Want Cinemax on Charter? Show them more money.

dantheman77 · Jan 13, 2019

Important Information About Your TV Package

Dear CUSTOMER,
At Spectrum, it is our continuing goal to bring you the best TV services at the best price. We perform regular reviews of our services and as a result, they sometimes change.
This letter is to inform you that effective on Feburary 15th, 2019, your Spectrum TV Silver package will no longer include Cinemax. Cinemax will be available for subscription as an a la carte service only.
If you would like to add Cinemax on or after February 15, 2019 you can:
• Visit www.spectrum.com/getchannels
• Tune to channel 2495 for Instant Upgrade
To view a current Spectrum channel line-up, please visit www.spectrum.com/channels.
To view a current Spectrum rate card, please visit www.spectrum.com/ratecard.
Questions? Call 1-855-70-SPECTRUM.
Thank you for being a Spectrum customer.
Sincerely,

Kathleen Griffin
VP, Marketing Communications

©2019 Charter Communications. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy

This message was sent by Charter Communications.

EarDemon · Jan 14, 2019

It sucks. But is not totally unexpected. Epix which was removed from Gold back in the summer was grandfathered for existing subscribers, but is being removed as well on 2/15.

TV Silver was $85 and included HBO, Cinemax, Showtime. TV Gold was $105 and included those three plus, Starz, Starz Encore, TMC and Epix. Those are insanely low prices these days for all of the movie channels on top of all of the normal channels. DirecTV will be around $170 for something similar. Dish is around $140 and that doesn’t include HBO/MAX.

All premium movie packaged were $15 each a la carte. Cinemax is dropping down to $10, Epix is dropping down to $6.

There have been no price increases at all to the three base TV packages under SPP in at least the past two years. It looks like Charter. in lieu of increasing prices, they are removing low demand channels. While I have no data to back it up, I would guess Cinemax and Epix are low demand compared to HBO and SHO. Some will say it is an indirect $16 price increase, which it is. But if you don’t care about Cinemax or Epix, I’m sure you’d rather not have your bills increase. People want a la carte, and now you’re getting a la carte, enjoy!

ncted · Jan 14, 2019

EarDemon said:
It sucks. But is not totally unexpected. Epix which was removed from Gold back in the summer was grandfathered for existing subscribers, but is being removed as well on 2/15.

TV Silver was $85 and included HBO, Cinemax, Showtime. TV Gold was $105 and included those three plus, Starz, Starz Encore, TMC and Epix. Those are insanely low prices these days for all of the movie channels on top of all of the normal channels. DirecTV will be around $170 for something similar. Dish is around $140 and that doesn’t include HBO/MAX.

All premium movie packaged were $15 each a la carte. Cinemax is dropping down to $10, Epix is dropping down to $6.

There have been no price increases at all to the three base TV packages under SPP in at least the past two years. It looks like Charter. in lieu of increasing prices, they are removing low demand channels. While I have no data to back it up, I would guess Cinemax and Epix are low demand compared to HBO and SHO. Some will say it is an indirect $16 price increase, which it is. But if you don’t care about Cinemax or Epix, I’m sure you’d rather not have your bills increase. People want a la carte, and now you’re getting a la carte, enjoy!

A la carte is nice in theory, but sucks in practice.

EarDemon · Jan 14, 2019

Like most things in life, everything has it's pluses and minuses including a la carte. Me personally, because I watch a wide variety of content from a wide variety of channels, a la carte would never make sense. And tastes change over time. Five years ago I would have said hell yes to the sports channels and to hell with Lifetime. Fast forward a few years and I now have no interest period in the NFL and have found a few series on Lifetime that I actually enjoy that aren't 110% estrogen driven. Had I only subscribed to a core group of channels, I would have missed so much content I have come to enjoy.

I will be one of the few paying the extra money for Cinemax. They have two upcoming original series that I am interested in, Jett and Warrior. Am I happy about Cinemax being broken out of the core packages? No, ofcourse not. But I do understand it. I bet a lot there would be a lot more people complaining had the packages increased $10 in price, even though they still would be at an extremely fair rate. And also, I am grateful to at least have the choice to subscribe to Cinemax if I so choose do, unlike Dish subscribers at this point in time.

harshness · Jan 14, 2019

I dare say that Epix as a suite may have a better offering now than Cinemax does (although the repetitiveness is perhaps just as bad). Both have their respective original series.

