BuffaloBob Posted December 1, 2004 Posted December 1, 2004 Actually, they've had exclusive rights forever... The price stayed at $129/year for repeat customers for a very long time. Went up to $179 a couple of years ago after the new contract. I wouldn't expect it to go up much higher than $199 for repeat customers.CW 141077[/snapback] $180! My bad! I can usually catch at least 4 Bills games per year on the local TV, which leaves a max of 12 games I need to see. For $120, I can go to a Sports Bar, have a burger and a couple of beers with a bunch of Bills fans, and get waited on by a cute waitress while I watch all of the games simultaneously. It's just not worth it to me.
Spiderweb Posted December 1, 2004 Posted December 1, 2004 From the land of the Buckeye, I'll add my 2 cents. Dish Network does has more favorable package prices, although DirecTV gets a slight edge in Premium packages (check them side by side). With that said, I've been a long time Dish Network subscriber, who left them for DirecTV (got a one year deal for approx 35/mo that included free HBO & Cinemax for an entire year - promotion was aimed at Big Dish users, of which I had until about 2.5 years ago). So for a brief time I had a Big Dish, DirecTV, and Dish Network, scattered around our home. At the end of the one year commitment to DirecTV, I went back to Dish Network. I (personal taste) have thought that Dish actually had the best PQ (Picture Quality) by slight margin over DirecTV (sorry Fez...). Both are highly compressed and neither compare with the best signals I received off the Big Dish, but the Big Dish signals varied widely from transponder to transponder and satellite to satellite. Too much so for my tastes. Also, there was regular maintenance and the equipment was far too expensive in the long run. Back in the early 90's, big dish had phenominal package (programming) prices, but last I checked, they're now no better than the small satellite. DirecTV does have the edge in equipment. Channel surfing seems to have less lag, guides load faster, the preview screen is far quicker loading compared to Dish Networks, and they have Tivo (superior to Dish's offering in functionality and capability). I just wish they would be more flexible and still offer a lower tier package like Dish's at a similar cost. So, the Dish Network remains for now with DirecTV providing me with just the NFL Sunday Ticket and the NFL channel. I was advised early this summer by a DirecTV telphone rep that I would no longer be able to do this next year. She stated that the NFL Sunday Ticket will only be offered to those who have a DirecTV package. I guess we'll see on this. If so, it's back to DirecTV of course.
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