TV Service Providers: Dishes and Cables And Satellites, Oh My!

[Sandman87]

A place to discuss the antics and issues of the friendly folks whose job it is to pump channels into your TV set without a regular TV transmitter: The cable and satellite companies, and anyone else like them.

 

---------------------------------

 

As of today Dish Network is no longer carrying any of Turner Broadcasting's channels, and will continue to not carry them until they can reach a new agreement. Naturally each side is pointing its finger at the other as the bad guy in this scenario. Until further notice, the following channels are non-functional:

• CNN
• CNN en Espanol
• Cartoon Network (and [adult swim] and Toonami)
• TruTV
• Turner Classic Movies
• Boomerang
• HLN

 

The story according to Reuters.

 

Dish Network's side of the story.

 

The issues according to Turner.

[ParadoxLost]

But TBS is still available?  It used to be free over air in my area but I thought it was basic cable almost everywhere these days.

[JayKay]

Oh shit. My dad asked me about Turner Classic Movies being yanked off Dish, but I had no idea. And he's addicted to TruTv. I would not want to be the poor customer service agent who answers his call.

But honestly at this point, isn't all of this in-fighting like battling over who gets the better cabin on the Titanic? This kind of stuff hemorrhages customers who can find plenty of other options to suit their needs.

I'm about thisclose to dropping my provider and going the Netflix/Hulu route. $80 a month for maybe ten channels I watch regularly plus twenty homeshopping/infomercial ones included in my package strictly to line my provider's pocket looks more and more like a scam everyday.

[Sandman87]

Unfortunately a lot of Dish's customers don't have many other options, which is why they got Dish in the first place. For them it boils down to Dish, DirecTV, or doing without.

 

I suspect that the outage will not last very long. I hope.

[Wings]

I have had DIRECTV for 2 decades and it is superior to both cable and Dish.  

[Bastet]

I've been very happy with Dish for about ten years, and have weathered similar disputes with aplomb.  We were without AMC for what seemed to be a while, but I don't watch anything on there so I didn't much care.  But when you start messing with my access to TCM, it's on.  I'm missing my classic horror films, people! 

 

I was stuck with cable (I think several companies changed hands, but by the end it was Charter) for years, and hated it.  Spotty quality, limited channels, yet the cost just kept going up.    When I called to cancel, after buying my house where I finally had freedom to choose, I was expecting the usual "Why do you want to cancel?  Oh, you're moving, well we can hook you up at your new place" routine, but they didn't ask me a thing. 

 

I was originally going to go with DirecTV; DTV and Dish are pretty even in terms of programming and price, but my parents have DirecTV so if I said they referred me we'd each get a certain number of months free, and DirecTV does have the option of the NFL package.  But in the years since my parents got theirs, they had changed things such that you could no longer buy your own equipment and then just call them to sign up for a programming package -- you had to lease the dish and receiver from them.  No thanks, buddy.  So that's how I wound up with Dish.

[ParadoxLost]

I've been very happy with Dish for about ten years, and have weathered similar disputes with aplomb.  We were without AMC for what seemed to be a while, but I don't watch anything on there so I didn't much care.

 

I bet Dish is terrified of AMC now and capitulates to anything they want.  With the rating Walking Dead pulls I can't see them messing with AMC when a new season is airing and when one is not I can see Dish waiting it out until Walking Dead is about to premiere.

[Bruinsfan]

Suddenlink's dispute with Viacom resulted in all the latter's channels being removed from my cable system. Fortunately for me it happened just after the end of the Teen Wolf season, so I'm not really missing anything I watched regularly. I suppose I'd like to have access to The Daily Show and Key & Peele reruns, but getting episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Farscape on Pivot goes a long way toward easing the loss.

[Sandman87]

Dish replaced both of my receivers and the dish on the roof today because they're upgrading obsolete equipment. No cost to me, but damned if I wouldn't have been willing to pay for some of the additional features I got: DVR functionality (up until now I've been using a VCR) and a bunch of additional channels.

 

Because of the upgrade I've got Classic Arts Showcase now. It's like MTV used to be back when they just played music videos, except that it's "artsy" stuff. Classical music videos (not just footage of musicians playing, actual music videos), jazz videos, scenes from plays, animated shorts, clips from old movies, and so on. It's like an early Christmas gift.

 

Now if they would just resolve that dispute with Turner so I could get my nightly [as] and Toonami fixes again...

