Uplink Activity 5/12/08 11:55 PM EDT 10 VOOMs gone.

[wassupTC]

Hey, they got rid of the ones that I never watch...I'm not upset about that, but I do have to agree with those of you that feel like you're not getting nearly the value for the money spent that you were yesterday. I can definitely get behind that sentiment 100%.

Better do some quick making up Dish, you may have just nullified some contracts.

 

[JohnH]

It is not the channels. It is the way it was done. Add 22, announce great numbers and cut 10 channels(in the middle of the night) without any announcement or reduction in the numbers. Just stinks. People had paid for packages with those channels in them.

 

[kvnfl]

Wow! That sucks. At the end of hockey season my packages are going to be seriously trimmed. But, on a bright note we got the World Fishing Network where we can watch glorious HD presentations of angling in SD. And ABCFamily with zero, as in no HD programing. Dish Netork went hunting for expanded HD programming and ended up shooting itself in the foot, after the bullet passed through its heart.

 

[mckinney_man]

Is this really news? Scott or someone posted that court ruling where they said DISH could stop broadcasting the VOOM channels immediately. I think we should have known this was coming as soon as that surfaced. The addition of the channels yesterday had to be timed to offset the VOOM cutoff.

I would browse the VOOM channels but never really stopped because nothing ever caught my eye. If this opens things up for other channels like Mojo or some of the others that people have been saying they want then it should be seen as a good thing. If this all sits barren for 6 months (though probably only about a week) people will really start considering the value again. Are there 10 National "HD" channels out there to replace these? And if there are will people do more than just browse through them? If so then this is a great decision. If not then Charlie has shot himself in the foot. I imagine out of Team Summit we will hear some news one way or another.

 

[TalonDancer]

It is not the channels. It is the way it was done. Add 22, announce great numbers and cut 10 channels(in the middle of the night) without any announcement or reduction in the numbers. Just stinks. People had paid for packages with those channels in them.

+1

Dish is yet another sleazy con artist in corporate trappings Get folks to sign 24 month one sided commitments, then remove channels they expected to be in their package. And tell them it is because you needed the space for new HD.

Dish had better light up some new HD in this space very, very soon (like Wed.) or the "needed more space for new HD" story will be an obvious deception.

Talon Dancer

 

[Jeffro34tx]

It is not the channels. It is the way it was done. Add 22, announce great numbers and cut 10 channels(in the middle of the night) without any announcement or reduction in the numbers. Just stinks. People had paid for packages with those channels in them.

I can understand why they would do it that way though. If you are trying to market yourself, obviously you only want to announce the positive actions. I think they are serious now, they have seen the subscriber growth fall and are doing whatever it takes.

If it was my company, I can't say that I would have handled it much different.

I can't really say that I would have removed the channels either though. But I do not know everything that Dish knows at this point.

As far as cutting them in the middle of the night, when is the best time to cut the channels? Prime time? morning? afternoon? midnight seemed pretty logical to me.

I admit, seems pretty back handed, but we do not know what they are planning to do make up for it. I'm sure there is a reason for it.

Besides, if they add the other HD Nationals such as CMT, NICK, MTV, SPIKE, VH-1, maybe some of the other Premium Movie channels like HBO-West, Sho-West, SHO-Too, Movie Channel, Starz-West. They will be much closer to DirectTV than they were last week.

I'm sure DISH is in panic and catch up mode.... and it's about time.

Honestly, I would rather they have kept the 10 VOOM channels and slowly added the rest of the National HD channels as they made more room. I think it's better to have some unique HD Channels that others don't offer.

I know they wanted to get some BANG for their buck by adding 22 HD channels all at one time, but I would have rather had these channels added a few at a time, over several weeks span. Did anyone else find it hard to enjoy all the content last night? I couldn't really keep up with all the different channels and it will take a week or two to get acquainted with all the channels and figure out what is really HD or isn't.

Feed me a little at a time, not ALL at once. I think DISH upset alot of customers over the last couple of months while we were starving, now they are trying to make up for it.

I'm sure DISH will figure out what a fair deal is on each the tiered packages.

 

[Mdvalenz]

We watched several shows and movies on the removed channels and are sad to see them go.

 

[Rey]

IT can't be because of space, they were all up there yesterday and worked fine together. this has to be a plan to add more hd quickly that people wanted more than voom. i personally will not miss it.

 

[Voyager6]

Can't say that I watched much on the deleted channels but I have (or half if you prefer) to agree that this was a terrible way to do this. No advance notice of the deletions is a bad way to do business. We had some knowledge about the lawsuit between Voom and E* but 90+% of the HD subscribers had no idea what was coming. Hopefully, E* will make it up to us with some premium HD movie channels. I feel that E* sorely needs to expand the HD movie content.

 

[dgpruitt]

They need to update their HD Programming website to document what channels are in what tier of programming.

 

[JamesJ]

I 100% Agree with JOHNH here, I think they need to add some HD channels in the coming weeks like they say, or cut the HD price for ultimate down by 5 bucks to make this right...we will see what happens I am sure Dish has something cooking, how long it takes who knows

 

[8bitbytes]

At least "Concrete Canvas" recorded for me last night before they cut the channel off.

 

[Toder]

As long as they kept kung fu and monster i'm happy

 

[cabledave]

Is this really news? Scott or someone posted that court ruling where they said DISH could stop broadcasting the VOOM channels immediately. I think we should have known this was coming as soon as that surfaced.

I wasn't supplied a crystal ball when I subscribed.

I used to own a medium sized cable company. We would have never removed channels without appropriate notice. From a customer's perspective, they have already paid for those channels through the billing period. At least 30 days notice would have been appropriate. That would give customers time to give some input on the decision.

Every company that I have dealt with over the last several years, whose attitude toward their customers was indifference, bottom line has suffered.

 

[waltinvt]

It is not the channels. It is the way it was done. Add 22, announce great numbers and cut 10 channels(in the middle of the night) without any announcement or reduction in the numbers. Just stinks. People had paid for packages with those channels in them.

Agreed.

 

[joemuseum]

At least "Concrete Canvas" recorded for me last night before they cut the channel off.

I liked that one too, just discovered it though... sigh. I suppose there is no way this show will migrate to Equator.

 

[waltinvt]

I
I used to own a medium sized cable company. We would have never removed channels without appropriate notice. From a customer's perspective, they have already paid for those channels through the billing period. At least 30 days notice would have been appropriate. That would give customers time to give some input on the decision.

Every company that I have dealt with over the last several years, whose attitude toward their customers was indifference, bottom line has suffered.

:up

 

[tawhite]

This is complete crap!. Like the Voom channels or not, to take them off in the middle of the night without warning is a piss poor way to do business. It really dampens the excitement of the new additions for me. Time to email ceo@echostar.com and bitch, oh wait, it's really windy here today. I'll just go out and piss into the wind and get the same result.

 

[Dynomite]

I guess I'm the only one who will miss WorldSport. Watching orange flags, the 55 yard line, 20 yard end zones, 12 men on each side of the line, and receivers making a mad dash towards the line of scrimmage before the snap was fun to me.

My wife, however, who still has to ask questions about NFL games, will not miss being completely confused by the CFL.

 

[Reward]

Hooray! For once, Dish did the right thing.