Or something like that. Guys (and gals), take a step back and look at the big picture. How many HDTV/expensive STBs are out there that will need to be replaced? $2B is a lot of money--even if they swap out equipment for all 17 million subs, that's $117 per sub to do so, at cost, mind you. $117 buys a hell of a lot of equipment on average, considering the manufacturing costs for 99% of the boxes out there (the ones J6P uses) are probably in the sub $50 range. Sure, the numbers will shift--but not by that much.
As a recent DirecTV-to-Dish defector, Dish has been pushing--and I would have to believe will only do so more--the pseudo-rental position. I have a "high end" Dish PVR501 and a "low end" 301 and I didn't pay a dime for either--Dish simply signs you up for a given programming commitment, and the equipment is "free." When the cost of the equipment is embedded in the programming fee (a la cable), the only complaint you're going to have when they present you with a "free" STB is that it isn't as functional, cool, etc. as what you already had. Boo hoo--get over it.
I admit, the PVR501 is a poor stepchild to my former Tivo box, but it cost me nothing but a one year commitment for $50/month programming (vs. $480 for one year of similar DirecTV programming, plus $300 for DirecTivo, plus $200 for the Tivo sub). One year on Dish costs me $600 vs. $980 for DirecTV; two years on Dish costs me $1200 vs. $1460 for DirecTV. After that, Dish gives me the latest and greatest "high end" and "low end" receivers. The economics works--with the changes in technology (both forced a la copy protection and demanded a la new features), the life expectancy of any STB (I don't care how expensive) is about 3 years tops.
Granted, this has nothing to do with HDTV, but then again, very little of the Dish + DirecTV deal has to do with HDTV....that's my point! We can ***** and moan and gnash our teeth, but we're less than 1% of the population.