[ABay]

I just got a Genie from Directv, upgrading from my previous HD DVR. After several mishaps (my fault), I finally got it all set up and connected to my ISP, which is Comcast. And then I couldn't connect to the net with anything else: laptop, kindle, wireless DVD player that lets me access Netflix. Nothing. Except my ipad. Unless I unplugged the Genie--turning it off wasn't enough. Weird. I spent a very long time on the phone with Directv and stumped them.

 

The next day, I used directions from Comcast to set up Windows connection and now I can get online with the laptop, but the Genie won't connect to the internet. This is stupid. With the older DVR, I could be online with everything.

 

Yesterday I picked up a wireless gateway from Comcast because I think the problem could be my Motorola surfboard. I'm not sure it was even made this century. Later today I'm going to install it and hope for the best.

 

ETA: So far, everything is working! I'm afraid to try the DVD or printer...Let's save some excitement for midweek.

Edited November 8, 2014 by ABay

[Mindymoo]

Does anyone know what is going with the DirecTV dispute? I lost my local CBS station for about a week over the summer, I almost lost FX a couple years ago but that was resolved before anything happened, and now they are saying we are at risk of losing AMC, IFC, Sundance and BBC America at the end of the year if contract negotiations don't go as planned. Anyone have any insider info? I need my Walking Dead, Comedy Bang! Bang!, Better Call Saul, The Returned and Portlandia.

Edited November 8, 2014 by Mindy McIndy

[magicdog]

The only thing I'm missing due to the dispute is TCM.  Otherwise, Turner is doing me a favor by not having me see CNN, or some towing reality show on TruTV.    Good job guys!  Just wait until we can dish a la carte!  You'll be history when you find out how many channels of yours I can live without!!

[Sandman87]

Turner and Dish have agreed to restore the various Turner channels temporarily while they wrestle some more over who gets what, how hard, and whether or not lubricant is used.

 

Now that I think about it, it might be cool if they were literally wrestling, CEO vs. CEO. They could turn it into a pay-per-view event. I'd definitely watch if they made it a death-match.

[ABay]

Local channels have been unavailable on Directv since about 6:30 this morning. There's an onscreen message saying more or less: don't call, we know there's a problem. But nothing on their website or Facebook page, other than consumer complaints. Everything else is working, just not the local channels. This is the longest satellite outage I've experienced since subscribing about 4 years ago. Is Dish having the same issue? Did the alien invasion finally begin by knocking out the satellites?

[Sandman87]

Nope, haven't had any problems with local channels on Dish recently. I'm watching the local PBS station right now.

 

Most technical problems tend to be regional for the satellite services. A specific satellite goes bonkers, the local hub for collecting channels has a blackout, a local station's microwave link goes down, etc.

[possibilities]

I have DirecTV and my local channels are coming in fine. I do think there is something about local markets that they all are negotiated individually or something. For a long time we didn't get a CW affiliate here, but then all of a sudden after years, it began appearing in my local channels.

[ABay]

Checking a few message boards, it seems that the problem was in several places on the east coast. The message changed after a while: the standard versions of the channels were back but the HD versions were still out. Everything was back by late afternoon.

[JTMacc99]

I have DirecTV and my local channels are coming in fine. I do think there is something about local markets that they all are negotiated individually or something. For a long time we didn't get a CW affiliate here, but then all of a sudden after years, it began appearing in my local channels.

Broadcast TV is indeed negotiated separately depending on where the stations are and who owns them.  The networks own and operate (you will see O&O discussed sometimes about this stuff) the broadcast stations in some of the major markets.  So CBS owns and operates the CBS stations in NY, Chicago, and so on.  The rest of the CBS stations are affiliates and are owned by other companies. Sometimes they are small companies, and sometimes they are large companies (Sinclair, Nexstar, Hearst) that own many, many affiliates.  It is possible that Dish could get into a dispute with a company that owns more than one broadcast station in a market, but I'm not 100% about the rules regarding how many stations a single company can own in a market.

 

For a long time CBS, NBC, ABC had an understanding that cable companies would be allowed to carry the over the air signals for little or no cost as a sort of an understanding that the cable companies would help them out by carrying whatever cable networks they were launching. The networks made sure that their affiliates followed their lead.  At some point in the 2000's that deal went away and broadcast stations began asking for some sort of fee per subscriber from both the satellite and cable companies. It was still only a few cents per subscriber, but it established a new way of business and that's when blackouts started to happen.

