| efithian | I noticed that some of the ala carte channels are twice as expensive as from other providers (Sundance). Is it ok to subscribe to two different providers? |
| Mike_Mountford | Absolutely not. You can only subscribe through us. Only kidding... |
| Mike_Mountford | I'm not sure why Sundance is being discounted so drastically by them, but I will look into it. Maybe they're getting a better deal. |
| wtkflhn | Hi Mike. What's new this month? |
| Mike_Mountford | We've got TV Land on W5 and we hopefully will have Spike up in about 2 weeks on G3 where TV Land was. |
| Lobo | Any news on IPTV? |
| Mike_Mountford | No new news at this time. |
| Lobo | What about WGN? |
| Mike_Mountford | they quit returning my phone calls. I think they consider us too small to bother with. |
| Mike_Mountford | The Tribune company who owns WGN is in the process of being sold...or at least parts of it are being sold...and I think that's one of the reasons they are not returning our phone calls |
| 4dtv | whats the future of making any new 4dtvs i hears motorola wont tool up |
| Mike_Mountford | The only way we could get another run of 4DTV's is for there to be a big spike in demand and at this point we don't see that happening. |
| caribguy | hi everyone thanks guys for your continued support towards the c band family whats the news on the turner channels when are they going digital and where will they be located |
| Mike_Mountford | We anticipate the Turner channels will be going digital at or around the first of 2009. Where they're going to be we have no information at this point. |
| Bill | Is there any chance of getting fox business news? |
| Mike_Mountford | Yes. We are talking to them and we had to get our renewal done with the regular Fox news first...and that is just about completed, so we will add it soon. |
| wtkflhn | Lee Richardson has some new 4DTV's. |
| Mike_Mountford | good. thanks for sharing that with us. |
| Mike_Mountford | In addition, I am sure there are several hundreds in dealers' hands...either new or working models around the country. |
| 123456 | would there be any hope of getting some of the other channels on W5 like FUSE of G4 |
| Mike_Mountford | The problem with channels like that...we could get them...however, they are demanding we carry them on our largest package, which is Absolute Digital. and if we did, then we'd have to raise the price of Absolute Digital. |
| Mike_Mountford | we are trying to keep the price down for Cband users like yourselves. |
| Lobo | Any chance of getting NFL Network-HD? |
| Mike_Mountford | There should be. they said they were going to mail me an affiliation agreement several weeks ago and we never got it. |
| efithian | Mike, do you have a C/Ku dish at home? |
| Mike_Mountford | Unfortunately, the covenants in my neighborhood prohibit that. However, I do have DirecTV and DISH. My partner, Jon Pardieck, has one at his house. |
| caribguy | any progress with abc fam,disney ,fx? |
| Mike_Mountford | Unfortunately, no progress. Disney won't talk to us. (and Decon won't work to kill they mouse) So, we're kinda stuck there. |
| Mike_Mountford | as for FX...Fox is dealing with us on the other channels but FX has MFN agreements which in essence prohibits them from signing on with a Cband programmer. |
| liesor@gis.net | Re C-band reception. I live in the North East, Central Mass. Lots of Hills and Valleys. I live on a hillside and have not the full view of the sky! Satellites are obstructed, 2 of them are G1 and C4. C4 is totally obstructed, G1 will come in somewhat when the trees (not mine!) on top of the obstructing hill fall sometime late October. Consequently I cannot view any channels on C4, But what hurts even more is that most of the year I do not have access to the IPG program guide, and I have to make a monthly re-hit on G5 to validate my unit. I know several friends in the North East who have the same problem, many have left the C-band. I want to stay! |
| Mike_Mountford | Thank you for your perseverance. Fortunately some things have gotten better with the movement of a big chunk of Cband programming from C4 to W5. |
| caribguy | any news on the weather channel going digital and location |
| Mike_Mountford | yes. We spoke to the weather channel a couple of weeks ago. We are going to be running a test with them going digital in the near future and they will probably be going digital in early 2009. |
| Lobo | How about getting the networks (Denver or somewere else) in HD? |
| Mike_Mountford | Unfortunately because of the cost of the bandwidth and the amount of subs we have, that would not be possible |
| Bill | Do you know what the smallest package that will carry spike tv in it will be? |
| Mike_Mountford | Not off the top of my head. |
| Mike_Mountford | However, I think it'll be in most of our digital pkgs. if not all. |
| efithian | Any chance on have the IPG guide in more than one location. Before I had my trees trimmed, I had the same problem as liesor. |
| Mike_Mountford | I don't think so. That's controlled by Motorolla and they use transponder spacethat is given to them by certain programmers. I don't think that it's possible, but it's something I'll inquire about. |
| Lobo | Maybe you can talk to somebody to move the IPG program guide into a higher position satellite (W5). |
| Mike_Mountford | that would be great, but again they have to have the space available to put it there |
| caribguy | i think the guide should return to G0 |
| liesor@gis.net | Could the IPG be moved from G1 to W5 (or near it) for better access? |
| 4dtv | w5 has the hits guide on it for the 410's |
| Mike_Mountford | see above comment |
| wtkflhn | Mike. You guys are an uplinker. Why can't you put the guide on your G3 mux? |
| Mike_Mountford | Because we don't have the space. We want to put as many channels up as possible. The guide, even though it doesn't take as much space as a channel takes enough space that it eliminates a channel. |
| Mike_Mountford | I know this is a problem for some people, but for most people it is not a problem so we have to respond to the majority.\ |
| Bill | Any chance yet to be able to get ESPN's on C-Band? |
| Mike_Mountford | This goes back to the Disney comment. ESPN is a Disney service and they will not talk to us or any other Cband provieder.\ |
| 123456 | Is getting Nickelodian still a no go |
| Mike_Mountford | We had to make a decision between Spike and Nickelodian for the transponder space that was freed up when we moved TV Land. Since we did a survey and Spike won, that's what we've gone with. Until we can free up other space, we can't do Nick at this point. |
| caribguy | the starz people use g5 for programming maybe we can send the guide there |
| Mike_Mountford | Is it on a Starz transponder now? |
| caribguy | encore |
| 4dtv | yes on g1-3 |
| wtkflhn | Yes. The guide is on Starz on G1. |
| Mike_Mountford | Okay, so we'll ask the Motorolla people about G5. Thanks for the info. |
| efithian | Without some more HD content, C-band will not survive. How expensive would it be for subscribers to get the HD that is available on the little dishes? |
| Mike_Mountford | Probably several hundred thousand dollars per subscriber... |
| moderator | That's all the time we have for today's chat. Please check callnps.com to view the chat in it's entirety. We thank everyone for their participation. |
| caribguy | please speak to the motorolla people about g5 i think it is unfair that only some subcribers can access the ipg lets put |