DISH has bills to pay too, they aren't getting all these channels provided to them for nothing (aside from NASA and The Pentagon Channel which is funded by taxpayers). DISH is a customer just like everyone else, except they are the ones who strike deals with these content providers. If Lifetime is asking DISH to pony up 76% more, DISH network would have to turn to it's customer base to help "foot the bill". I realize us customers won't see a 76% increase in our bills, but there would be an increase no doubt. This is why Charlie is playing hardball like he usually does with content providers.
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%.
This is not about going from 1 penny to 2 pennies. When you start talking millions of dollars, even a 1% increase would look substantial. When DISH is paying content providers like Lifetime upwards of hundreds of thousands or even 1 million dollars, Ergen would be losing money if he didn't pass on that cost to the consumer.
A channel like Lifetime isn't going to affect the churn for DISH network, but when you start talking about popular channels like ESPN for example, who tend to seek outrageous cost increases and Ergen pulls the plug on them, people will get outraged and some to the point they dump DISH for someone else.
Lifetime needs DISH's 11 million customers more than DISH needs Lifetime.
I already singed up for Direct TV. Dish can take a hike. It used to be that you saved money with Dish. I don't think that is true anymore. I think that over all I am getting a better deal with Direct. The whole notion that DISH is keeping your rates down is BUNK! The rates are going up a dollar in your next bill. That means that in 6 years your rates have gone up by 10 dollars. Judging from the fact that Direct used to be a lot higher and now is about the same- Then tells me that Dish has gone up more than Direct. Dish made a big mistake here, and they are going to pay for it dearly. Direct is getting bombarded with new customers. Life time gets money from everyone of those customers. Dish loses the whole nine yards. This is not a good time to buy stock in Dish.