DirecTV discountinuning more international programing? Greek pacakge next to go?

[Grk101]

After ditching the Polish package earlier this year, it seems to me that the Greek package may be the next to go. Does anyone know what exactly is going on with the Greek package offering from DirecTV?

Here is the rundown:
In late November, DirecTV sent out letters informing customers that Greek channel "Alpha Sat" was leaving at the end of December. In the letter, new adjusted prices were listed for the existing packages, and it seemed that the rest of the offerings would remain as is. (Just for the record, it was brought to light soon after that the specific channel was jumping ship to Dish Network, see the related thread here.) A few days later, on December 1st, the whole Greek package was suddenly removed off of DirecTV's website. After a few emails and phone calls later to DirecTV, it seemed they were not offering the package to new customers anymore, a strange move, although there was at least one report that a customer was still able to get the package. (although maybe that was do to the fact he was already a DirecTV subscriber to begin with.) I was assured though that current customers would still retain their Greek programing. One rep even went as far as telling me that they may be getting a new channel on board to fill the void left by "Alpha Sat", though nothing is known for certain. Now almost a month later, there is still no trace of the Greek package on their website offerings.

Does anyone know what is going on? Are they planning to ditch the package? Their biggest asset in my opinion is "Mega Cosmos", which is the most popular channel in Greece. I find it very worrying that they have erased all traces of the Greek package from their website for about a month now, and are apparently not offering the package to new subscribers anymore.

 

[Jimbo]

I'll take a guess and say that alot of this is related to D* slowly allowing channels that don't make money or much of it to stay on board.

 

[charper1]

Agreed. as sad as it can be I think companies are finally going to come around that trying to have it all just is not cost effective; it not about my channel count versus your channel count; that was always a childish race and customers need to realize this as well. (I am not speaking directly to the OP). This is simply survival of the fittest, thinning of the herd and having the BEST products. Contraction will make for a stronger company.

 

[Mojo Jojo]

I suppose this is what was meant by paring channels. It should be interesting to see which channels make the cut and which do not. I am sure that it will be difficult to decide which stay and which go.

 

[Juan]

How can they NOT make money @ $20 a channel (for international)

 

[charper1]

How can they NOT make money @ $20 a channel (for international)

Not enough total subscribers

 

[dishrich]

While I don't know about the Greek ch specifically, you also should mention that MANY of these international channels can be watched FREE on FTA systems.

http://www.lyngsat.com/galaxy19.html

While they are more geared toward tech-savy folks, when you have a choice between paying $20+/month & ZERO - guess which one many folks will go to? (even taking into account buying the dish/receiver upfront)

Also, since D* got into the international biz late in the game, E* has pretty much cornered the (pay) international market on that front. And since E* does NOT require a base pkg for international (only $6 access fee) that probably tends to keep those subs around.

 

[Grk101]

Regarding FTA channels, specifically the only FTA Greek channel in North America is state broadcaster ERT World (and more recently its related radio stations), and that is only available with a big C-band dish. Not to mention the fact that the channel itself does not really offer much in terms of content, especially as of late, compared to its rival private broadcasters. (other than their hold on certain sports rights.)

Anyway, regarding the current situation with the Greek package on Direct, I don't understand why any company would still carry certain channels but not offer them to new customers. What is the benefit of this practice? If they do in fact plan to ditch them, why not just come out and say that. So far there has been no announcement of the sort, yet they have completely removed the channels from their website and are not offering them to new customers anymore.

By the way, the current access fee for Dish is now $10.

 

[dishrich]

Regarding the current situation with the Greek package on DirecTV, I don't understand why any company would still carry certain channels but not offer them to new customers. What is the benefit of this practice?

It's another bargaining tactic with a "stubborn" programmer - D* & this programmer can't come to another agreement, so D* will NO longer authorize new subs, for the fear of having to piss off more customers, plus it hits the programmer even more by depriving them of new subs. (& more $$$) If they DO end up coming to an agreement, then D* will resume offering it - if not, then that's that many fewer people they have to info of the prog shut-off.

IIRC, D* did the very same thing for (new) Playboy monthly subs awhile back, but they STILL allowed PPV Playboy to be ordered...

 

[harshness]

In the previous thread, I was able to locate the Greek programming page using the DIRECTV site search. Today, it no longer shows up and the link seems to get rerouted to the international overview page.

 

[Grk101]

It's another bargaining tactic with a "stubborn" programmer - D* & this programmer can't come to another agreement, so D* will NO longer authorize new subs, for the fear of having to piss off more customers, plus it hits the programmer even more by depriving them of new subs. (& more $$$) If they DO end up coming to an agreement, then D* will resume offering it - if not, then that's that many fewer people they have to info of the prog shut-off.

