I knew that I wanted satellite TV and so my only decision was chosing between the two main providers. The easiest thing for me to do was talk to my friends and people in my area and see which they had chosen: Dish Network vs Direct TV. It seemed that in my area Direct TV was generally more used. The more research I did the more I realized that Direct TV was the better choice: it had better programming, quality and customer service. If you are making this decision, the best advice I can give you is talk to people in the area and see which service provider seems to fit your needs best.