ATTENTION ALL DISH NETWORK SUBSCRIBERS ----->

[TexasStooge]

DISH NETWORK is threatening to take away the following channels from your listings:

Nickelodeon/Nick-At-Nite
MTV
VH1
BET
Comedy Central
Spike TV
Showtime
The Movie Channel
Plus many more channels owned by CBS & Viacom.

Call 1-800-333-DISH to tell them you want to keep the channels (including the ones listed on this post) you paid for!

Click here for related story.

[wx247]

I love Nick and Nick at Nite. And I am probably the only one who occasionally likes to sit down with my little sister and watch Nickelodeon Gas. The reason the satellite company doesn't like it is that there is hardly any commercials on the network.

[Miss Mary]

TexasStooge - thanks! We have Dish and as soon as the message starts to scroll by, it's blacked out. I had no idea it was this many channels! I'm going to call today.

Appreciate the notice.

Mary

[TexasStooge]

One of the many reasons to stick with cable.

[Miss Mary]

One of the many reasons to stick with cable.

Yup. You see my husband was fed up rising cable prices. To the point where we just had it cancelled. Now we have the lowest monthly package from Dish. Only $24.99. I do miss certain things about cable though - particularly the detailed local wx forecast from TWC. I don't even bother looking at the local one now - it's useless. We do like program summaries, etc. And listings on the screen for each channel. What I'd like is a mix of both - satellite and cable! And a husband who isn't a tightwad....LOL

Mary

[southerngale]

Miss Mary...

I don't know if it's offered by your cable company, but the digital cable here has a lot of the same extras that satellite TV offers, including a ton more channels and the listings on the screen, etc. It's not exactly the same, but very similar.

Of course it costs more than regular cable.

[therock1811]

Yep...it is...Time Warner does offer that, as does my cable co....

[Miss Mary]

Thanks for the suggestion Kelly but I can tell you that wouldn't fly with my husband! You see when he got really fed up with rising cable prices years ago, he yanked the whole thing. Even though we installed an antenae in our attic when the house was built, it was never connected to the TV. So here he was rigging up bunny ears in a high window over our staircase landing. Yes that looked really nice from the street!!! Not. We put up with that for a year or more. When we'd ask the kids what they wanted for xmas or their birthdays, they'd say right away - cable! I even chimed in, saying the same thing. He finally caved.

Checked Dish this morning, we no longer have Comedy, VHI and II, MTV I and II, both Nick's. Hope it's just temporary. I told hubby I'd like to call them and say hey give me some extra channels, like Soapnet (I would love to watch Dallas again), right now. He said - hey, yank the whole thing. Let's go back to bunny ears. Because he's too lazy to get up in that attic to hook up the antenae. Grrrrrr...... I don't think he'd get away with hanking satellite/cable easily now. We'd protest - no home cooked meals, no clean laundry, etc. LOL

Mary

[TexasStooge]

Checked Dish this morning, we no longer have Comedy, VHI and II, MTV I and II, both Nick's. Hope it's just temporary....Mary

Well, this is official, DISH Network/EchoStar communications yanked Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, MTV etc. plus CBS affiliates. Click here for the full story

I should tell you this, unless the dispute between Viacom & EchoStar is resolved, it is more likely this will be permanent.

[Miss Mary]

Stooge - I'm personally going to push for cable again if this is permanent. Thing is the cable package I want is now $45!!! And right now we're paying $25. Cha-ching, I can just hear hubby's response.

Mary

[GalvestonDuck]

You have DISH, but you don't have SoapNet? I have SoapNet. But then again, I have the big channel package. Maybe it's not on the smaller ones?

I'm too hooked on the DVR to give it up now. God forbid I should ever get TiVo!

[Miss Mary]

You have DISH, but you don't have SoapNet? I have SoapNet. But then again, I have the big channel package. Maybe it's not on the smaller ones?

I'm too hooked on the DVR to give it up now. God forbid I should ever get TiVo!

Duck, when we first got Dish, Soapnet was on the highest tier, at about $75 a month. Then it dropped to the $43 month tier. I keep hoping it will drop lower than that. Hubby's a tightwad, LOL. You can also add certain channels for only $5 more a month, but Soapnet isn't one of them. Sigh. Wish it was. (we pay only $25 a month, and have it hooked up to one TV).

Mary

[southerngale]

Why did they take Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite away?

I bet there were a lot of unhappy children this morning.

[TexasStooge]

Why did they take Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite away?

I bet there were a lot of unhappy children this morning.

At least they didn't take out Cartoon Network, or Disney. I think someone at DISH is too lazy to take the new rates.

[OtherHD]

DISH NETWORK is threatening to take away the following channels from your listings:

Nickelodeon/Nick-At-Nite
MTV
VH1
BET
Comedy Central
Spike TV
Showtime
The Movie Channel
Plus many more channels owned by CBS & Viacom.

I didn't read the article, but does this have anything to do with that Superbowl incident?

[stormraiser]

I think it is the whole Viacom Echostar Contract Dispute. I don't have TV or cable, but heard on the radio that this was a contract dispute and that CBS/Viacom is encouraging people to get a different service. It doesn't seem like it will be resolved anytime soon.

[Miss Mary]

My main Dish channel has a repeating message from the CEO of Dish. Viacom wants to raise the new contract which was to start at midnight 40% over the last contract. Dish thinks this is unfair to viewers and they think it's unreasonable to raise rates this much. So Dish is bargaining with Viacom and MTV to lower this increase. Dish is also giving customers a $1 - yep, you read that correctly - off their next bill or until this dispute is settled. Unfortunately since we have the lowest tier, we don't qualify for the $1 discount. Dang, I was going to go on a spending spree!!! Also, we have a few extra channels right now - Disney Tune, a Country channel (haven't found that yet), WAM, and one or two more. Forget what they are, but they're not Soapnet! Seems I'm screwed, no lousy discount, and no Dallas "free" reruns while this is going on. LOL

Dish is encouraging upset viewers to call both Viacom and MTV to voice their complaints, with phone numbers listed (at long distance rates mind you, no 1-800 numbers posted). Also the CEO stated Dish customers can write him emails and he promises to read each and every one of them!

That's the latest I know.

Mary

[TexasStooge]

I think it is the whole Viacom Echostar Contract Dispute. I don't have TV or cable, but heard on the radio that this was a contract dispute and that CBS/Viacom is encouraging people to get a different service. It doesn't seem like it will be resolved anytime soon.

If not resolve, then DISH Network will probably be out of business in a matter of months.

[Miss Mary]

For more info, here's a message on Dish's website:

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/prog ... ndex.shtml

Mary

PS - edit, well that's not working right now, website gets jammed sometimes. I'm going to leave it up anyway, for those interested, just keep trying.

[stormraiser]

Seems like Echostar and Viacom have reached an agreement

Click here for story