IIRC, D* did the very same thing for (new) Playboy monthly subs awhile back, but they STILL allowed PPV Playboy to be ordered...

From what I have heard though, it seemed that Direct had signed a long term contract with the remaining main channels. (Mega Cosmos and Alter Globe). Of course there is no knowing if that is true. It is worth noting that both channels left Dish back in 2006 and 2007 respectively after some problems. There was a pretty public feud between Dish and the distributor of these channels back then, although these two channels are now distributed by a new company it seems. When Mega's contract expired, they moved to Direct and Dish played the situation like they it was a complete surprise and they were perusing legal action. Here is a thread related to its move and drama back then.

From what I read online (again, no way of knowing if any of this is true. Read: speculation) Dish had signed a long term contract with Gr ch Antenna Satellite, which saw the launch and addition of a few spin off channels (Antenna Gold, now Antenna 20 years channel, and Antenna Music, now Blue music channel) as well as a few radio stations they own (Rythmos Radio and Antenna Radio). After the additions of these channels, the packages were re-shuffled. Anyway story goes that the other Gr channels on Dish were none to pleased that their channel was now only available on the highest package, mandatory bundled with all the Antenna offerings, while their a la carte offering was also cut.

 

[stonecold]

I looked into our order system for setting up new accounts/ greek packages are still selectable so I dont know what to say. I have not seen anything not to add the channels but generally with internationals we do not touch and we send over to our internationals group. But the greek channels is showing up in all of my systems that all i can say on the matter

 

[r10fret]

Directv international free preview right now Russian

The following channels just went ITC @ 95 satellite
C1RW 2140
KINO 2142
M1 2143
VREM 2144

Early last Month they had Brazilian free preview channel
PFC 2135

MHZ Worldview is finally back on the air 2183, as well GEMM, CCTV still free PI, Directv never announces anywhere when internationals are opened for free preview plus you already have to be setup for 95 west satellite so who knows what the point is or when it ends. PFC was ITC for about 2 weeks at the end of November/early December.

I always like to compare the quality between internationals via dish vs directv, PFC @ 118.7 dish was the best (least compression), then PFC @ 95 directv, then PFC @ 61.5 dish was of course the worst. Same story goes for Globo on dish 118.7 vs directv 95 vs dish 61.5.

 

[Grk101]

I looked into our order system for setting up new accounts/ greek packages are still selectable so I dont know what to say. I have not seen anything not to add the channels but generally with internationals we do not touch and we send over to our internationals group. But the greek channels is showing up in all of my systems that all i can say on the matter

Thanks for the information. Really strange that you are still able to add them, since I, as well as others who have called and emailed, have been told that it is not available to new customers. One of the email's someone received stated "I checked my resources and found that we no longer offer Greek programming. However, we continue expanding out international programming to channels from all around the world." This message was in early December though. But add all that to the fact that they have removed all traces of the Greek offering from their website, I don't know what to think.

 

[stonecold]

Thanks for the information. Really strange that you are still able to add them, since I, as well as others who have called and emailed, have been told that it is not available to new customers. One of the email's someone received stated "I checked my resources and found that we no longer offer Greek programming. However, we continue expanding out international programming to channels from all around the world." This message was in early December though. But add all that to the fact that they have removed all traces of the Greek offering from their website, I don't know what to think.

Yeah it gone from my screens as of 1/1/11

 

[Grk101]

Sorry to bring up an old thread again, but does anyone have any updates on this situation? It has been over 2 months since DirecTV removed the Greek-language channels from their site and stopped selling them shortly after. Does anyone know what their plans are with them? Right now they seem to be in limbo.... Why keep them on board but remove every mention of them and stop selling them?

 

[harshness]

It seems obvious that they want out of the Greek TV business. Losing one of the anchor channels to DISH Network likely contributed to this decision.

 

[Grk101]

Yeah I realize that, but I am finding it strange that they are keeping the channels on board as of now but not making any mention of them or selling them. Assuming they can't just drop the channels yet (contracts??), wouldn't they get a benefit out of selling it to a few more subs or something? I understand maybe they don't want to dupe people into singing up they dropping the channels, but if they really have intentions of dropping them, why not come out and say that already? Customer service still maintains the Greek channels are staying for current subscribers...Either way they are duping people: their current subs.

 

[defender007]

Mega Cosmos has a message that it will no longer be offered after March 31st, 2011