Sky Angel Will Suspend IPTV service on Midnight January 14, 2014

[Claude Greiner]

I wonder why they had to shut the service down? I figured with an IPTV service they would not need a whole lot of subscribers for it to sustain itself.

I was just thinking about them the other day looking at some invoices. I remember selling them 50 or so receivers from the Dishstore for their headend system in Cleveland Tennessee.

The IPTV platform is great, but was not a good replacement for satellite as most of their subscriber base was mostly older customers. This created 4 issues...

#1 Unlike with satellite, there is no technician they could call to come hook it up. Many people would get the IPTV box and have no idea how to hook it up.

#2 Most of their customers had no internet and no computer

#3 Most of their customers where cheap, cheap enough where they refused to pay for internet to be able to pay for skyangel.

#4 It was too complicated for people to operate the IPTV platform, where older people wanted to turn on the TV and flip through the channels. You can't exactly do that with a Roku and streaming.

Sad it was a great service, but was ment to be offered on satellite and NOT iptv.

 

[ragamullin]

Sky Angel

The founder Bob -Robert Johnson believed so much in Christian television I was a "lifetime" member,
then sadly started to pay for the IPTV even though it seemed like I should have been able to get it for life
had to buy the iptv box,
and later had to buy a neulion box
then had to get a monsoon vulkano box because the neulion box wouldn't let you record
and soon after they are suspending service, all except the channels on Dish Network

Perhaps if they had believed in Sky Angel like their Dad, they might have advertised on Dish a lot more with the Angel 1, 2 and KTV channels to get a larger audience

Perhaps though because many channels can be seen online though it wouldn't have made any difference ?
I have dish and roku,

you can record with both dish, ( I have the hopper) and roku using the audio video cables (not the HDMI cables)
I also got a magnavox Hard drive/ dvd recorder, that's what I used to use before the Neulion box, which is great to record off of over the air tv, you don't even have to record- have it recording, to pause, rewind or skip commercials just like the hard drive dish receiver

also on Dish FETV - produced by LeSea - not the same programming as World Harvest Television, but still has Lester Sumrall is on Dish Network as of about two months or so ago,

which is nice since I can record them on the hard drive, or lower quality on the magnavox dvd/hard drive

I wish it were possible to get a dvd recorder to record with the HDMI cables, maybe take it to an electronics technician?

anyway the hopper has a huge hard drive, so only if it goes out and has to be replaced would it be a problem

I haven't gotten one of those 2 tb external hard drives yet, but perhaps might to be prepared for that contingency (if the dish hopper has to go in for repair)

I used to have to send in the 722 receiver about once a year, I think the hopper is better, but everything eventually needs repair

The Roku is nice, but sometimes the video quality is not so good

I have a friend who has a C-band satellite dish, I thought I'd try one out, but haven't done so yet

so it's kinda sad that sky angel iptv quit, but something tells me perhaps they may come back a little differently one day? maybe it's just a feeling? what are your thoughts?
steve

 

[ragamullin]

Oh, does anyone know what to do with the Neulion box- the white one? I understand those who leased them have to return them, so perhaps they are worth something? but to whom, and what can one do with their box if they bought it?
steve

 

[ragamullin]

I wonder if anyone has any idea how many sky angel iptv subscribers - a rough idea?

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

http://view.exacttarget.com/?j=fe5a...51076&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe1d10727d67027e7c1279&r=0

I hope this shows up. It was the second email that I just received tonight about Sky Angel shutting down. As far as the Neu Lion box goes,if you bought it outright,it is yours,if you leased it like I did,they are supposed to send an email for a label to send it back to them. You have one month to return it or they'll charge you for it.

