DISH network adds more HD channels

DISH Network has announced that following the launch of the EchoStar XI broadcast satellite, it plans to launch more HD video channels in an effort to compete with its strongest competitor, the DirecTV Group.

The rollout of new channels was intended for March but "a satellite launch by SES Americom failed to reach its intended orbit." The satellite launch was funded by EchoStar.

DISH now has 100 total HD channels, compared to 150 for DirecTV. Most cable or fiber providers offer between 30 and 60 channels in HD.

"Offering a wide variety of HD channels is important among pay-TV providers and is really important in today's market," said Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan. "DISH would have been at a disadvantage to its competitors if this satellite did not launch successfully."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Jul 2008 15:00

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14 comments

pwhite23

i cant stand dish...if your caught in a mild rain fall, its a 50%chance something will happen to your dish.....switch already

16.7.2008 15:55 #1

LOCOENG

I just had my Dish installed Sunday...Monday we had a killer storm come through and only lost the HD channels for a few minutes. I still had 200 others to watch so I can deal with that.

16.7.2008 17:02 #2

hendrix04

uh, this says DirecTV has 150 HD channels? that is WRONG, they are claiming 90 by years end.

16.7.2008 18:36 #3

emugamer

Originally posted by pwhite23: i cant stand dish...if your caught in a mild rain fall, its a 50%chance something will happen to your dish.....switch alreadyI hear ya man. Same thing happens to me.

16.7.2008 19:42 #4

fgamer

Originally posted by hendrix04: uh, this says DirecTV has 150 HD channels? that is WRONG, they are claiming 90 by years end. DirecTV has 95HD channels, and Dish has 85. So from this article it actually would make Dish the leader in HD channels. So now it looks like DTV has 95 HD channels and Dish has 100 if this article can be trusted as being accurate. But I'm not sure how they're counting the HD channels.

16.7.2008 21:47 #5

hendrix04

Quote:DirecTV has 95HD channels, and Dish has 85. So from this article it actually would make Dish the leader in HD channels. So now it looks like DTV has 95 HD channels and Dish has 100 if this article can be trusted as being accurate. But I'm not sure how they're counting the HD channels.I am not sure how DTV is counting, but Dish counts every channel that has an HD tag (Including RSNs that cannot be had everywhere). I just wanted to point out that DTV and Dish are both about equal, not this 50 channel land slide like the article says.

17.7.2008 09:38 #6

ZoSoIV

is it extra for the HD channels?

18.7.2008 02:46 #7

LOCOENG

No, but as always more money will get you more channels.

I have the Top 200 package right now ~ http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/whats...0/packages.aspx

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18.7.2008 03:29 #8

frankh57

Quote:Originally posted by pwhite23: i cant stand dish...if your caught in a mild rain fall, its a 50%chance something will happen to your dish.....switch alreadyI hear ya man. Same thing happens to me.You got a crappy installer. I had a sub-contractor come oout and install mine. Within 5 weeks, I loss signal to one of my TVs. I would easily lose reception in a relatively light shower as well. After the loss of the one TV, I went on my roof, and saw the garbage excuse for aninstall the provider had made for me. I called DISH,they sent out a certified techician from the local area and she redid the entire install. Since that time, I have lost the DISH signal a couple of times (in about six months) during heavier than normal storms. I have not been happier with the service with any other company including several cable companies.

18.7.2008 07:11 #9

bobiroc

Quote:Quote:Originally posted by pwhite23: i cant stand dish...if your caught in a mild rain fall, its a 50%chance something will happen to your dish.....switch alreadyI hear ya man. Same thing happens to me.You got a crappy installer. I had a sub-contractor come oout and install mine. Within 5 weeks, I loss signal to one of my TVs. I would easily lose reception in a relatively light shower as well. After the loss of the one TV, I went on my roof, and saw the garbage excuse for aninstall the provider had made for me. I called DISH,they sent out a certified techician from the local area and she redid the entire install. Since that time, I have lost the DISH signal a couple of times (in about six months) during heavier than normal storms. I have not been happier with the service with any other company including several cable companies.This has been my experience as well. If it is a heavy or violent storm then it goes out for a bit but most times it is just digital glitches and it seems to work itself out within a few minutes. My Sister and Parents also both have Dish Network and they say theirs is good too. I get 250 Channels, plus the HD Package, 2 dual tuner DVRs for about $65 a month. I have this packaged through AT&T that also includes my Cell Phones (2 lines), My landline with long distance, and my 3MB DSL and I only pay about $240 a month for all those services. My in-laws chose to go with Comcrap cable and they pay almost $200 a month just for TV, Internet, and Phone line. Then have a sepaarate $90 cell phone bill for their 2 lines. They also have less channels and only one single tuner DVR, but they do have the basic HD Package. So by my calculations I pay $50 less a month, get more features and my picture quality is better. I can say that because we both have the same TV with the only difference being the screen size. Also their comcast goes out more than my satellite and last time it took them 3 days to fix it. So they had no phone, internet, or TV for 3 days. I will take a half hour or so of loss of TV every once in a while over that any time.

18.7.2008 09:36 #10

jprodko

You can go to lyngsat.com, and it will tell you what carriers have what channels, plus a lot of other useful info.

18.7.2008 10:19 #11

Bruce_Nv

If you have Dish, pray that you don't need any customer support...

18.7.2008 23:38 #12

redux79

Quote:Quote:Originally posted by pwhite23: i cant stand dish...if your caught in a mild rain fall, its a 50%chance something will happen to your dish.....switch alreadyI hear ya man. Same thing happens to me.You got a crappy installer. I had a sub-contractor come oout and install mine. Within 5 weeks, I loss signal to one of my TVs. I would easily lose reception in a relatively light shower as well. After the loss of the one TV, I went on my roof, and saw the garbage excuse for aninstall the provider had made for me.Rain, snow, even high winds combined with heavy cloud cover will knock out my signal for 10-20 minuets. Once the signal goes out I can start a countdown from 30 untill the storm front rolls in.

My dish was actually moved from its original position on my roof because the installers decided to point it just over the top of a very large tree. Once spring came the leaves grew just enough to block my signal 0.o. A few months later we were hit with a rather large storm and the signal never came back. The next day I was doing some yard work and looked up to see the dish slightly wobbling in the wind. Curious I went up to my attic to find that only the top two bolts had been properly secured. The bottom two had about an inch of give to them, the weather proofing caulk was the only thing that held it in place up till then. A little vexed I took it upon my self to properly secure the dish.

Customer service is dependent on your patience level and how many hours you want to spend on the phone. Whether it's a discrepancy on your bill or a request for service due to the installers negligence.

Once all is said and done it's still better than cable, bundled internet and land line with more channels for significantly less. It's way better than the alternative.... comcast.

19.7.2008 12:09 #13

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