I would think DISH or Direct would show the way and provide it as an option. This would force the others to follow. On to play on demand.They can't do things their own way. Sure, I'd love for DISH to dump trash like MTV for example, but that would mean anything else owned and operated by Viacom would have to be dumped too. But DISH can dictate what it can dump from it's own system, if they feel they're getting screwed over by a service like Lifetime. The contract expired, and DISH can legally dump Lifetime off the dial, because Lifetime has no say in the matter since the contract expired.
I sure as hell wouldn't want to see a 76% increase in my bill, and I don't blame Charlie for dumping Lifetime off the dial.
Love him or hate him, at least Charlie is looking after his customers.
Listen if two channels raise there rate 76% that does not raise your bill 76%. Word is that DISH had a locked in rate for 10 years with no increases during that time. So I don't know how far things are behind. Also 76% is kind of a meaningless term when you don't know what you are starting with. For instance...If I raise the price of something from 1 cent to 2 cents then I have just increased the price by 100%. So there is not enough information to determine how much of an increase we have here. But in any case they are just 2 of over 100 channels and therefore there affect on Dish's total cost is small. Word on the forum is that DISH is going raise rates for next month. The last time DISH pulled this crap then they raised the rates too. So I am not so sure that this is not standard procedure for Dish to pull a stunt like this so that they can later put the lifetime channels back on and then raise rates- claiming that there costs have gone up. With all the commercials and "paid advertising" that we see...and the lack of new material to view...they have no business raising rates at all.