I'm more into movies and the "Premium" movie suites don't seem to play many good movies any more. I remember when I first subscribed to Showtime and they guaranteed no movies more than a couple years out of the theaters. Now all but a handful are pretty old (and many of them stunk back when). You can only run Bikini Car Wash, Private School and Wayne's World so many times.

EarDemon · Jan 16, 2019

Epix without a doubt has a better movie selection than Cinemax. Epix has the first run rights to MGM, Paramount and Lions Gate films, Cinemax as we all know is mostly recycled HBO movies.

Cinemax has had some decent original series, a few of were imported from the UK. I don't even really see the need for the secondary movie packages to even exist anymore. Cinemax, Starz Encore/Plex and TMC just cycle movies between their main channels. I would be infavor of all three of those services going away and adding an extra couple of channels to HBO, Starz and Showtime. I can't remember if it was Strike Back or Banshee, or maybe even both, but I read a couple different times that the series was originally slated for HBO, but they wanted to push some original programming onto Cinemax. Epix wouldn't exist if CBS and Viacom didn't split. Epix seems to be bigger on the documentaries and specials,as they only had a couple of original shows, but it looks like there are more in the works.

DanStun · Feb 22, 2019

You guys realize this is all bs right? They tried arguing with me that they didn't increase prices for 7 years. They also tried telling me these stations weren't popular no more and no one really watches them.

Well heres the thing, not only was our price not reduced for loosing these stations, but increased by a few bucks for the local broadcast stations. You know the ones you get for free with a antenna.

We watch movies quite frequently on Epix and Cinemax. Infact HBO owns Cinemax. HBO is owned by Warner, which is owned by, you guessed it, Charter Spectrum.

I noticed that these premium stations have been changing their airings over the years. Now its to the point that you need them all to get all the movies, because they seems to break the movies up for the different stations. Their way of making you buy all the stations. Was so much nicer when you just had HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax all separate companies competing against each other.

So ya, I keep reading all these different stories on to their reason. Quite frankly its all bs. So call up Spectrum and complain about it. It's not righjt, and its dirty tactics like these that keep causing class action lawsuits and regulations from the gov. We as the customer end up paying more and more as a result.

EarDemon · Feb 22, 2019

DanStun said:
You guys realize this is all bs right? They tried arguing with me that they didn't increase prices for 7 years. They also tried telling me these stations weren't popular no more and no one really watches them.

Well heres the thing, not only was our price not reduced for loosing these stations, but increased by a few bucks for the local broadcast stations. You know the ones you get for free with a antenna.

We watch movies quite frequently on Epix and Cinemax. Infact HBO owns Cinemax. HBO is owned by Warner, which is owned by, you guessed it, Charter Spectrum.

I noticed that these premium stations have been changing their airings over the years. Now its to the point that you need them all to get all the movies, because they seems to break the movies up for the different stations. Their way of making you buy all the stations. Was so much nicer when you just had HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax all separate companies competing against each other.

So ya, I keep reading all these different stories on to their reason. Quite frankly its all bs. So call up Spectrum and complain about it. It's not righjt, and its dirty tactics like these that keep causing class action lawsuits and regulations from the gov. We as the customer end up paying more and more as a result.

You are wrong on all counts.

1) TV Gold and TV Silver have not seen price increases since Spectrum Pricing was introduced years ago. Broadcast fee and set top rental fees have increased, but the price of the core packages have stayed the same

2) Cable companies have to pay re-transmission fees on local channels. They don’t get them for free.

3) It’s not a stretch to say Cinemax is the least popular of all of the premium movie packages.

4) In lieu of increasing the price of TV Silver and TV Gold, Cinemax and Epix were removed while the price stayed the same.

5) Charter does not own HBO/Cinemax, not sure why you're making that up, but they are owned by AT&T, you know they company that owns DirecTV.

6) There have always been three main premium services. HBO/MAX, Showtime/TMC, Starz/Encore. Each main network has exclusive first run rights to certain movie studios, and then they get replayed on the secondary services. Epix was a result of the CBS/Viacom split, but Viacom has since sold the channel to MGM.

