Hi Candy, i have not seen the latest up date on the regs, but as far as i am aware the Dishes, TV aerials etc have to be bonded to mains earth.
As for running a seperate earth like we used to do, a earth spike into the ground i would agree and be happier with this........but then again we dont make the rules.
As far as charges go, it would depend on the location of a suitable earth to where the dish is placed. I would not call R400.00 climbing on the band wagon. If the guy has driven to the job spent a couple of hours connecting the dish to the main earth, used 20 to 30m of copper wire which has had an 85% increase since January plus all the connectors, clips etc.........dont know if R400.00 is a rip off?