If you have been living under a rock, then you wouldn't know right now that Dish Network and Direct TV are the two leading names in the satellite TV service industry. The majority of us have seen the advertisements on TV or in the mail, urging us to take advantage of a deal that seemed too good to be true. The truth is that most of these deals are truly great deals because both of these companies have been competing for customers. This causes the price of service to go down even as the technology advanced.

Next to price and programming options, customer service and satisfaction is one of the most important factors that you should consider when signing up for a subscription or service agreement with any company. When you compare Dish Network and Direct TV you will notice that they both offer a twenty four hour customer service help line for their subscribers. Dish Network closely monitors their service providers to make sure they are doing a decent job at offering their services. In fact one of Dish Networks dealers were able to win the JD Power and Associates top customer satisfaction for two years in a row.

Price is often the most important factors for most of us, regardless of your current financial situation everyone wants to get the best deal. When it comes to the different satellite TV providers Dish Network has been known to offer the most competitive satellite TV prices. Dish Network's prices are so low that they beat out Direct TV by a small amount, and cable TV by a land slide.

Programming is another one of the main factors that you need to consider before signing up with any specific company. Dish Network offers their subscribers more than two hundred and fifty six channels. If you are a football fan than you will be happy to hear that you can sign up for Dish Network's 231 NFL pre-season, regular season, and post-season games, without having to purchase an expensive subscription. Dish Network is also known to have more comprehensive International programming options as well as additional foreign language programming packages.

Many of the satellite service providers online are offering new subscribers incentives such as a free DVD or digital video recorder (DVR). A DVR has the ability to digitally record and store up to one hundred hours of your selected programming on to the hard drive of your receiver. With a DVR you will never have to miss your favorite TV show because of your busy lifestyle. You can use the universal remote that comes with your equipment to set your system to record an entire season, or just once. You can even use this universal remote to pause, rewind, and instant replay your recorder or even live programming. Once you get used to using a DVR it will be hard for you to enjoy your TV with out one. On the other hand Direct TV can offer you more than two hundred and twenty five different channels. They also have some exclusive rights to some popular sports events and games but you will have to pay a fee for a subscription.