pbarrow
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL
| [CATV] Charter doing it to us again
Well I got a brochure in the mail from Charter.
"We're makein changes to enhance your Charter experience"
New channel lineup
They are moving TCM and Oxygen and Bravo - some fo the channels I watch the most frm the Analog tier to the digital tier.
That's sure not enhancing my Charter esperience since I'm on analog.
How about a price reduction for analog or provide digital Basic/Expanded for the same price as analog Basic/Expanded? |
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drobi78
join:2001-04-27
Montgomery, AL
edit:
July 7th, @11:25PM
| Received the same today, but don't forget that we are getting 6 new HD channels  I do not subscribe to the digital tier either but I have found a recent love for clear QAM.
On a side note, couldn't be too far from you pbarrow  |
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BF69
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN
| reply to pbarrow
said by pbarrow  :Well I got a brochure in the mail from Charter. "We're makein changes to enhance your Charter experience" New channel lineup They are moving TCM and Oxygen and Bravo - some fo the channels I watch the most frm the Analog tier to the digital tier. That's sure not enhancing my Charter esperience since I'm on analog. How about a price reduction for analog or provide digital Basic/Expanded for the same price as analog Basic/Expanded? LOL. Price cut yeah right. Last year they moved G4 and GameShow Network to digital( well they didn't MOVE the channels, they just made them digital so you'd need a digital box to see them regardless ) and then moved We to the digital tier and then RAISED the price of expanded basic. Can anyone explain that logic?
Expect more of this as Charter tries to free up bandwidth to add HD channels. Hey if Charter wants to go all digital I really don't have an issue with that, but don't keep prices the same or worse RAISE them if you are providing LESS channels. |
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SyNiSt3r
join:2007-04-26
Morristown, TN
| reply to pbarrow
Preach it BF. Charter might as well send letters saying
grab your ankles.
We havent had one Hd channel added to our lineup this year.
Other than those digital channels you spoke of happening charter hasnt done anything to "enhance my Charter experience". |
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pbarrow
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Montgomery, AL
| reply to pbarrow
Ok, I have this question about Digital.
If you currently have Analog Basic/Expanded and if you were to buy a new Digital TV that had a QAM tuner - then would you automatically receive the Digital Basic/Expanded channels? or would Charter still have to do something so that you could receive Digital Basic/Expanded channels? |
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drobi78
join:2001-04-27
Montgomery, AL
| reply to pbarrow
I do not have a TV with a built-in QAM tuner so I decided to purchase a PC TV tuner that had it. I tested it this past weekend and picked up most of the non-premium digital channels. I even picked up several HD channels that were in the clear. Nothing was done on Charter's end to enable this. They could, however, begin to encrypt these channels at any time. |
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mstc
@charter.com
| reply to pbarrow
One of the reasons i don't pay for tv anymore. is the terrible choice of channels.. i watch maybe 10 channels ????? and yet you have to buy all these differant tier's because the channels you like are all on differant ones. they just need to offer the ability to choose your channels, until then im using HSI and watching my programs online |
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Axekick
join:2005-05-01
Granite City, IL
| reply to pbarrow
I would encourage anyone not on digital to frequently phone and ask if there are any promotions available. A few months ago my expanded basic and 5 meg internet shot up in price from $58/month to over $100/month as my promotion ended. I called, complained(politely) and inquired and ended up with digital cable and 10 meg internet for $62/month on a 12 month promotion. |
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sdante
join:2008-02-14
Holland, MI
edit:
July 11th, @09:55PM
| reply to pbarrow
they just need to offer the ability to choose your channels
Won't happen any time soon, at least not until video on demand is the primary way of viewing TV shows. That way you can buy subscriptions to only the packages you want, just like Howard Stern and WWE are already doing.
Right now it's mainly due to the way the networks can twist the hands of cable and satellite operators. Think about it, Disney owns ABC/ABC Family, countless ESPN channels,, about 5 or 6 kids channels, Soapnet, lifetime, A&E, History/Biography plus more. Add that to Viacom's 20 or so channels and you're looking at half the channels on TV owned by two companies. They basically tell providers that they take it all or get nothing. For example, Charter wanted to move ABC Family to the digital tier in certain markets because of low viewership, but ABC threatened to pull the plug on ESPN if they did because digital tiers often have less viewers and therefor they can't make as much money from selling advertising time, lowering the value of the channel. Losing ESPN would be suicide for any provider, so ultimatly Charter kept ABC Family on the expanded lineup.
If and when everything is VOD, the networks will probably pay the cable companies to host their content, and the subscription cost will go directly to the network on a per-viewer basis. Either that or the cable companies will take a percentage of the subscription cost.
Won't happen in the next few years or anything, but with DVRs and internet streaming becoming more and more common, if it is going to happen it probably won't be more than a few decades. |
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