7) TV Gold + Cinemax + Epix is still a better value then the equivalents from Dish Network and DirecTV. Dish doesn’t even carry HBO and Cinemax anymore and DirecTV is around $165-170 for Premier + HD Movie Pack and doesn't carry Epix.

There is no other TV provider in the country where you could get every single English language channel on the system for $105 in this day and age, so I'm not sure what all the complaining is about when TV Gold has been an incredible value for years.

DanStun · Feb 22, 2019

Ok, while their may have been some confusion about who owns what as regards to Warner, id hardly say my argument is wrong on all accounts.

Yes, the prices have increased. Infect the last increase was a month or two ago. But theirs been a number of increases. I checked some of the statements and seen this.

I understand the cable companies have to pay re-transmission fees, but they aren't paying it, we the end customer are. Something that is offered to us over the air for free. again, their could be better negotiating on the cable companies part, or atleast offer us the options of not getting them from the cable company.

I don't know what the ratings are for each station, but I do know not one station shows them all. Back in the day their was compition, now its not so much compition, you pretty much have to have them all to get the majority of the movies.

For the argument of the price stayed the same but loosing the Cinemax and Epix. Thats a Bs argument, like I said the overall bill went up when loosing 2 premium station packages. That's the bottom line. Even without the slight rate hike for the local broadcasts, the rate should not have stayed the same, but became less as we no longer get two of the premium stations packages. They should have reduced the rates accordingly as they are obviously not paying for rights to broadcast those stations to us. It dont matter what the other companies are doing, we have charter, that's who provides our service. Plus you are comparing apples to oranges here. Cable vs satellite.

I don't know what the other companies are offering, nor does that matter for my argument. But I will say this. Theirs only a handfull of stations I watch, just like most people. Second you can only watch 1 at a time. Third, last I checked, they don't offer ever single English based channel. Nor is it $105. You still need to pay for the equipment and other charges. You cant even hook up the cable line directly to the tv anymore. You get nothing. And before you argue,, why would you when you can get DVR or onscreen guides. Again, not having this ability forces me to rent their equipment jacking up the prices well beyond $105. Not only this, we have a smart TV and dont even get to enjoy the pip features like we use to before requiring a digital cable box. Our TV also has its own TV guide system, but again since we cant use it direct from the cable, then that's obsolete. Theirs a few other features that were offered that we cannot use as well.

It's no secret that the cable companies have been trying to skirt around FCC regulations for years. Anytime the FCC does something to help protect the customer, the cable companies find a other way to screw us over. their is a reason so many people have been dropping both satellite and cable networks. Then they want to cry cause people are streaming instead of through them?

EarDemon · Feb 25, 2019

You've always needed all of the movie channel packages to get all of the movies. Each premium network has an agreement with certain studios, HBO, Showtime, Starz and Epix have the majority of first run rights for movies from the big studios and production companies. That's how the movie channels worked forever. For movies, Cinemax has been nothing but an HBO overrun channel for years.

You can call it a BS argument all you want, but the alternative would have been to raise the price of TV Gold $16/month to cover the cost of Cinemax and Epix. The price stayed the same, while channels were removed. Are those channels worth $16 to you? Not sure how comparing cable to satellite is comparing apples to oranges, since Charter, Dish and DirecTV are all direct competitors with each other. Can't get more apples to apples then that. TV Silver has been $85 and TV Gold has been $105 since at least 2015 and that is what they cost today. The broadcast TV fee has increased a few dollars, the set top box rental fee went from $5 to $7 to $7.50 each, but the core package price has stayed the same, that is my point. A subscription to Gold with 1 cable box will cost about $130 after it's all said and done, not much more then it cost in 2015. Again, compare the cost of the top tier packages from other providers.

Since I switched over to Spectrum Pricing three years ago in March of 2016, my bill increased $11/month due to increases in the broadcast fee and receiver fees, that's an average of $3.66/month per year. Far below other MSOs.