 

In 2008-2010 the advertising market went into a full blown depression. And that's when the broadcast stations came to us (through the satellite and cable companies) to start paying them a hell of a lot more each month to help pick up the slack for all the advertising revenue that disappeared. 

 

So at this point, Dish is probably paying an average $5-$6 per subscriber across the United States for broadcast TV.  Every once in a while a broadcaster will come back and say they want to go from the current $0.30 per subscriber to a $1.00 to be more in line with what the others in the market get.  That's usually when Dish flips out and says 233% increase?!  No way!  And then the fight is on with the blackouts, and the negative adds, and so on.

 

In the end, we always end up paying for the 233% increase unless you bail out on the model completely and go back to an antenna.  If you flip from Dish back to Cable or to DirecTV, there is a really good chance that those other companies already agreed to the $1.00, figured out a way to pass it along to us, and are happy to steal the customers from Dish.

[CoderLady]

I wish I could like this more than once.

 

JTMacc99, both on TWoP and here your posts on the business of TV content delivery have always been interesting, informative and easily intelligible. Thanks for explaining.

Edited December 12, 2014 by CoderLady

[JTMacc99]

Thank you for saying that. I don't think I always get everything correct, but I try to pass along what I've learned.

[possibilities]

Meanwhile, I just discovered that because I'm a DirecTV subscriber, I can't watch video via ABCgo. Where I live, DirecTV is the ONLY provider (literally no one else offers service here-- no cable/fiber of any kind).  Literally every person I know of in the area has DirecTV or no TV at all. When I moved here, we drove around the neighborhood and thought it surprising that every single house had a DirecTV receiver. There weren't even any from DISH. It didn't even occur to me before moving in, that there would literally be no other option.

[FormerMod-a1]

Did anyone else lose WGN from their Comcast cable lineup today?  I did a search and only came up with WGN becoming a real cable channel vs a "superstation", but it was all about how that would expand it's market and not about it dropping from line ups.  

[CoderLady]

If you give in and get a DVR as part of the capitulation to your cable overlords it will have at least two tuners in it, so you can use it to record on different channels. It's the easiest solution, unfortunately.

[Neurochick]

I'm a Time Warner customer for both TV and internet. I've always resisted switching but yesterday's letter from TWC may make me change my mind. They are telling me that early in 2015 they are going to encrypt all their programming and I will only be able to watch ANY channel if I rent their equipment. In other words, even my digital-compatible TV won't be able to receive any channels unless it's connected to a TWC digital converter box. No other brands are allowed. Greedy pigs.

 

 

I agree, we had to get those little boxes last year.  And I'm with you, my VCR still works and why should I pay for a DVR every month, when two years ago, I used to record what I wanted FOR FREE.  For me it's just about watching less TV, if I can't watch it on demand, or on the computer, then forget it.

[ABay]

What about digital antennas that allow you to watch local broadcast channels without a cable or satellite subscription? Those should hook up to VCRs and DVD recorders OK? You'd still need to find alternate means of watching networks like USA, SyFy, etc. but the broadcast networks would be covered.

Edited December 17, 2014 by ABay

[JTMacc99]

I dumped all but my main Time Warner box on the TVs we watch and replaced them with Roku devices.  Time Warner has a free Roku app that lets me stream pretty much all of the TV I get with a regular converter.  I pair up the Roku with one of their DTA boxes (which were free when I got them, but are probably a buck/month now.)

 

The DTA does not convert every channel in my digital package, but it does get the basic broadcast and cable channels.  So when I'm in my bedroom, say getting dressed in the morning, I can flip on the TV and watch Headline News for 5-10 minutes without firing up the Roku and streaming.  But if I want to actually want to watch TV for a while in there, I'll flip on the Roku and get access to everything including HBO.  For the $50 I spent on the Roku, it pays for itself in 5 months, and it is, unbelievably, something nice from Time Warner Cable for me.  I hope it doesn't go away when Comcast takes over.

 

Having said that, I am not sure if the DTAs will work when we go fully encrypted.  I assume they will.

 

None of my solution solves the VCR problem though.

Edited December 17, 2014 by JTMacc99

[JTMacc99]

And just so you know, full encryption has three main benefits for a cable company.

