NBC is not authorizing VOOM to turn on Olympic Channels outside O&O Tv Station

[TheForce]

Per VOOM:

Certain areas outside the O&O markets were authorized by NBC Network for Olympics HD coverage on channels 321, 594, and 593. These areas may be different from the other dbs providers. No reason is given why there is a difference among the 3 DBS providers. It was a decision made at the network level. VOOM had requested all coverage for all subscribers but NBC Network refused. The local station NBC affiliates were not involved in the decision. Any complaints by VOOM customers should be addressed to the NBC Network management. Voom would not give me any specific address, contact number or e-mail address for NBC. Just the NBC.com website.

I did confirm that the blackout on my screen is not in error and that Jacksonville FL is to be blacked out by VOOM at NBC's request.

It appears that the people to address complaints to is NBC.

Have fun!

 

[Sean Mota]

This is good information Don. I split this out of the other thread. It is important enough to deserve its own thread.

 

[Bruce]

But who told Don this?

 

[DrWho]

Well, that doesn't make sense to only have it turned on at some Homes.

So this means only one thing.

Voom is paying, free to the customer, for each feed they send out.

I can't see it being any other way.
If it was free to send out, it would be in all homes, without Customers pulling teeth through CSR's at Voom HQ.

 

[DrWho]

Well, I was wrong.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=434218

Dear Mr. LMCid,

Thank you for your e-mail. I apologize but the East networks were not scheduled for the HD availability. NBC is limiting the availability based on where their local affiliates have a distribution deal with cable. Distant networks, since they are not local, do not fall into the availability transmission. I apologize for the confusion this has caused.

Your business is greatly appreciated and we thank you for allowing us to be of assistance to you. If you have any further questions or concerns, please refer to www.dishnetwork.com or reply to this email and include all previous correspondence so that we may assist you promptly.

As a current customer, you may also use our website to view your current or previous billing statements, add services, or make payments to your account. Please use the link below to launch yourself to the most user-friendly Customer Support Center available today.

http://customersupport-dev.dishnetw...ement/login.jsp



Sincerely,

Suzanne P.

DISH Network e-Care

Last edited by LMCid on 08-14-04 at 07:44 PM

 

[Dvlos]

So DIsh users are having similiar hiccups? This is pointing to NBC's indadequate handling of the Olympics of course your average Joe will have no concept of what's going on.

 

[Bruce]

So DIsh users are having similiar hiccups? This is pointing to NBC's indadequate handling of the Olympics of course your average Joe will have no concept of what's going on.

No,well at least I am not,I am in the Detroit Area(not O & O for NBC here-WDIV Channel 4)I have E*,my friend has D* and my step-father has Comcast-HD and E*,it is on all three and OTA right now(called my wife at home and she said it was on) I am starting to think that no one knows what is going on,D*,V*,E*,cable and NBC.

 

[TheForce]

My post was pulled "out of context" from another thread. As such, some of the background and a flow of discussion process was lost. Here is a synopsis of that flow and some further information-

The discussion was about the frustration of those not understnading why VOOM was so inconsistent and who got the HD Olympics channels turned on and who got it blacked out. I was one who had Olympics channels turned on for D* and E* as well as have a non-O&O OTA NBC channel transmitting HD. Cable is carrying the retransmission of the OTA local HD as well. The thread discussion was stating many personal theories about why the inconsistencies and I decided to ask if anyone had the facts. Instead I continued to get theories sent to me by thread and private. One even suggested that my local NBC station manager had accepted D* and E* but refused V* because he favored a deal between the first 2 and had no deal with V*. Since I know this manager I knoew that would be out of character for him and I decided, because of a lack of factual information to make some phone calls.
I did not speak to anyone "high up" as is often claimed in these threads but spoke to a person who kindly read the memos to me regarding the decisions and the process by which this became a real mess for the viewers and VOOM.
It was my assessment after listening to the reading of the memos that the local station had nothing to do with a refusal to disallow VOOM and allow D* and E* HDTV rights. It was my assessment that VOOM had made a proper request to supply all subscribers the HDTV 24 hour delay channels and that NBC Network had refused. There was no reason given why there was a difference between the three dbs providers and I'm not drawing any conclusions. The memos contained no reasons. MY goal was to determine if the local NBC station manager was making the call to disallow VOOM and I am satisfied he had nothing to do with that decision. That decision I understand was one made at the network level. I have no further information from NBC network as to what criteria was used to determine who got it and who didn't. I did not inquire of NBC either. I have a list of authorized Olympics HD channel cities from DishNetwork but none from VOOM. I didn't ask for a list from VOOM.

As I can recall, that about covers the background and further explanation of what I learned. I know Sean was meaning with pulling the post to a thread but I felt you all deserved a more complete picture if the information was to be taken out of context. I know how easy it may be to extrapolate and apply what I was asking to your own markets but again, my sole purpose was to ask about my local NBC station and whether they were responsible for singling out VOOM as a blacked out provider. My local station was not responsible for that decision.

 

[Sean Mota]

Don,

that's interested. I really love to know why NBC (network) decided to this.

 

[DarrellP]

I get the Dish feed, not the Voom feed and I get NBCHD OTA.