And its a very good thing that you can't connect coax to the back of a TV anymore. All of those poor quality analog channels were a gigantic waste of bandwidth. It's thanks to analog removal that Charter can offer basic internet at 100 or 200 Mbps, increase Ultra from 100 Mbps to 400 Mbps and launch the Gigabit tier. Analog should have been removed 10+ years ago, I love my gigabit internet and if that means people can't connect coax to the back of a TV anymore, so be it. Don't care.

harshness · Feb 26, 2019

EarDemon said:
You've always needed all of the movie channel packages to get all of the movies.

But now you don't even get more than a small fraction of the movies that are released to theaters. HBO was doing maybe one also-ran a month and padding their plex with some old timers that we far from being MPAA candidate material. Same with Showtime.

Now Netflix is following suit and that really bums me out.

EarDemon · Feb 27, 2019

Can't say I've rally noticed one way or another, but I will pay more attention. HBO premiers new movies Saturday at 8, Starz I think is 9PM on Fridays or Saturdays, not sure about Epix. It seems these days the majority of new movies are either superhero movies, sequels, prequels or reboots. I have very little interest in any of those so I haven't really paid much attention to movie selections lately. It's the original series that keep me subscribing. If there's a new movie I really care about seeing I'll just buy it on blu ray for the better audio and video quality.

Robin dees · Mar 2, 2019

EarDemon said:
You've always needed all of the movie channel packages to get all of the movies. Each premium network has an agreement with certain studios, HBO, Showtime, Starz and Epix have the majority of first run rights for movies from the big studios and production companies. That's how the movie channels worked forever. For movies, Cinemax has been nothing but an HBO overrun channel for years.

You can call it a BS argument all you want, but the alternative would have been to raise the price of TV Gold $16/month to cover the cost of Cinemax and Epix. The price stayed the same, while channels were removed. Are those channels worth $16 to you? Not sure how comparing cable to satellite is comparing apples to oranges, since Charter, Dish and DirecTV are all direct competitors with each other. Can't get more apples to apples then that. TV Silver has been $85 and TV Gold has been $105 since at least 2015 and that is what they cost today. The broadcast TV fee has increased a few dollars, the set top box rental fee went from $5 to $7 to $7.50 each, but the core package price has stayed the same, that is my point. A subscription to Gold with 1 cable box will cost about $130 after it's all said and done, not much more then it cost in 2015. Again, compare the cost of the top tier packages from other providers.

Since I switched over to Spectrum Pricing three years ago in March of 2016, my bill increased $11/month due to increases in the broadcast fee and receiver fees, that's an average of $3.66/month per year. Far below other MSOs.

And its a very good thing that you can't connect coax to the back of a TV anymore. All of those poor quality analog channels were a gigantic waste of bandwidth. It's thanks to analog removal that Charter can offer basic internet at 100 or 200 Mbps, increase Ultra from 100 Mbps to 400 Mbps and launch the Gigabit tier. Analog should have been removed 10+ years ago, I love my gigabit internet and if that means people can't connect coax to the back of a TV anymore, so be it. Don't care.

Robin dees · Mar 2, 2019

Before you start on me? I've been with Charter before a large majority of you posters have been born! I'm old, crippled and in pain! Movie channels are important to me. I longer have Charter store, no birthday discounts, even virus package don't support several operating systems that I have used and a couple I do. I now have to have a box and bar box to even get channels! My internet does not get the speed it's supposed to. They claim they are upgrading many months ago, how much longer? I'm nor sure where these prices come from because my bill is closer to $300.00 per month! I'm having problems with my cable box yet again! Don't you just adore the fact a service person will be there between 10:00 am and 6:00? Wire maintenance is a joke! Spanish channels are not needed for me. Not to mention a lot of movie channels and tv channels are no longer available. The Spanish channels should be the choice in areas of Epix and Cinemax. I'm very upset! I cannot understand why someone would think this is fine? All I know is change my service? Being an extremely long standing customer and Gold seems to mean nothing! I'm really considering dropping movie channels and going with Amazon, Netflix? My TV is Roku and includes a lot of movies and YouTube is free. It sux for me to give up what I'm very used to! I have everything bundled with Charter! I'm even upset with my cousin for the consultant work he did for Spectrum!!! I'm very unhappy with the change! Take the Spanish channels off and give me what I had minus Spanish!

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