 

1. Stops theft.  Basic cable is pumped through the cable wire and it has to be physically blocked to keep it from going into a home.  Lots of people have figured out how to go onto the pole or wherever and remove the block.

2. Allows for quicker add and drops of service.

3. No need to send a truck out to everybody who disconnects, have a guy climb a pole and put in the piece of equipment that physically reduces service. 

 

Interestingly, all of that additional money people will end up for new boxes is not in the top reasons for them to do it. They have to go out and purchase all of those new boxes, piss-off pretty much every single customer with very few exceptions, and spend boatloads of money answering calls and running trucks all over the place to set up the new boxes. (My parents are in a Cablevision area, and they are not happy they need to pay for the boxes on every TV. I would explain my streaming idea to them, but Cablevision doesn't have a Roku app, and explaining streaming to my parents would be... difficult.) The revenue they get from charging for the boxes probably doesn't pay back the project for at least two years, and that's not accounting for the subs they lose in the process.  The immediate payback is stopping theft and lowering their ordinary operating costs.

 

A lot of the smaller companies aren't doing it, especially since within the next few years cable will be delivered entirely as IP anyway, which will accomplish the same thing as going all encrypted does today.  I guess Time Warner must be in places where they think they are losing a LOT of customers to theft, or they have really high turnover of customers, and roll a lot of trucks just connecting and disconnecting the same homes over and over.  (Which is a distinct possibility in a city like New York, where there are a high percentage of apartments. I worked for a cable company that served small portions of NYC like a million years ago, and I can say from that experience, that theft was a real problem back then.)

 

Getting everybody to have at least one box is good for them, as people with a box can buy additional stuff that people who just have the cable plugged into a TV can't.  And by "stuff" I mean extra non-premium channels (HBO and Showtime are pretty much sold to us at cost), PPV/VOD, and DVR Services.

Edited December 17, 2014 by JTMacc99

[kassygreene]

When I was in Virginia I had Cox, and paid for one DVR (two channel recording).  The basic channels were still unfiltered, and my early 90s bedroom tv could handle that, as could my VCRs.  The DVRs became available in 2000-ish, and before that you had to have their tuner box, as they'd "fixed" the problem of needing more than 60 channels on a wire by doubling the coax and renting a box that let you view channels 2-60 on the A side and 61-119 on the B side.  It enabled pay channels if you had them, and it couldn't be programmed.  I had three of these boxes to handle my VCR needs.  Then came the first DVR, and I pretty much quit recording to tape.

 

Comcast is where I am now, and the new DVRs reportedly have four channel recording.  Free with the ever increasing monthly charge we get two digital adapters (which cannot be programmed), and one access box, which can program by switching channels for you, enables any premium channels you pay for, accesses the HD channels, and also provides access to On Demand.  We haven't gone to DVR because it would be another $20 per month.

 

As I understand it, either Dish or DirecTV provides (or provided) better in-the-house access then the cable guys.  And you can try the DSL route, but I have no idea what the quality is now.   I'm not sure who has TIVO nowadays, but they were the proof of concept guys.

 

Someday in the next few years, when we finally buy an internet compatible TV, we will probably drop down to just the modem and do the online stuff.  The annual cost for Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, CBS, and I think HBO is such that these services all together would cost no more then five months of my current, pay-channel-free, Comcast line-up.

[possibilities]

DirecTV reception requires their box, but they don't charge extra for it. The way they bill, you pay for whatever package (channels) you select, and the box is part of the bundle. I think this saves them from the psychological hassle of getting customers riled over paying extra for the box. Of course, part of the exorbitant base price is the box, but it just feels different when it isn't itemized.

 

I pay for their DVR, but I love it, and it's so much easier to use than the VCR I was using before, so I haven't even tried to figure out if I could still record to the VCR if I wanted to. I think the DVR is $6/month.

 

What I'm really annoyed about is paying for a "local sports fee" when I don't watch any of the local sports it supposedly pays for. But it's mandatory!

 

Something I think says a lot about customer satisfaction with TV services is that whenever I call DirecTV for any reason (not just if I'm complaining, but even if I'm just doing regular business), they always remark on how I've been a "loyal customer for a very long time" and therefore I qualify for this or that deal (like a DVR upgrade, or a free month of Showtime, or something like that). They started doing this when I'd only been a customer for about 3 years. I can't imagine having to deal with the hassle of switching services that often. But if 3 years is a notably long time to stay with a company, you know they are pissing off a lot of people. They are a monopoly where I live, so either people are staying with them or having nothing-- and still 3 years is apparently a long time to stick it out.

