Dish Network customers weigh options for distant stations
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006Dish Network customers are still smarting from the loss of distant network stations, judging from comments I’m seeing. The satellite TV service dropped out-of-market network channels on Dec. 1, complying with a deadline imposed by a federal court. By providing distant channels to ineligible households, Dish parent EchoStar repeatedly violated federal regulations, according to the courts.
EchoStar, faced with the possibility of losing several hundred thousand customers, has to be hurting right now. But why, Dish subscribers ask, should we be punished? I’ll simply note, once again, that satellite and cable TV carriage rules do a much better job protecting broadcasters than the viewing public.
Dish customers who want their distant channels back may now, if eligible, get a similar service through another satellite provider, AllAmericanDirect.com. EchoStar is providing satellite capacity for the channels through an agreement with National Programming Service (NPS), a C-Band satellite programmer. The package costs $2.50 per month per network, or $9.00 for the four major networks. Viewers would receive network feeds from San Francisco and Atlanta on channels 5731 to 5738 of the Dish Network receiver. (The National Association of Broadcasters, as might be expected, is fuming about the EchoStar-NPS arrangement.)
Rival direct-broadcast satellite service DirecTV is offering $150 rebates, along with free installation and equipment, to some Dish customers as an inducement to switch. DirecTV, along with the Fox network, is part of the News Corp. empire. Last week, EchoStar railed against a “Fox Network-led coalition of broadcasters” who, they charge, intend to “deny consumers their freedom of choice and leave the Fox-owned DirecTV as a monopoly for distant networks.”
Earlier:
• Dish Network loses distant stations on Dec. 1
• Dish Network must drop distant network stations, court says
• Links: NPS, AllAmericanDirect.com, Dish, El Paso Times