# Dish on Demand Service fee lowered for AT-50



## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

From a facts blast to dealers....



> DISH-Video-On-Demand Service fee: We've listened to your feedback and now the DISH-Video-On-Demand Service fee for America's Top 50 and DISH Latino packages and higher is only $4.98 per month. DISH-Video-On-Demand Service fees for America's "Everything" Pak remains at $0. This change applies to all DISH Player-DVR 510, DISH Player-DVR 522, and DISH Player-DVR 921 receivers, for new and existing customers, regardless of the promotion.


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## Chris Freeland (Mar 24, 2002)

This is good news for AT50 subs who wanted a DVR, now if E* would only listen a little more and switch the monthly VOD fee from per unit to per account, just like D*Tivo.


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## milli (Oct 15, 2003)

Since when?? Dish network site is still showing $9.98 for Top 50.



Richard King said:


> From a facts blast to dealers....


Quote: DISH-Video-On-Demand Service fee: We've listened to your feedback and now the DISH-Video-On-Demand Service fee for America's Top 50 and DISH Latino packages and higher is only $4.98 per month. DISH-Video-On-Demand Service fees for America's "Everything" Pak remains at $0. This change applies to all DISH Player-DVR 510, DISH Player-DVR 522, and DISH Player-DVR 921 receivers, for new and existing customers, regardless of the promotion.​


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Besides changing the fee to a "per account" fee DISH also needs to change the name of the service or start offering VOD service. The DISH VOD name is very deceptive since you have to record the program first before you can watch it.

As a sidenote, I was at Radio Shack the other day and a customer was asking about DVOD. The RS droid said that "it works just like cable VOD". I stepped in to tell the person how it really worked and the RS guy threatened to kick me out of the store. I got really pissed and went to the manager and told her that her salesmen didn't know what he was talking about. After the customer left the manager called the salesperson over and made him apologize. After I explained to him a little more about how it works all he had to say was "why do they call it VOD when it isn't VOD?"


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

He should also have asked "and why are they billing it as a service when it clearly is not?"

Where is the price break for AT150 subs? With distants, supers, Showtime and 2 extra receivers added I'm paying more than AEP, and that's not even counting the DISHPlayer (the real one) PVR fee. If I get a 921 and add the HD Pak, I'll be over AEP rates even w/o the mirror fees but still have to pay extra to use a receiver I bought.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> Since when?? Dish network site is still showing $9.98 for Top 50.


I just got the email from Dish today. I suspect they wanted to let dealers know before changing the web site.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Glad to see the fee must of been hurting sales. Personally I think it shouldnt be charged for top 150 either. Hopefully its academic if rupert gets D, and follows thru with free DVR for everyone the fee is history.

E should buy TIVO, and build a rock solid box, one that wouldnt be constantly needing upgrades, and bug fixes. Works fine right out of the box. like D is generally accepted as having.

Then give EVERYONE a E TIVO and Rupert a run for his money.


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Bob Haller said:


> Echostar should buy TIVO, and build a rock solid box.


Good idea Bob, but my thought are that they would screw that up too.

TiVo _could_ be "available" if Murdoch decides to use his own company's boxes for DVR service. The TiVo folks say that isn't going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future.


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## johntoto11 (Aug 1, 2002)

I kinda think if Murdoch parted ways with TiVo, his 'dumbness', would rival that of Jessica Simpson.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

Since Eddy was just appointed to the board of Tivo I doubt very much that D* is burning any Tivo bridges and that they will not be available for E* to make an offer.


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## Jacob S (Apr 14, 2002)

Dish thinks they can solve the whole problem by having part of the solution?


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## milli (Oct 15, 2003)

Richard King said:


> I just got the email from Dish today. I suspect they wanted to let dealers know before changing the web site.


Thanks Richard for letting us know. Now they have also updated their site with new rates.


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## pjmrt (Jul 17, 2003)

Bob Haller said:


> Glad to see the fee must of been hurting sales. Personally I think it shouldnt be E should buy TIVO, and build a rock solid box, one that wouldnt be constantly needing upgrades, ....


... and the Cubs should win the World Series. Unfortunately, they both have about the same probability of happening.


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## xgrep (Aug 15, 2002)

pjmrt said:


> ... and the Cubs should win the World Series. Unfortunately, they both have about the same probability of happening.