Edited December 18, 2014 by possibilities

[ABay]

Directv also gives you directions about how to record on a DVD recorder.

 

Back in early November, I posted about my trouble with upgrading to the Genie. It turned out it really was because my wireless router was on the point of death. With the new one (I'm renting from xfinity until I figure what to buy), everything is lovely and I do enjoy not having to worry about recording more than 2 things at a time. Not that it happens often, but there are times when 3 things I want to see overlap.

Edited December 18, 2014 by ABay

[JTMacc99]

What I'm really annoyed about is paying for a "local sports fee" when I don't watch any of the local sports it supposedly pays for. But it's mandatory!

 

Hoo boy.  DirecTV needs to do a better job telling you what that is. 

 

I'm in the New York City area, so I have four local sports networks.  YES, SNY, MSG and MSG2.  If DirecTV opted against carrying any one of those channels, there is an excellent chance they would lose a material number of subscribers.  LOTS of people watch the Yankees. LOTS of people watch the Knicks, the Mets, and so on.  And DirecTV is slightly more sports-fan skewed than the cable companies, at it has a core group of customers who choose them because of the NFL Sunday Ticket.

 

So from a business standpoint, DirecTV HAS TO CARRY all of those networks. And here's the kicker: Those networks will not sell themselves to DIrecTV under any terms other than they have to be part of the basic channel lineup that a large majority of subscribers take. I'd guess that the threshold is something like 85%. DirecTV does have the Select and Entertainment packages for people who don't want those channels (or that charge,) but I'd guess that not many people take them.  So the bottom line is that If DirecTV wants YES in New York, it will be part of the bundles that a vast majority of their customers choose.

 

It make sense for the networks. YES knows that DirecTV, FiOS, Time Warner and Cablevision all HAVE to carry them. If one chooses not to do so, there are enough fans of the Yankees to create a real headache for that company as they switch to somebody who does carry the Yankees.  This model lets the YES Network collect $3.00 a month from 7 million homes in the NYC area, which is nice tidy $250 million per year before the first advertising dollar.

 

So in New York, YES is around $3.00 per month, and the total for all four networks is probably about $11.00. That cost generally escalates at about double the rate of inflation if not a little higher.  When DirecTV started to show the Local Sports Fee on the bill, the vast majority of that cost was already baked into the monthly rate.  What it accomplished by splitting it out was to 1) tell you that that specific part of your annual rate increase is for the local sports networks, and that they aren't keeping a single penny of that increase. The whole lot of it goes directly to those channels, and 2) That if you don't like it, you do have the option to drop down in packages to the lowest level, where there are no local sports channels, and therefore no local sports surcharge on your bill.

 

And to be honest, people who don't watch sports do an awful lot of funding for the people who do. 

[Minneapple]

Say what you will about Comcast (and I say a lot), but their apps for the iPad are impressive. I stream TV to my iPad all the time using the home app (you just have to be on your home wireless). And the Go app is also good, you can download shows from your DVR to the iPad and watch them later, signal or no. They have a ton of shows and movies that you can also download and watch without the wifi--great for kids on road trips.

And to be honest, people who don't watch sports do an awful lot of funding for the people who do.

ESPN costs what, like $6 per cable subscriber? ESPN is Disney's biggest moneymaker right now. And sports are the last kind of entertainment tethering the cable bundling model together. Live sports do not mesh well with platforms like On Demand and Netflix. I regularly hear sports fans say that they want to get rid of cable/satellite but can't because it would severely limit their sports viewing options. It's basically the biggest thing people still watch, well, live.

[ABay]

Go, Sabres! forumfish, are you from WNY?

[JTMacc99]

ESPN costs what, like $6 per cable subscriber?

Yes, it is something like that for ESPN, and then you'd tack on ESPN2 to the basic packages which for sure brings it up over $6.  They also collect money for all of the other ESPNs which can go into sports tiers, probably have separate fees for authenticating subscribers for the web content, and for sure charge another buck or more for their new SEC network.

[JTMacc99]

I went to the TWC office to discuss our bill (something new had popped up that my mom didn't understand). When the guy pulled up our account info, he was stunned at how much we were paying, since we'd had the account for nearly a decade. He gave us a better rate going forward, and a one-time discount also. I guess it pays to have face-to-face discussions periodically.

