Statement from Dish Network on VOOM Takedown

[gregmisc]

I am very upset with Dish because they didn't notify me that my favorite channels would be deleted that I signed up to receive and spent alot of money upgrading from 642's to 622's and now spend over $130/month. (I was not smart enough to keep up with you guys/gals at Satelliteguys.com to know what was happening.)

I enjoyed many of the voom channels especially Kungfu, Monster, and Rush while watching with my grandson; I will miss that. I didn't watch TV all the time so the reruns were not a problem with me. I pick most of what I watch on a daily basis except regular programming I have timers set to record. I didn't see this coming and should have.

Yes, I will live without the Voom channels. Business decisions must be made, I understand if low viewers then it is not cost effective.

BUT how about some Customer Service! Why not put a notice in my bill or send out an email (I get other emails from Dish) telling me what is about to happen. Again I spent money on equipment upgardes and signed up for HD because of the Voom channels.

I have thought about changing to Direct before but never really looked into it. I am now researching the pros and cons and will change if it makes sense for me.

I have sent an email to Dish with my complaints but based on what I have read here and what they told me over the phone, they really don't care. Call me the Whiny Baby.

 

[mntwister]

I posted this on another Dish thread here but it pertains so much to this thread I'll repeat it here for those who aren't subscribed to the other one.

I called Dish tonight to put my word in on the loss of Voom. Here's what I was told:

Thanks for calling Dish, is this a question about high definition?
yes
Is this about the Voom channels
(hmm..maybe they got a few calls today) "yes"

then I told him how disappointed I was to lose NewsHD, Monsters HD and Film Fest. He proceeded to tell me that these were never really true high definition channels because they are mpeg-2 and took up too much room on their sats. Then he told me that they added all new channels. I told him I checked those out for about 4 hours today, and much of what I saw was either black bars on the left and right of the 4:3 picture, or the 4:3 picture actually chopped off at the top and bottom to make 16:9 and they were upscaled, and the rest, except for a few like MGM, were all showing standard def programming and I was upset to lose 15 channels of 24-hour commercial free high def.

What does he recommend? I use the remote to change the aspect ratio on the new channels to fit my 16:9 tv. In other words, take the standard def programming being shown on the new HD channels and stretch it myself to fit my high def screen. I finally got upset and told him I an a videophile and audiophile and I do not like my picture or sound altered, thank you very much.

Just thought you guys would get a kick out of that call. Nothing like assuming the customer is an idiot.

Then he told me possibly one day Voom will return as an extra package....yeah sure.

 

[JohnnyB40]

I also Liked Monster HD and RAVE HD and was willing to pay for the crap that I didn't care for to get these channels To loose Monster HD and to get in return CNNHD Not even close then again we have the promise of SOON from Dish
the same old story and dance!

Also received my replacement receiver today for my 721 that finally died guess it died awhile ago but never noticed since I rarely watched it opened the box and it was a 522 called DISH to hear them say the 721 is obsolete ( which I know ) but they should have enough for warranty replacements they get them back and just refurbish them right replace defective Hard drives, boards what ever ? they could have continued repairing these but no they would rather send me a 522 same piece of Cr*p but with a 5.00 charge for the PVR I said no way I not paying another dime to Dish I'm sending it back now I'm down to two receivers and maybe soon none
Dish really sucks

 

[cyberserf]

We need to keep writing to these clowns at Dish to bring back Voom.
at least the content was unique! and no commercials.

I'm going to miss KungfuHD and MonstersHD. GameplayHD was also nice.

Harrash the heck out of Dishnet, they will cave in.

How can they even state they added 25 new channels. They are mostly rehash of SD channels. how lame.
we are getting ripped off bad.

 

[Apologist]

We need to keep writing to these clowns at Dish to bring back Voom.
at least the content was unique! and no commercials.

I'm going to miss KungfuHD and MonstersHD. GameplayHD was also nice.

Harrash the heck out of Dishnet, they will cave in.

How can they even state they added 25 new channels. They are mostly rehash of SD channels. how lame.
we are getting ripped off bad.

I agree. Keep emailing and calling.

 

[KAB]

Harrash the heck out of Dishnet, they will cave in.

It's Harass.

