DISH Satellite TV Review

DISH® satellite TV delivers a wide variety of entertainment, a best-in-class DVR, free installation and HD, a voice remote, and . . . (drumroll) a price guarantee for two years (which is pretty sweet, if you ask us, especially since it offers a three-year price guarantee for extra measure).

But, before you sign up, bear in mind that you’ll be under contract for two years, you’ll miss a lot of Sunday football games, and you’ll need space for a satellite dish on your home or apartment.

If you’re looking for the most bang for your buck, we recommend America’s Top 120, which gives you 190 channels to choose from for $84.99 per month. Sports fans will want to bump up to America’s Top 120+ for the college and regional sports, although this isn’t a complete sports package. Or you could always get America's Top 120 and a separate OTA antenna to fill in the RSN gap instead. 

DISH doesn’t offer NFL SUNDAY TICKET, which could be a turnoff for diehard football fans. But with local networks, you'll still get four NFL games every Sunday for free. If you have a specific team you follow that isn't generally aired on local networks, we recommend you look elsewhere.

DISH’s top two plans (America’s Top 200 and America’s Top 250) give you the widest variety of channels, including more movie networks, kids channels, and sports. If your household includes a broad range of entertainment tastes, you’ll like these options.

• Best Satellite TV Providers and Plans
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Like you’ll find with other TV providers, DISH does charge some fees that you’ll want to plan for. Installation is free, but equipment rental costs can add up if you have a lot of TVs.

• Activation fee: None
• Installation fee: None
• Cancellation fee: $5–$15 ea.
• Receiver rental: $15/mo.
• Joey rental: $7/mo. (for additional TVs, per Joey)
• DVR service fee: $15/mo.

When you sign up, you can get a discounted rate by signing up for eBill and AutoPay. Also, look for other discounts and ways to save money. If you don’t use the DVR, stick with the main receiver and you won’t have to worry about paying for extra Joeys for every room with a TV.

Another thing to keep watch for is internet data usage. Watching TV through your DISH subscription won’t use any internet data or ever give you that dreaded buffering signal. It's worth noting, however, that although you won't ever get a buffering signal, it does have to load the signal or reconfigure it every once in a while. Especially is the weather is kind of bad. So it would be good to clarify expectations with that here.

But TV shows you record on your DVR will use internet data. This isn’t a problem if you have unlimited data, but if you’re using satellite internet or another kind of internet that meters data, be prudent about not recording shows you won’t have time to watch. We’ve heard of some people recording shows all night in HD to find out the next morning that they’ve maxed out their meager internet data allowance for the month.

Are you wondering if DISH offers internet? DISH offers TV and internet bundles with multiple internet providers in your area. You can top off your home entertainment package by adding high-speed internet from CenturyLink, Earthlink, Hughesnet, Spectrum, and Windstream, among others.

By partnering with nationwide internet companies, DISH offers bundle pricing with many high-speed internet providers, giving you the opportunity to save on TV and internet in one.

You can get more details about how to bundle high-speed internet with your DISH TV package by visiting the USDISH.com website or by calling 1-877-397-3141.

To get DISH as a new customer, you’ll sign a two-year contract for service, which is consistent with most other TV providers. If you cancel service while still under your initial 24-month contract, you will be required to pay an early termination fee of $20 per month for each month remaining on your contract. (Ouch!)

The DISH channel lineup includes up to 290+ channels, depending on the package you select. That’s more options than the channel lineup from Xfinity by Comcast (up to 240) and DIRECTV (up to 185). All of these providers offer you a ton of choices, any way you look at it.

DISH has about every channel you can think of except for HBO, which is a surprising omission. DISH also doesn’t include NFL SUNDAY TICKET, but it does bring you the most in college sports. Here’s the scoop on the different channel packages.

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If you’re wondering about whether a specific channel is listed in a package, check out the DISH channel guide for more info.

You can customize your TV experience with add-on channel packages, which you will have to pay for per channel in most cases. If you’re interested in a specific channel or language, you can create a customized channel lineup.

Select from over 270 international channel add-ons in 28 languages, or select from special interest channels like Paramount+ with SHOWTIME®, DOGTV, or Playboy TV. You can also add sports packages, like MLB Network for $178 per season.

