First off let's not confuse the 2/1 price increase with this HD Platinum deal.
Where did I ever mention the price increase? This is all hypothetical.
Secondly, if these few channels are to be included in the general packages, a different type of agreement must be re-negotiated, and who knows they might be doing so right now.
Obviously. It wouldn't make sense for them to be negotiating NOW, considering they essentially launched new packages today (Not technically, but TurboHD is now available to everyone and has a huge increase because it will soon contain much more.) If they were going to make this change, they would have already done it. Again..."hypothetical"
Now if these channels are to be part of the general packs, the fees paid for each of these channels will be far less than now, simple economy of scale.
Using your above scenario, if E* is paying a total of $2.50/mo. for these few HD channels, E* will pay maybe $0.50/mo. total to include them in the other packages, and not have to raise the prices of the other packages at all.
Possibly. It would depend on the negotiations. I didn't change the amount just to demonstrate that a smaller profit margin could be more profitable when scaled up. I think assuming an 80% cut is a bit much, even though the actual channels would be making more money under the same hypothetical numbers.
Obviously, your scenario is more appealing, but I don't know if it's more realistic.
Becasue it is unfair to ask those who do not want these few channels to pay for those who do want them.
Because DISH (and the business in general) is all about "fairness".
The fact is, that's how the business works. A huge chunk of my bill goes to ESPN, which I do not watch. Huge corporations use their popular channels to force us all to pay for other channels most of us don't watch. That's how niche programming works. If it didn't work that way, we'd still have 37 channel cable.
No matter what your 5 favorite channels are, I bet 3 of them wouldn't exist if it wasn't for forcing everyone to pay for it.
Now, the case of the Platinum channels is particularly odd. A year or so ago, everyone (with HD) WAS forced to pay for these channels...well, 3 or 4 of them. In the case of HDNet Movies, it was in the ORIGINAL HD Pack.
DISH split the Platinum channels off, essentially, to punish Voom. Or at least, that's how it appears now. At the time, it seemed like a decent deal for everyone. I had no problem continuing to pay the same amount to keep these 20 or so channels, and others had the option to drop them.
(That is VERY unusual in this business...making a large chunk of your basic channels optional. It usually goes the other way.)
When Voom was pulled it was replaced by three relatively inexpensive channels. Those channels were probably just happy to have ANY carriage. Another channel...NHL...had been added in the inbetween time. But the other three channels got the shaft. They went from being in all HD packages to being in an overpriced, optional package in just a few months.
I'm really surprised there weren't any lawsuits from those channels over it. At the time, I sent an e-mail to Mark Cuban, telling him that I loved HDNet Movies, but I could no longer subscribe to it because DISH was now overcharging for it and presumably putting the difference in their own pockets. I got an e-mail back (from a lackey, I'm sure, but it did come from his address) that essentially said that they were looking into their options against DISH.
I assume that HDNET, Universal, and the others either signed a REALLY lousy agreement that they couldn't challenge, or they got a big fee increase to shut them up. But a big fee won't help if people keep dropping the package.
If they had either taken the money they were saving on Voom and added some more channels, or cut the price a few bucks, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation. The fact they are pulling one for another is adding insult to injury for the Platinum subscribers, whether or not they actually watched Smithsonian. I understand that in the basic packages, every penny counts to try to keep costs down. But in the case of the platinum package, they are pocketing a huge profit and everyone knows it. The nickle and dime crap just doesn't fly in this case.
