Mr. Biggles said:
Interesting. I guess i'm in the minority, but I'm really happy they added this channel. I actually paid for it when I had D*.
Count me a minority too. I am glad they added it, and very, very glad that I don't have to pay $12 per month to get it like I did with D*. Ditto for Fox Sports World, which I also enjoy watching occasionally -- on D*, you only get that as part of the $12 "sports pack" (all of which is SD, of course), but with Voom its part of the basic service. This just adds to my feeling that I am getting a much better deal with Voom than I did with D*.
Yes, I wish Golf Channel and Fox Sports World were in HD, because golf and soccer both look dramatically better in HD. (Duh -- what doesn't look dramatically better in HD?) But SD is better than nothing. And the Golf Channel is not just about covering golf tournaments -- they run a lot of golf instructional videos, and chat/interview programs which are sort of like SportsCenter, but all golf, all the time (they say every man has his own private vision of hell, and I'm sure for some that would be it!).
And yes, I want to see them add ESPN as well. I assume that for some reason they were able to negotiate a deal more quickly with the Golf Channel than with ESPN, but I'm sure the latter will happen too.
Personally, I don't care about HGTV, but if it has a lot of fans, sure, add that one too.
The only thing I don't want added under any circumstances: Home shopping channels! I don't want to have to flip through them, or even see them on the program guide.