Satellite TV, Internet, and Radio Blog

10 Things I Miss About Dish Network

On July 6, 2010, in Satellite Dish, by admin

So about a year ago, I switched from Dish Network to another satellite technology not to be named in this article. There are a lot of things about Dish Network that I miss. In general, I was happy with the service and only switched because I wanted to try something different (having been a Dish Network customer for years). Plus, I was just curious about various different FTA satellite choices. Anyway, after about a year these are the top 10 things that I miss about Dish Network:

I miss the value that I got from Dish Network. While it’s not free for a small upfront commitment I was able to get all the major TV networks I wanted for only $19.99/month and as low as $9.99 while I was a customer with Dish Network (of course I preferred the $9.99). I think that other than FTA, Dish Network does offer the most value for your dollar in commercial TV services.
There are several channels that I just cannot get via FTA that I miss quite a bit. I can’t find a way to pickup channels that the kids love (or equivalent options) like Nickelodean. There are several more, but you get the idea…
The technical things I miss about Dish revolve around the ease with which you can find the satellite and get good reception. With Dish Network, I didn’t have to adjust the satellite nearly as often (not as big of an issue for me as it is for the rest of the family).
I do not miss the weekly calls though from the Dish Network customer service team offering me an endless stream of upgrades for things that they should have known over the years there was no chance I would be interested. However… at least they did push out promotions and I was aware of what they had to offer me.
Being a movie buff, I sort of miss being able to get movies on demand. I can definitely still do the video store rentals and of course Netflix, but the convenience of renting movies on demand via Dish was pretty handy.
Oddly, I also miss the Charlie chats that Dish Network put on its own channel. I found those interesting mainly because he provided some of the direction of the company and showed that he was truly interested in releasing a quality service. You don’t get that feeling from all CEO’s for sure.
Dish Network really offers excellent equipment especially when compared with their competition which has some nice programming options but lacks the same quality of receivers and dishes.
They now have HD FREE for life which didn’t exist when I was a customer but is a very interesting option. I do miss the sheer volume of HD channels that I was able to get. In fact, Dish was my first exposure to HD (a moment I won’t forget).
With Dish Network, I was able to easily wire up multiple rooms in the house and attach them to receivers at a low cost (so everyone in the family could watch what they wanted). I can do that now, but it definitely costs more upfront.
Last but not least is the ability to withstand storms. Unfortunately, we experience a lot of large storms where I live and I can’t remember experiencing any significant receptions problems with Dish Network. That was great!