The people in the local offices are members of the same community we are and are often more inclined to work with us.  They might not have the ability to cut you a deal, but they almost always have more personal incentive to do so. 

 

Well, as long as you are nice to them and not hostile when you walk in, regardless of how crappy Time Warner had treated you previously.

Edited December 19, 2014 by JTMacc99

[Moose135]

I may have to try that, forumfish.  I used to think Cablevision was the worst company in the world, until I moved and ended up in a TWC area.  Two and a half years as a customer, and each year, as a "reward" for being a loyal customer, my bill goes up significantly.  Talking to them on the phone gets you no where, and the one time I called because one of their work crews cut my service - fun trying to work from home without internet access - it took over an hour and 8 different transfers before I found someone who would listen to me, and not just try to make an appointment for a service call three days later.  My other options are the satellite services, and I'm really ready to make a change.

[Bastet]

For those who have Dish and lease your receiver from them, do you pay an additional monthly equipment fee of any sort?  Why I ask:

 

I have Dish, and I own my equipment - two dishes and two receivers (my game room is attached to my garage, which is detached from my house, so I had to get a separate dish) rather than lease it from them.  The game room receiver is on its way to death, but when I contacted the retailer from whom I'd purchased it, I found out they no longer sell Dish equipment.  I called Dish and got an updated list of local retailers, but through the course of that conversation I was told I could lease a receiver from Dish for no additional cost whatsoever -- not just no upfront charge (or shipping), but no ongoing fee; I would continue to pay exactly what I pay now every month, which is my programming package fee, the HD package fee, and the fee for having a second receiver on the account.  Allegedly, the only difference if I leased as opposed to buying my own again would be the requirement I return the receiver to them should I ever cancel my service.

 

Naturally, this sounds too good to be true, since the primary reason I have always bought my own equipment (from whatever cable or satellite company) was that leasing involved an additional equipment lease fee (by which, in short order, and certainly over its lifespan, you've paid FAR more for the receiver, dish, whatever than you'd have paid to buy it).  So I sent an email asking for confirmation in writing, but haven't received a response yet.

[ParadoxLost]

Naturally, this sounds too good to be true, since the primary reason I have always bought my own equipment (from whatever cable or satellite company) was that leasing involved an additional equipment lease fee (by which, in short order, and certainly over its lifespan, you've paid FAR more for the receiver, dish, whatever than you'd have paid to buy it).  So I sent an email asking for confirmation in writing, but haven't received a response yet.

 

I don't have Dish so I can't say anything specific.  But generally my experience is that you can get deals where some types of equipment is "free".  Its usually equipment that you want multiples of.  So if you have one TV receiver with all the functionality its free but TVs after that you pay per device.  I know my cable company also provides up to two converters with limited channels for free since analog to digital switch killed the ability to put the cable directly into the TV.

[Sandman87]

On top of my particular channel package Dish charges me $7 a month for DVR functionality, plus $8 for a service plan.

[Bastet]

I know there's an additional monthly charge for DVR service, which I don't use (I use my recordable DVD player), so I have "regular" receivers that don't include DVR capability and thus don't incur that fee, but is that $8 for your leased equipment?  Because I don't have any "service plan" charge on top of my programming package.

 

I'm going to give them until Monday to email me back before calling, so I'm hoping to gather some intel between now and then.  Because I just can't imagine them leasing equipment for free.  And no way am I paying a monthly fee for equipment instead of just buying it, but before I go buy a receiver I want to know for sure I can't, against all odds, get one for free.

[Sandman87]

Had an odd thing happen to me yesterday. The 2 minute warning timer for an impending programmed channel switch popped up while I was watching a show, and I knew that I hadn't set it to record anything this week. It ended up switching to the Dish information channel where it started recording an announcement that HBO and Cinemax are free this weekend. I guess that's a new-ish feature to let customers know about the free offers. I think it's a good thing, but I'm also mildly irritated at being caught by surprise by it. There was probably something about it in all the fine print that I never read in the monthly bill.

I know there's an additional monthly charge for DVR service, which I don't use (I use my recordable DVD player), so I have "regular" receivers that don't include DVR capability and thus don't incur that fee, but is that $8 for your leased equipment?

Took me a while to realize that there was a question here. The $8 fee is for the ability to use DVR recording features. I'm not going to complain since they charged me nothing whatsoever when they upgraded both my receivers, which have a lot of other capabilities that my old ones didn't, and my channel package.