 

[VinceT3]

What if Dish pulled 15 of your favorite channels? I bet you would be singing a different tune.

You're right.. but still in the time you had voom (if you didn't pay them) you could have aquired DVD's for all the favorite movies you wanted to watch..

if you had gotten the EHD option you could have recorded everything they've ever produced in a few weeks..

 

[8bitbytes]

if you had gotten the EHD option you could have recorded everything they've ever produced in a few weeks..

Contrary to the bs all voom haters spread about Voom, new show episodes and new shows were being added every week to most Voom channels so your snide, patronizing comment is wrong and unwanted.

Yeah, we get it all you Voom haters - Voom is gone. Fine. Shut up and leave all the Voom threads alone and come back in a week when the frustration and anger is lessened by time and decisions. If you can do that, I can too.

Thanks.

 

[Tyralak]

I posted this on another Dish thread here but it pertains so much to this thread I'll repeat it here for those who aren't subscribed to the other one.

I called Dish tonight to put my word in on the loss of Voom. Here's what I was told:

Thanks for calling Dish, is this a question about high definition?
yes
Is this about the Voom channels
(hmm..maybe they got a few calls today) "yes"

then I told him how disappointed I was to lose NewsHD, Monsters HD and Film Fest. He proceeded to tell me that these were never really true high definition channels because they are mpeg-2 and took up too much room on their sats. Then he told me that they added all new channels. I told him I checked those out for about 4 hours today, and much of what I saw was either black bars on the left and right of the 4:3 picture, or the 4:3 picture actually chopped off at the top and bottom to make 16:9 and they were upscaled, and the rest, except for a few like MGM, were all showing standard def programming and I was upset to lose 15 channels of 24-hour commercial free high def.

What does he recommend? I use the remote to change the aspect ratio on the new channels to fit my 16:9 tv. In other words, take the standard def programming being shown on the new HD channels and stretch it myself to fit my high def screen. I finally got upset and told him I an a videophile and audiophile and I do not like my picture or sound altered, thank you very much.

Just thought you guys would get a kick out of that call. Nothing like assuming the customer is an idiot.

Then he told me possibly one day Voom will return as an extra package....yeah sure.

Classic! "It's MPEG 2 so it wasn't really HD" That's the biggest load of crap I've heard since Dish said about why they didn't split Noggin/N "We're not going to inconveinence customers by splitting the channels." Did you mention to him that OTA HD is MPEG 2? And that he didn't know what he's talking about?

 

[RandallA]

Should've told him that the ones taking bandwith space are the MPEG2 HD channels on 110. Espn, Espn2, HD Theater, HDNet, HDnet Movies and TNT HD.

 

[kvnfl]

I guess Chiller is reality, they wrote me today it's channel 199, BUT it's only available in the top tier of programming, and I can't afford to go to the next level. So I am out of monster movies now.

added later: sorry I didn't see you say Chiller HD. Still, looking at the Chiller schedule on its regular channel, it is not as good as Monsters HD. I mean the graphics and logos of Monsters HD were awesome. They took the logo lettering from the famous magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. Whoever designed that channel really cared about horror, so sad it's gone.

Chiller has really pedestrian programming. They air back to back episodes of old and really old made for TV attempts at horror that are as bad today as they were back in the day. Add to that some old and really old half backed horror movies like "Texas Chainsaw...1, 2 and 3" over and over again, I mean give me a break, the original "Chainsaw Massacre" was great 30 years ago at the drive-in. Today, on Chiller, it looks like a drive-in movie, repleat with bad video, horrible sound and everyones favorite - censorship.

Chiller sucks. You are not missing anything, but Monsters.

 

[Tweak48]

Is there a table somewhere that shows what we got and what went away?????

Seriously, what a bunch of whiny babies. Good lord. They are just HD channels. Is your life changed THAT much by this? quote]

No, my life has not changed drastically; I'll get over it. BUT I am shoveling over $120 a month at Dish, so I want to get my money's worth.

Does anybody know where there is a table showing what went away, and what we got (including whether the channel has commercials, low/med/high def HD, etc)???? THAT WOULD BE REALLY USEFUL.

