Dish Network introduced “Free HD For Life” today, kicking off another round in the battle for satellite television supremacy. This new promotion will certainly get the attention of consumers, particularly those with DIRECTV service who pay $10 a month for access to high definition channel content.
The new Dish Network Free HD promotion doesn’t come without a few strings, which I will review for you in a bit. What is does show is Dish Network’s willingness to battle both DIRECTV and cable television companies in a continuing effort to build their subscriber base. Cable television companies generally offer high definition channels at no additional charge if you have a digital cable package, though in the last year some like Charter and Comcast have begun to charge for HD with certain packages. With a few exceptions in certain areas, cable TV companies have lagged behind satellite TV when it comes the number of HD channels available.
Both Dish Network and DIRECTV have charged a $10 monthly fee for HD since 2007 when high definition really began to gain steam. In addition, both companies have charged additional fees for “HD Tiers” which offered anywhere from five to ten additional premium hi def channels. This new Dish Network offer indicates the first move by either company to sacrifice revenue from that monthly service fee and increase revenue by growing the subscriber base.
So what “strings” are attached to the Dish Free HD deal? For new customers, it basically involves giving up your credit card for autopay when signing up for service. In addition, you also have to agree to paperless billing, which is another savings for Dish Network. By agreeing to these terms along with your 24 month agreement, you get free HD channels with whatever package you select (America’s Top 120, America’s Top 200, America’s Top 250 or America’s Everything package).
Now if you are an existing customer, things get a bit more complicated. Message boards like satelliteguys.us have existing customers getting different deals, and the Platinum HD tier comes into play. Basically, the best thing to do if you have been an existing customer for some time and already have HD service is call Dish Network and see what they can do for you.
While DIRECTV has yet to respond to this Dish promotion, they did recently drop their added HD fee for those subscribing to the NFL Sunday Ticket. This year subscribers can get access to all NFL games in HD without the Superfan package.
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Gee, it’d be nice to know when this was written -.- *facepalm*
Working at DISH Network, I was happy when we started offering the HD free for life, I got mine for free as well, so anytime you can cut your bill down is a good thing. With a ton of HD choices I sometimes find myself staring at the DISH Earth channel because I don’t know what I want to watch.