 

[Sean Mota]

I searched the NBC website to and found this email address.

sports@msnbc.com <sports@msnbc.com>

I do not expect them to answer but I sent them an email.

To whom it may concern,

my question is simple. VOOM who provides the olympics feed via satellite has been restricted by NBC networks to offer this feed to ONLY NBC own and operated TV stations. Here is a list of them (at the bottom). DishNetwork and DirecTv have both being able to offer the HD feed and SD feed to markets outside of the NBC own and operated TV stations. Here is a list of stations that DishNetwork is currently allowing to carry these feeds.

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/programming/hdtv/olympics/index.shtml

Why are you not allowing VOOM customers to get the same treatment as DishNetwork and DirecTv subscribers. Why?


WNBC: NBC4 New York
KNBC: NBC4 Los Angeles
WMAQ: NBC5 Chicago
WCAU: NBC10 Philadelphia
KNTV: NBC11 San Jose/San Francisco
KXAS: NBC5 Dallas/Fort Worth
WRC: NBC4 Washington
WTVJ: NBC6 Miami
KNSD: NBC7/39 San Diego
WVIT: NBC30 Hartford
WNCN: NBC17 Raleigh
WCMH: NBC4 Columbus
WVTM: NBC13 Birmingham
WJAR: NBC10 Providence

 

[compurocker]

A few days ago I sent the following email to this address: nbcolympicsfeedback@nbcuni.com. It bounced back to me so I forwarded the bounce to webmaster@nbc.com. I also copied Voom, the FCC, and the USOC.

---

Date: Sat, 14 Aug 2004 20:14:02 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: I can't watch the Olympics
To: nbcolympicsfeedback@nbcuni.com
CC: CustomerSupport@VOOM.com, Michael.Powell@fcc.gov, international@usoc.org

To: NBC
Cc: VOOM, the FCC, the U.S. Olympic Committee

I am very disappointed in how the Olympics are being
broadcast. I have been a happy VOOM customer since
March of this year and have been happily watching NBC
HD over-the-air since then. I live in Aurora, IL,
which is not very far from Chicago, so I get a great
signal on my antenna. I've been so happy with my VOOM
and over-the-air service that I finally canceled my
cable TV not more than a few weeks ago.
Unfortunately, it seems I should have kept my cable TV
a little while longer.

I recently found out that NBC HD was not going to show
the Olympics in real time and was only going to show
24-hour delayed highlights. This angered me as I
would like to be able to see things as they happen.
It's only been one day and I've already made the
mistake of watching the news and hearing about world
records being broken and gold medals being earned.
Things I was unable to witness firsthand.

I was happy to find out that VOOM and NBC had reached
an agreement to show two standard definition NBC feeds
in order for us to have the ability to watch the
Olympics in real time. While I am still angered about
not being able to watch it in high definition, at
least I would be able to watch it. I could always
watch the high definition highlights later. Well, to
my dismay, I am not allowed to access those standard
definition feeds for some reason or another. I don't
particularly care what the reason is. All I know is
that I cannot watch them.

I just wanted you to know how upset I am over this. I
have paid good money for a high definition television
and high definition satellite service, yet some sort
of politics are interfering with my ability to watch
the programming I would like to watch. I hope all
your advertisers know how many people are not able to
watch the commercials they paid top dollar to air.
And for the record, the Sony commercial I was forced
to endure about 300 times during the opening ceremony
has not in any way encouraged me to purchase any Sony
products. In fact, I think I might do well to avoid
them so as not to be reminded of that commercial and
the extremely poor way in which the Olympics were
broadcast this year.

Sincerely disappointed,
Craig Wheatley

 

[FunkyBoss]

... Well, to
my dismay, I am not allowed to access those standard
definition feeds for some reason or another. ...

compu, are you saying you are not getting NBC-SD on channel 593? I live right by you, and it comes in for me.

 

[vader]

I am 19 miles from WVIT NBC30 which is listed as O&O station. I am getting 321 which is the same as my OTA NBC. Just called Voom about 593 and 594. They could not figure it out. The guy said it would take up to 10 days to process. The games will be over by then...

 

[red ufo]

Well I guess the Olympic coverage got hijacked by the media monopoly playing hard ball like Bill Gates is driving the ship. Both sides will blame each other and its all about money and power.

 

[Ti-maniac]

Voom has made exceptions. I am outside of any O&O area and VOOM turned it on for me.

 

[jstrait]

It was worth the effort!

I have been following the discussion for a while and was resigned to the fact that I would have to watch the HD Olympics on my local NBC affiliate's low-power OTA transmission, or, I could watch on Charter Cable's rather troubled (lots of outages) HD feed of the affiliate. I was also annoyed by NBC's decision to delay the HD coverage, and really ticked about the (lack of) Closing Ceremony HD coverage. I emailed the local affiliate and expressed my displeasure. I got an email back from the general manager apologizing and explaining, etc. etc. but, he also stated that since Charter carried their HD feed, my satellite provider should also be providing it to me. I called Voom, explained what the general manager said in his email, they checked some things, and then turned on 321 and 593 for me!!! Now, if my box would stop re-booting itself 4-5 times a day (started with the 6.2 update) it would be perfect.