No way. The Cubs have a much better chance .

x


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## DarrellP (Apr 24, 2002)

There should be no fee, PERIOD. Dish now has you guys buy the nuts, thinking they've done the right thing. Just like gas prices, they jack them up then bring them down a little bit, but not as low as before and everyone's happy. Come on, guys, keep screaming at Dish about how stupid this "VOD" fee is. It's not VOD, it doesn't work very well and they should not be charging for it.


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## Martyva (Apr 23, 2002)

I'm kinda new to this VOD for cable. How does it work? What does it entail?


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## Bill R (Dec 20, 2002)

Martyva said:


> I'm kinda new to this VOD for cable. How does it work? What does it entail?


Marty,

Cable VOD allows you to watch programs on demand. It is only offered on the digital tier. The programs are stored on the cable companies video servers at their head end. The VOD stuff is both PPV (pay per view) and non PPV. For example, in my area, if you subscribe to the HBO (or Showtime, or Starz) package you get their VOD for free (right now). Also, the same movies that are available on the PPV channels are available ON DEMAND so you can view them when YOU want. You need a digital set top box to get the service. The remote is just like a VCR (or DVR) remote and you can start, pause, stop and resume later a VOD event. VOD uses a LOT of bandwidth (it depend on how many events are available at one time and the number of users). Because TRUE VOD is two way, satellite companies will not be able to offer it. What DISH is calling its DVOD service is really just the ability to record a program and watch it latter. It is deceptive advertising at best and consumer fraud at worst (watch for the consumer lawsuits on this one).


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well it all depends on how it is done. If it is a two step process, you select what you want and then later choose to watch it then yes that could result in not as advertised. If Dish does this all in the background and programs only become availablea after they have been downloaded and then you can watch it at anytime you like, then that is in reality VOD. The only difference is yoru receiver is the server. 

If from a user's perspective the only shows that are available for VOD are shows that actually have been downloaded to the VOD partition, then from the user's perspective they get to watch them when they want. 

That is my take on it. However with this model the choices will be limited and will not map too well to HDTV for sure.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

> There should be no fee, PERIOD.


Actually, I would prefer a two tiered fee structure.

1. Buy the hardware at a promotional price (like free?) and have a fee attached.
2. Buy the hardware for a reasonable fee ($199-299?) and have no fee.

To do the promotional price and no fee would have a serious effect on the bottom line because too many people would get a free DVR and only take AT-50, leaving not enough for E* to recoup their costs.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Bill R said:


> TiVo _could_ be "available" if Murdoch decides to use his own company's boxes for DVR service. The TiVo folks say that isn't going to happen anytime in the foreseeable future.


Due to recent articles in Barron's and The New York times, TiVo is clearly hurting.

For all the bandwidth they get here, they still haven't broken 1,000,000 units in sales. The theory that is rolling around on the street is that TiVo is going to become a developer of software technology (which may be much more profitable... or not) or they will be snapped up when the stock hits bottom.

The Barron's article put an 11% smackdown on the stock value and the Times article snagged another 8.8%. The market cap as of this morning is under 550 million US Dollars. All things considered, the stock is only down 43% from its high back in July.

The Motley Fool stock report has a different take and presents all of this as re-hashed versions of their stories.

I envite all those who have questions about what the future holds for TiVo to see what's on display at their local Sears, Circuit City or Best Buy. Best buy in particular has been a surprise to me given that they officially dumped Replay TV in favor of TiVo technology but the store close to me doesn't have a single TiVo unit on the shelves and hasn't for months. With six or more companies offering the hardware, I don't think that production problems are the reason.

The format wars have returned in the form of the DVR software and for now, the only clear losers are those who subscribe to the current DVR offerings from cable companies.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

When the VCRPlus came out about a decade ago, it was a programmable remote that you simply left pointing at the TV. The investors of the technology really didn't want to sell the remotes, but the technology behind it so that VCRPlus got intergrated in the VCR manufacture.

(There was also a similar, but failed, attempt to do the programming by scanning the bar code at around the same time. The space that the printing required made this a inpracticality. TV Plus numbers were easy to set up.)

Tivo wants to be able to sell the software to the cable box manufacturers, but the cable companies don't want to pay the licensing fees and are developing their own services. Some of them include VOD, while others are 50 hour DVRs. So far, the only succesful partnership is between DirecTV and Tivo.


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## Jason (Aug 8, 2002)

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