PlatinumHD value

[jrbdmb]

As of 02/03 the PlatinumHD (or is it Platinum HD) package gives you:
- NBATV HD (only useful half the year - if you are a fan)
- NHLNET HD (ditto)
- MGM HD (TCM clone)
- Universal HD (assorted movies / TV shows)
- HDNet Movies
- World Fishing Network HD
- Crime & Investigations HD (TV reruns)

As a new HD customer I was looking forward to a few of these, particular MGM for the wife and HDNET movies. But after looking at the upcoming schedules in the guide, I am singularly unimpressed with this package. MGM and HDNet are OK, but not as good as I would have expected. (With their huge catalog of movies, MGM should be awesome.) Universal HD is very disappointing; do we really need a 10-hour block of Becker or 5-hour prime time block of WWE? C&I is mostly filler, the NBA and NHL channels are worthless for half of the year, and the less said about an HD fishing channel the better.

I was able to snag three free months of the package, but unless something very significant is added I can't imagine keeping it after the promotion ends in early May. Am I the only one to think this way?

 

[madailey]

Yes, this "upgrade" is useless to me as well. I can't believe they would even think its marketable with this channel selection.

 

[Dah-Henny]

I suspect that if E* doesn't add some great channels to platinum relatively soon, the package may die. When I switch from absolute, I won't sub to it unless they make it more valuable.

 

[M Sparks]

A
- MGM HD (TCM clone)

Apologize to TCM now!

The lack of value in the Platinum package has long been a topic of conversation here, ever since it lost a net 12 channels last May. I dropped it last summer, then picked it up on the 3 months free deal. Now that it's back to full price, I was going to drop it again, but I got the 3 free months of Starz/HBO (which I already pay for). So now my Platinum is "paid for" for another 6 months.

I'll reevaluate after the storm. I love HDNet Movies, but I'm not paying $10 for it. Unfortunately, there isn't much potential to add more to the package. Fox Business was a possibility, but now the SD version is up. C&I was in the wings, but they replaced Smithsonian with it. Fashion TV is likely.

Other than that, there's Wealth, MavTV, the ES channel suite, Africa Channel, maybe Fuel and a few others. Longest shot...the two revamped Voom channels. In any case, it will likely never be as worthwhile as it was last May, and even then it was sketchy.

The problem is...any channel that might be added to make it a better value is likely to be a last priority. They'd rather focus on established channels.

 

[mdonnelly]

MGM doesn't have a huge catalog of movies. They sold their old movies to Ted Turner in the 80's, and that became the core of TCM. All MGM has now is movies from the 80's and later.

 

[dennispap]

Same here. If in late feb/Early march there isnt a huge increase in valuable(to me) channels added to platinum, i will also be dropping platinum.
If plenty start dropping platinum, i guess they would have to fold the channels into some other package due to contracts between the stations and dish? I doubt mgm or whoever signed a contract to be in only x amount of homes. I'm sure the price is based on # of subscribers to their tier. Not dish's total subs.
Anyone know for sure.?

 

[krauser1]

I currently have Platinum HD and most likely with the price increases coming I will drop it. The only channel I watch (sometimes) is NHLN, and Universal. The rest I could care less about.

 

[Lord_Vader]

I think the only thing I am watching on it is Enterprise.

 

[madailey]

Yea, I'm sure the Platinum package will be the first thing chosen to go from the consumer's point of view now that the price increase HAS hit.

 

[jrbdmb]

MGM doesn't have a huge catalog of movies. They sold their old movies to Ted Turner in the 80's, and that became the core of TCM. All MGM has now is movies from the 80's and later.

Now that you said that I do recall Turner buying the MGM catalog way back when ... I should have thought of that when I noticed that the MGM HD schedule showed only relatively recent movies. Thanks for the reminder.

And all of the above makes me hope that TCM HD could be a reality someday.

 

[AriesGodofWar]

Just dropped it today, after losing Voom, I thought I would give it some time, but given the fact I do not watch bad movies, basketball, fishing, or Hockey, I could not justify it. Dropped Platinum and upgraded to Classic Gold 250/GoldHD so now I at least get Nat Geo in HD, which I know I will watch more than all the platinum channels combined. Maybe if they add something great, I will switch, but there is nothing else that I can think of that I would really want to see that I do not already have in SD, unless they took the best of Voom content and added it back, and the odds of that I think are actually negative at this point.

 

[theoak]

I pretty much did the same thing ... I went from DDA AT100 + BronzeHD + PlatinumHD to DDA200 + SilverHD. About a month or so later I figured for the same price I could go DDA TurboHD Gold, so I did that considering I rarely watch SD channels anyway ...

 

[DougE]

Swith to all Turbo

Hope this sub is not already in another thread. I want to go to just DDA Turbo Bronze and HBO. Now have +200 package and Silver HD. Since it is after Feb 1st, can I now sub to just Turbo??

 

[CowboyDren]

I created a timer for all titles on all HD channels with the word Premiere in the description. It grabs at least ten movies a week, half of which are from Platinum tier channels. It ain't ShowTime, but it does't cost as much.

 

[pfan1981]

platinum for a few more channels seems ludicris. I imagine DISH will put some goodies in the platinum to make it attractive.

Just signed my sister-in-law up last night and she laughed at adding $10 for the platinum.

pfan

 

[MikeD-C05]

There is absolutely no reason to upgrade to platinum pack as it is right now. Even when Voom was a part, I saw no reason to add because it was ALL RERUNS. Even DIRECTV only sells this pack for 4.99 a month and it isn't even worth at that price. DISH could drop the entire lineup and I wouldn't care. The only good thing that DISH did was to split this pack off from the regular hd pack so I could save the $10.00 a month.

 

[M Sparks]

All MGM has now is movies from the 80's and later.

That's not 100% true. I've seen quite a few things from the 60s and 70s.

The who-owns-what of the MGM library is actually quite complicated. But it is true that they show a ton of bad 80s movies, mainly from Cannon.

 

[mdonnelly]

That's not 100% true. I've seen quite a few things from the 60s and 70s.

The who-owns-what of the MGM library is actually quite complicated. But it is true that they show a ton of bad 80s movies, mainly from Cannon.

I stand corrected. But if you want old MGM movies, you need to go to TCM. Their letterboxed stuff still looks pretty good at full zoom.

 

[RandallA]

There is absolutely no reason to upgrade to platinum pack as it is right now. Even when Voom was a part, I saw no reason to add because it was ALL RERUNS. Even DIRECTV only sells this pack for 4.99 a month and it isn't even worth at that price. DISH could drop the entire lineup and I wouldn't care. The only good thing that DISH did was to split this pack off from the regular hd pack so I could save the $10.00 a month.

:up Directv has something similar for half price. I suspect this add-on package will not survive very long.

 

[mhowie]

There is absolutely no reason to upgrade to platinum pack as it is right now.

Aside from the three months free offer, I would agree.