TV Answer Man, we live in a rural part of Maryland and cable is a little spotty out here with service. We have used DIRECTV, but the price is always going up. We heard about Orby TV, but it seems like they are no longer in business? Do you know what happened to them? Are they coming back? We could use an inexpensive satellite option where we live for TV. — Wendy, St. Leonard, Maryland.
Wendy, Orby TV, the low-cost satellite TV alternative to Dish and DIRECTV, last month posted a message on its web site saying it’s gone out of business.
“We are sorry to announce that Orby TV has closed its doors, and the Orby TV service has ended. It was an honor to serve you,” the message reads.
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The Orby notice states that subscribers can get a “special offer” from Dish to switch.
“This includes a monthly DISH programming package for $52.99 (includes first receiver) and cost to switch as low as $100. For more information about this limited time offer, please call DISH at 844-268-3304 and mention the offer code ORBY or visit dish.com/orby” the message says.
So what happened to Orby TV? Why did it have to go out of business?
Well, there’s a reason why DIRECTV and Dish raise their prices every year. The cost of acquiring programming is escalating as is the expenses required to maintain a satellite TV delivery system. And despite a strong executive team in place, Orby simply couldn’t deliver on its promise of keeping subscriber prices low while making a profit. The concept was failed from the start. (Orby’s monthly cost was $40 for its base package, which is considerably less than DIRECTV and Dish.)
In fact, not only did the company not make a profit, it declared bankruptcy shortly after announcing it was exiting the business with losses possibly topping $100 million!
Which means Orby TV isn’t coming back. Ever. At least not as a satellite TV company.
Wendy, hope that makes sense. Happy viewing, and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
This is SO SIMPLE a CHLD can figure it out…(with the exceptions of the “short bus riders that wana believe in fomenting for NOTHING anyway”)
ORBY was a SCAM from DAY ONE…it played on SUCKERS and YOU A CLOWNS lined up ONE BY ONE to pay the price. YOU got EXACTLY what your spam sucking trailer trash A** deserved…SCREWED because YOU wanted a FREE ENTERTAINMENT RIDE and thought that the 40 bucks was too good to pass up. NOW a LOT of you a88clowns OWED Both DISH and DIRECTV and (some of your homes look like that JOKE of a NASA tracking station to boot !!) and NOW you can NOT get EITHER until you PAY UP so your couch potato A** can get even fatter (the ONLY good thing is your arteries are clogging buy the day and YOU WILL DIE SOON anyway…IDIOTS of the CLOWN TOWN OF AMENRIC !!
No need for name calling. Please act your age.
Thank you Joey, can’t beleave Dave M said all that hait, for one I have had all of the major satellite companies for years on end, I owed them nothing, each time after a few years they would start going up on prices without any changes to my service package, and then they started taking out my local channels, that was unacceptable. so I was looking around for quite a while and talked with some people who actually had the Orby system and they loved it. so I looked at all of the reviews and finally decided to purchase 2-DVR and a standard box, we had it for a little under 6 months before they went under. must say, I was very impressed with the services. before they went under they should of talked with the subscribers and told them what was going on and a price increase would have to be made, I am sure that there would of been enough people staying on the service to sustain it’s programming. I am now just using their antenna and must say am still impressed with the amount of channels it does bring in, and on a few of them we can still record a show and while watching a program we can back it up still. I remain hopeful that someone out there will start up another service and maybe someone will figure out how to activate these box’s that are pointed at a satellite. so until then we are content. ya’ll have an awesome stress free Blessed day
Mr. Ed
Well Joey you are definitely an exception but let me assure you I forgot more about satellite than you will ever have an opportunity to learn about and I can tell you as a fact every word I said was absolutely true for 90% of the satellite viewers in this country most of them went to satellite because they could not pay the bill for their current subscription and their current subscriber or they had an issue with the current provider there’s no such thing as a free ride and orbee was a scam from day one they could not compete with anybody else out there and charge the same price there was no incentive to change but they couldn’t make any money from day one and they knew it better than anybody else so pipe crazy up somebody else’s you know what
is there anyone that can hook up the satlelite and equipment I paid for???
ORBY was in FACT a SCAM from DAY ONE and I LOVE it that they actually had fools that bought into it…NOW YOU KNOW WHY is was so EZ for other SCAMMERS to FLECE the STUPID (of which the USA is OVERFLOWING with, thanks to PUBLIC SCHOOLING, err, I MEAN “babysitting class”)
Dave there is one sure thing that all of us has figured out by now that you are Going to Hell if you don’t change your ways.
This name calling is inappropriate, and it shows how much hate you have for the human race, I bet your pet doesn’t even like you.
I have no problem with Orby TV, got a few months of low cost satellite tv and now enjoy using the antennae and receiver for local channels at NO charge. I get 70 channels for free. And it only cost me 49.99 for the equipment and installation.
Sad they didn’t prosper, but I’m loving free TV.
…because YOU are fortunate enough to be CLOSE enough to get OFF AIR servicewith the decoder they left you…IF you have a digital TV, you can take the FEED LINE that goes to the “box they left you” and hook it to the TV set and scan and get the something…now IF the junk box they left you also powers the AMPLIFIER on the CHEAP ANTENNA they gave you then have one of your “tech support” kids MEASURE the voltage which is super lo btw) and then get a cheap power supply and disco the junk they “left with you” and now you can JUST USE your TV remote instead of “click this flip that” (YOU CAN THANK ME LATER !!)
Why are you soooo angry Dave? We aren’t all tech people like you. I have many TV channels from the local channel antenna Orby gave me. It may be a cheap one, I don’t know, but it only cost me 49.99 for the receiver, dish and antenna and installation. That’s why I said it don’t bother me. Extremely clear channels and for free. I also stream some shows and movies for free. So I don’t have any issues. You maybe have more money than me too so you don’t feel dish and direct tv are expensive, but for me they are a waste of money that I don’t have. So basically like you think Orby scammed people. I think dish and direct tv scam and continue to scam on a regular basis. Orby could have just kept raising prices like the others do but instead they shut down.