DISH is available for installation in every ZIP code in the US. Most locations enjoy next-day installation. So if you’ve just moved to a new place, you won’t even have time to put away the boxes before your favorite shows start playing.

All DISH Network packages come with free installation for up to six TVs, which is a $199 value. Sounds great, right? Who doesn’t like free stuff? Just remember, for each additional TV you connect, you’ll be paying extra equipment rental each month. Gulp.

When you sign up, you’ll give DISH your email and phone number and set an installation appointment. DISH will give you a 75-minute installation window and a reminder the day of the appointment. You can track your DISH technician’s location so you know the minute they arrive at your front door.

When your technician arrives, the credit card holder will need to be at home and let them in while they install the equipment. Your technician will assess the best place to mount the satellite dish and perform the installation. Then they’ll set up the DISH receivers and remote controllers you’ve ordered with your service.

If you rent your home or apartment or belong to a homeowners association, you may need to fill out a landlord permission form prior to having your technician install the satellite dish

You’ll get a DVR/receiver with your installation package. DISH DVRs are called Hoppers®, and they get our vote as the best performing and highest storage DVRs available anywhere.

There are two Hopper sizes to choose from, based on how many TVs you want to have connected in your home.

Both the Hopper and Hopper 3 are integrated with Amazon Alexa and offer Voice Control and Remote Finder. The Hopper 3 has a massive amount of storage capacity (perhaps too much for some folks), plus it enables you to automatically skip commercials with AutoHop.

With the Hopper, it’s easy to program and record your shows and watch them on your own time. You can even program your Hopper remotely from your phone with the DISH app. Just remember, with up to 500 hours of HD programming at your disposal, you may forget you recorded a show (or two).

Your DISH installation technician can connect your Hopper to the internet to give you access to advanced features like the voice remote and any of your online streaming accounts, such as Netflix, Pandora, or Sling TV.

DISH offers free installation on up to six TVs per household, although each additional TV requires the monthly rental of a mini receiver (Joey). If you have more than two TVs, you’ll need a Hopper 3 rather than the Hopper Duo, which also incurs an additional fee. These extra rental costs can add up quickly and pack a punch if you’re on a tight budget. Our advice is to connect just one or two TVs and use the DISH TV app to watch free on other devices if you’re in other rooms.

• No additional cost for your first Hopper Duo DVR
• $5/mo. to upgrade to the Hopper 3 DVR
  • $15/mo. for an extra Hopper
• $5–$10/mo. for each additional Joey (to connect multiple TVs)
• No setup fee for up to 6 TVs

With the DISH Anywhere mobile app, you can enjoy DISH TV on any internet-connected device. Watch while you’re on your lunch break, waiting in line, on vacation, or during the long train ride home.

The app lets you watch live cable TV, recorded content on your DVR, or on-demand titles. It can also schedule your DVR recordings remotely and look up TV listings.

If you’re traveling somewhere without an internet connection or you want to watch offline to save data, download content to your device beforehand.

DISH TV is the top-rated satellite TV service in the nation, as rated by J.D. Power. So if you’re ever troubleshooting a problem with your DISH, you will deal with customer service, and you’ll appreciate the fact that they’re helpful and efficient. (Hopefully they will be great for you too.)

If you need to contact DISH directly, the customer service number is 1-800-333-3474. For additional information on DISH, look at our DISH FAQ page.

With such a wide variety of entertainment options, we found that DISH has something binge-worthy for everyone. Our favorite features of DISH are the 2-year price lock and the top-rated DVR. If you’re trying to decide between satellite TV providers, DISH comes out on top as the most affordably priced (thanks to the 2-year price lock).

However, given the lack of HBO on DISH, we think that Succession or Westworld fans might prefer DIRECTV. If HBO isn’t a top station at your house, and you like college sports more than the NFL, DISH will fit your tastes to a tee.

We recommend DISH satellite TV to people who want a wide variety of entertainment options for an affordable price. And if you want to go beyond the basics, there are loads of extra channels you can pile on. In fact, it has all the premium channels you could hope for—except for HBO. With DISH you can get HBO GO and Max online, though, which makes up for anything lacking there.