because it was on me to have it right when I signed the contract. Direct TV will not go out of business to send some one with the receiver and install it for us as part of their offer. Customer satisfaction is not part of their agenda. It is my first experiece with them and the last. ATT has been great to me so that’s why I left Time Warner Cable and signed with direct tv, looking forward to having my services bundled and hopefully save a little money. Now I have much to think about and will return to time warner cable at the end of this contract.
Direct TV, I found out is not a customer satisfaction and service oriented company. I was entitled to 4-room with the offer I selected; I received only three and calling to asked for the 4th receiver was a waste of my time; their answer was “NOT” without extra charges. ATT has been great to me so that’s why I left Time Warner Cable hoping to bundle my services. Have much now to think about Direct TV.
I still have an ordinary cable TV))))
Soon or later I will need to use a satellite one. Now the issue is only to chose an appropriate service provider
Bottom line, they all suck!
I still use cable also. Each year They offer me discounts to keep from switching to the dish network. It helps keep my cost down.