[ABay]

Directv has a message box on the option bar that shows up when you look at the guide or your list of recorded stuff. They use that for alerts about free premium weekends and new features.

 

Right now I'm having trouble getting the DVR to reconnect with my router. I'm not sure when or why they stopped speaking, but going through the set up process isn't working. Since I only need it to watch On Demand, which I do maybe twice a year it's mostly just annoying because I can't solve it.

[Shannon L.]

Is there anyone else here in Southern California who went to watch a KTLA show that should have been recorded earlier in the week only to find out that it dropped CW?  I hope they work it out soon because, as a family, it was nice to sit and watch shows like Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, etc.  Not the best shows around, but we have fun watching them.

[possibilities]

I'm in the East, and I use DirecTV, but they also dropped The CW with no warning.

When I called them about it, they told me it was forced on them by some weird regulatory crap I can't remember the name of, but it had to do with what channels are considered local in what markets, and they basically told me they were no longer allowed to include The CW as either a local or a "packaged" channel in my area. BUT: for $2/month I could buy it a la carte.

I was pretty annoyed about it, since I feel like I already pay a fortune for a package of channels, but in the end I decided to do it. The DirecTV customer service rep who sold it to me told me he'd take the sting out by giving me $10/month off my bill for a year, so that actually paid for it quite a few times over, and also made me feel like the "it's the regulations, not our fault" story was probably true, and not just some BS they were telling me to manipulate me into paying the extra $2/month.

On the other hand, CW shows also seem to pretty consistently be available on Hulu, so that might also be an option.

[Shannon L.]

I checked the CW website and it has a page dedicated to it.  Apparently Dish Network wanted to raise the rates for keeping it on their service and they refused.  They're still in negotiations and want us to call Dish to complain.  I guess it's happened a few times before.  Thankfully, at least this time, it wasn't until after the season finales. 

I can get Arrow and The Flash on Netflix and Amazon Prime (not sure if, when or where, Legends will show up), I'm just impatient with waiting that long.  If it becomes a big issue, I'll see if Dish as an a la carte option, too.

[ABay]

Yes, it's Dish not Directv, at least where I am. The local CW affiliate ran banners for weeks about Dish dropping it. I have Directv and the CW is still on.

[Shannon L.]

The only thing I've watched since the series finales is Containment and never took notice of any banners, so that's on me.  I wasn't enjoying really Containment anyway, so it doesn't affect us now, but I hope it's back by the time the premieres start.

[Sandman87]

I tuned to the Classic Arts Showcase today and found a message that says "Classic Arts Showcase has ceased distribution to DISH. As a result, this channel is no longer available."

What the hell? CAS is distributed for free all over the place via non-scrambled satellite and internet, and they grant permission up front for rebroadcasting. I called DISH, and got no useful information other than "That's one of the channels we don't carry anymore." Ah well, at least I got a bribe...excuse me, I mean slightly reduced rate...out of the call. I still don't know why this happened though.

[Lili]

Spectrum may be dropping all the Viacom channels soon. Since I have Spectrum, and I watch the Viacom channels often, I'm not happy about this.

See more here: http://www.keepviacom.com/

[friendperidot]

I was looking for a streaming wifi service that included TLC, Trading Spaces starts in a couple of weeks. Sling does not carry TLC, Play Station Vue does, but it's twice the price of Sling. So I searched for "what service carries TLC" or something close. One suggested was Philo. I have never heard of them. $16/month, not a lot of selection, no SciFy, TBS, but they do have A&E, History, OWN, WE (Law & Order, early seasons), Animal Planet, BBCAmerica, Travel, Discovery, ID, AMC, several kids channels.

I signed up for 7 day free trial, that will give me a chance to look them over. They at least have an online guide which Sling does not and you can save shows to watch, 72 hour rewind, sharing on 3 devices Their Roku guide is non existent, they have what's trending, that's about it. No sports or news channels, that's ok, unless the Olympics are on, I have no interest in sports, I follow several news services online.

The biggest problem was signing up. Sign up is with mobile phone number, but I couldn't get texts that gave me the code. Got a pop up chat box, talked over the problem with a nice young man, he called me and gave me the codes, walked me through how to get every where I needed to go. So I'm set up for 7 days. I will decide in a few days whether to keep them a while or not.