 

[ragamullin]

I found Spirit TV on one of the Roku channels Nowhere TV, which has a list of many tv stations, including spirit tv

 

[Larobpra]

Oh, does anyone know what to do with the Neulion box- the white one? I understand those who leased them have to return them, so perhaps they are worth something? but to whom, and what can one do with their box if they bought it?
steve

I'm wondering the same thing. We bought the box. The original gray one went to the electronics recycle bin at the local trash transfer station. It would be nice if the white box could be set up to stream like a Roku.

 

[phantomlite]

I wonder if anyone has any idea how many sky angel iptv subscribers - a rough idea?

Hello everyone from Phantomlite. This is my first post on this forum. According to a statement made by Mr Johnson to the FCC dated June 2012 "Discovery does not suffer harm from Internet distribution of its channels of a vastly greater scope than Sky Angel provides to its 20,000, or so, subscribers". That is a significant loss of subscribers from their estimated 50K satellite subscribers. Additionally, from what I have read, large cable companies such as Time-Warner was putting pressure on content providers such as Discovery and INSP to cease business with SA. It was a given that other content providers would have to do the same when it is time to renegotiate carrier contracts with either party. The writing was on the wall and SA caved. However, I feel the day is coming when customers will finally get their programming al a carte via Roku, Apple TV or whatever the next generation TV set top companies evolve to and will not have to deal with the cable monopolies any more.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

I just received the email with the UPS return label to return my Neulion STB.

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Hello everyone from Phantomlite. This is my first post on this forum. According to a statement made by Mr Johnson to the FCC dated June 2012 "Discovery does not suffer harm from Internet distribution of its channels of a vastly greater scope than Sky Angel provides to its 20,000, or so, subscribers". That is a significant loss of subscribers from their estimated 50K satellite subscribers. Additionally, from what I have read, large cable companies such as Time-Warner was putting pressure on content providers such as Discovery and INSP to cease business with SA. It was a given that other content providers would have to do the same when it is time to renegotiate carrier contracts with either party. The writing was on the wall and SA caved. However, I feel the day is coming when customers will finally get their programming al a carte via Roku, Apple TV or whatever the next generation TV set top companies evolve to and will not have to deal with the cable monopolies any more.

That makes sense as far as the major cable companies trying to stem the flow of cable cutters.

 

[Larobpra]

It's gone. So long SkyAngel/FAVE!
Moving the Dish receiver to the wife's room and adding the Heartland pack so she has "her" channels.

Just sent an email to Neulion asking if the box can be used to stream something else. Will let you know what I hear, if anything.

 

[Larobpra]

Just sent an email to Neulion asking if the box can be used to stream something else. Will let you know what I hear, if anything.

"Greetings,

Thanks for your inquiry. Unfortunately we do not support Sky Angel here. While NeuLion partnered with Sky Angel to provide the infrastructure and content delivery for their service, your purchase and subscription were with Sky Angel, not NeuLion. Unfortunately there are no other uses for your set-top box other than to be used with the Sky Angel platform and service. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Best regards,

NeuLion Fan Support"


I guess I've another paperweight.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Sad. Farewell Sky Angel.

 

[navychop]

It's gone. So long SkyAngel/FAVE!
Moving the Dish receiver to the wife's room and adding the Heartland pack so she has "her" channels.

Just sent an email to Neulion asking if the box can be used to stream something else. Will let you know what I hear, if anything.

"Greetings,

Thanks for your inquiry. Unfortunately we do not support Sky Angel here. While NeuLion partnered with Sky Angel to provide the infrastructure and content delivery for their service, your purchase and subscription were with Sky Angel, not NeuLion. Unfortunately there are no other uses for your set-top box other than to be used with the Sky Angel platform and service. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

Best regards,

NeuLion Fan Support"


I guess I've another paperweight.

Nice to get such a prompt reply.

I had to toss DSL equipment when the provider ceased ops. Twice. And once for an IPTV provider. Sad. The DSL modems were well built.

 

[jholland]

Visit our Facebook group page where we are posting info and building a reference file about a wide range of options available to former Sky Angel subscribers:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChristianTVInfo/