October 22, 2002 

By: Bob Buckham

tv dish: Get your money's worth

Millions of Americans have ditched cable services in favor of the superior sound, picture, quality and choice that are available with a tv dish. When comparison shopping for your tv dish, take into consideration hidden costs that may arise. We'll discuss this more below.

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When shopping for a tv dish, take into consideration for the cost of equipment, installation and programming. Retailers may only advertise one of these three components, the installed, programmed price may be higher than what is advertised and, there may be a long-term commitment to programming costs.

You can expect to pay between $150 and $800 for a tv dish system, which includes an 18- to 20-inch satellite, receiver, and remote control. Many systems are sold with free installation.   Basic service, with 40 to 50 channels, is about $25 a month but does not include any local channels or regional network feeds; local-channel service adds about $5 a month to the price. Expanded programming with 100 to 150 channels is about $45 and adds music and some specialty channels. Premium channels such as HBO and ShowTime are $6 to $10 each, sometimes less if you take two or more. Pay-per-view is usually $3 a movie, like cable PPV. Sports packages are available, a unique satellite-TV option, run $139 to $169 per season.

Here’s a tip, if your tv dish receiver, TV, stereo or VCR take off and operate on their own sometimes or don’t listen when you point your trusty remote at them. Make sure that direct sunlight does not strike the infrared sensor on the device. It can send the device into strange behavior like cascading through menus or it can make the unit totally non-responsive to your commands. You can check this by holding a piece of cardboard between the sun and the unit and seeing if normal remote control is restored.