Dish Network loses 7 Turner Broadcasting channels

sh410 wrote:

Stefonius wrote:
Someday, cable/satellite providers will operate on an "a la carte" system, and I'll be able to pick my own channel package. They'll fight it tooth and nail in Congress for as long as they can, but someday it will happen.

And it will cost more.

X2!!!

Back in the "Big dish" C-Band days there WERE "A La Carte" Options..

The problem was it cost WAY more to buy it that way, picking only ten of your favorite channels would cost you much more than say the 150 channel "package".

Pretty much the same happens when you go to McDonald's, Burger King or any other restaurant.. Buy the "meal" package (Burger, fries and drink) and basically you will pay the same price as just the burger and drink only would cost (A La Carte).

It costs the Sat/cable operator to A La Carte the options due to the way the programming contracts work. In this case Turner networks contract affects seven channels which is a drop in the bucket. There are OTHER networks which could affect 20 or more channels (many of the channels are owned by the same parent company). They ALL get their "turn" at contract negotiations and each time you can bet they are looking for more per subscriber..

I miss my C-band dish, was hard to beat $35 per month for 200 channels which included East and West feeds. Now to get the same channels I pay $100 per month :M and only get the East feeds..

Sadly only one C-band programmer is available since Motorola shut down their clearing house to non commercial subscribers (Motorola had exclusive rights to the C-Band digital scrambling system in use).. The sole existing programmer has only a few limited channels.

C-Band for COMMERCIAL USERS is STILL alive and well, that is how ALL your Dish/Direct and cable companies get the programming..

Dish/Direct and cable get feeds from C-Band and in the case of Dish/Direct they UPLINK the programming BACK UP to their own satellites after inserting their own commercials. So basically you are getting rather beat up highly compressed then decompressed then recompressed which your Dish receiver then has to decompress on your end video.. Nothing like a twice loved video..

Something else to consider, sat/cable companies "package" channels in such a way that a few of the most popular channels are in EACH package or tier. This is intentionally done so in order for you to get all the popular channels you end up having to upgrade from lower tier packages to the upper (most costly) packages.. originators of the programming networks AND Sat/cable companies COUNT on this to garner more money.