I suspect I got the "hose" from Dish, but I can't prove it without some kind of comparison. Obviously, Dish is not customer oriented enough to do it. Ha! I have to threaten a disconnect with the Indian call center every few years just to get new equipment.

To me, movie channels like Bravo, Universal, etc are useless. Movies are unwatchable with censure and commericals.

 

[Starshifter]

Contrary to the bs all voom haters spread about Voom, new show episodes and new shows were being added every week to most Voom channels so your snide, patronizing comment is wrong and unwanted.

Yeah, we get it all you Voom haters - Voom is gone. Fine. Shut up and leave all the Voom threads alone and come back in a week when the frustration and anger is lessened by time and decisions. If you can do that, I can too.

Thanks.

You are absolutely right 8bit! They were adding new content, especially Monsters HD, which basically exploded with new scheduling and content in March and was advertising more and more new films coming in May, June & July.

I would love to see how those VOOM haters would react if something they enjoyed was instantly dropped. Imagine all the Battlestar Galactica fans that would be flooding these boards if Sci Fi HD suddenly went away. The VOOM haters did not lose what they liked. Just imagine if they did.

 

[airphotos]

You're right.. but still in the time you had voom (if you didn't pay them) you could have aquired DVD's for all the favorite movies you wanted to watch..

if you had gotten the EHD option you could have recorded everything they've ever produced in a few weeks..

So you are saying you would rather watch DVD-quality vs. HD quality? Is that the whole basis of the argument? Just saying...

 

[airphotos]

You are absolutely right 8bit! They were adding new content, especially Monsters HD, which basically exploded with new scheduling and content in March and was advertising more and more new films coming in May, June & July.

I would love to see how those VOOM haters would react if something they enjoyed was instantly dropped. Imagine all the Battlestar Galactica fans that would be flooding these boards if Sci Fi HD suddenly went away. The VOOM haters did not lose what they liked. Just imagine if they did.

I already tried asking that...Mysteriously, I got no reply.

 

[Weezknight]

Imagine all the Battlestar Galactica fans that would be flooding these boards if Sci Fi HD suddenly went away. The VOOM haters did not lose what they liked. Just imagine if they did.

I'm not a BSG fan, so I could care less. But you don't think in my 31 years on this Earth there have been TV shows and other things in my life that have just disappeared one day, without any sort of resolution? These things happen, it's called life. You get upset for a bit, but then you move on because being this angry about something isn't healthy for anybody!

Some people around these parts are completely overreacting and becoming irrational because of it. If you're now unhappy then you've got plenty of options from simply dropping to HD Essentials to leaving for another provider. It's all quite simple really.

 

[llzel]

I too really liked RAVE, but last night I watched MHD and was just as happy. so no big deal.

 

[stayloc]

Ok all of you red lovers, your finished here. Everybody love blue, even if blue is faded and has black bars around it. No only are reds out but even shades like pink. Besides we have to make more room for more blue. By the way could you help us get more blue? Please conplain more for us about the lack of blue.
Note: I am not a Dish stock holder, I am a paying Dish customer. I am either going to be happy or due to the rules of competition, some where else.

All I am planning to say on subject.

 

[mike123abc]

Perhaps a new VOOM will come back. One has to assume that there is intense negotiation going on right now. VOOM is fighting for its life, and VOOM would be foolish to assume it could continue as it did before with just one provider (not counting CVC NYC). There is just no way to sell 15 HD channels at this time, providers are over capacity. It looks like Dish signaled they would carry up to 5, lets hope VOOM wises up and realises that 5 good channels is better than 15 off the air ones.

Rainbow media has other channels of course besides VOOM. They could perhaps use them in negotiations to start getting carriage of VOOM on other providers, but they would have to have fewer channels. No way they could say AMC, IFC and We and 15 VOOM or nothing, but they could perhaps leverage 1-2 channels. Having 5 super channels to pick from, might see other operators pick up a VOOM channel when they renew their Rainbow Media channel packages.

 

[yaz96]

You're right.. but still in the time you had voom (if you didn't pay them) you could have aquired DVD's for all the favorite movies you wanted to watch..

if you had gotten the EHD option you could have recorded everything they've ever produced in a few weeks..

You're full of BS! That's not true and you know it. Why do you continue to turn the knife? (Insert derogatory expletive here)