You are correct that Dish Network is 20$ a month for HD. At the same time, it costs exactly 0.00 for their HD-DVR (which is 200$ after 100$ rebate on DirecTV).
But – If you do the count out, both actually have basically the same number of National HD channels. (See: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/i-need-my-hdtv/what-satellite-service-is-better-for-your-hdtv-327812.php and http://www.multichannel.com/blog/350000435/post/1430016143.html). Both companies are extremely dishonest in how they ‘count’ channels. Most of the ‘extra’ channels involve subscribing to even more packages (HBO, Showtime, Sports Pack, etc).
However, I brought up the fact that DirecTV is charging 5$ more for the few HDNet channels for a pretty big reason. This reduces the amount of penetration FURTHER in the future if there are other HDNet-broadcast debates/forums. There are many people who won’t bother to pay out any more for their HD Plan and probably won’t even miss HDNet (I watch it for shuttle launches, that’s about it). There’s several cable companies that don’t even have HDNet available, and there is no SD broadcast of HDNet’s programming for those who don’t have a HDTV and HD plan.
People are already relatively excluded by having the debates on cable networks, but this is certainly a new dimension of exclusion. All I can figure is, they didn’t want people to see them.
