Life (partially) Without Dish Network

joeekaitis · Nov 17, 2018

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Ran the numbers and came to a conclusion that’s saving us $25.00 a month while expanding our viewing possibilities with very little sacrifice. We had combined Sling Blue with Dish's Smart Pack to get all the non-broadcast channels we want but were limited to primary local channels at a cost of about $70 a month. Hired a pro to mount an outdoor antenna pointed at Mount Wilson’s transmitter farm, signed up for Philo’s 55-channel package and now have more choices and easily as much time-shifting ability as with a DVR. Monthly cost: $45.00 including taxes versus $70 we had been paying and $80.00 to get everything from Dish alone.

Dish owns Sling so we only partially severed the ties. Of course, pointing that out didn’t stop the Dish call center agent from cranking the “don’t leave” machine all the way up to 11. I tried to keep the conversation light and positive by mentioning the Dish/Sling connection. Would have been nice if she had said something like “Well, since you’re not completely leaving us, I’m going to waive the $15.00 return shipping charge for our leased gear” or "We'll send a tech to cart everything away."

There’s some channel overlap between Sling and Philo but Philo lets you unlock more channel apps on a Roku device. And, yes, I included the much-hyped YouTube TV in my research. Not a lot of “thinking viewers’” channels like History, Science Channel and none of the Discovery networks. Far from being the service that would have Sling, Philo and DirecTV NOW trembling in their boots, it’s more like The Emperor’s New Streaming Service.

"The Emperor's got no Science Channel! The Emperor's got no History!"

iowabear · Nov 17, 2018

This would be another interesting historical topic

We got cable TV in the fall of 1981. The cost was $7.50 per month, which would be about $20 today.

Cheap, but we didn't get much either. I think HBO was an extra $10, Cinemax was an extra $8. Not sure what the "Escapade" (later became the Playboy channel) cost.

At that time HBO didn't start until the afternoon and went off the air at midnight.

48bencix · Nov 17, 2018

you can have locals from an antenna

One thing Dish has always done is have local channels optional. You can have an antenna and the Dish receiver will add those channels into your lineup. You can record locals just like other channels. I have Dish Smart Pack and local pack because I have an attic antenna which doesn't work that well, but does allow me to receive additional local channels, and record them. About $50 per month as Dish includes HD but charges for DVR service. I do not have the Hopper because it is more expensive per month. I also have an older dish and receiver that I keep activated for an additional $7 per month that I have at another location.

askolover · Nov 19, 2018

ATT/DirecTV here. Funny, I get 25% off my cellular service for being a Vanderbilt employee but I have to pay full price for satellite service. Direct made me change to a new HD dish outside. I didn't want to switch and complained about the cost...so I got an upgrade with a DVR serving two rooms for the same price. And they were able to relocate the dish to the other side of the yard farther away from the trees. We have Dish at the hospital...not impressed. What aggravates me now is when there is absolutely nothing to watch on television out of all these channels I get, including the Netflix subscription. That's when I camp out in front of the computer and start watching music videos on youtube.

When I was a kid, cable was around $6/month for channels 2/4/5/7/8 out of Nashville and 15/19/31/48 out of Huntsville, AL. Showtime came to our area around 1982 or so and my parents eventually reluctantly hooked it up.

Life (partially) Without Dish Network

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joeekaitis

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