Why make us order Rush, Equator and A&E HD?

08-02-2010, 04:34 AM

Not exactly. And to be fair, Star Choice OMNIBUS programming was taking current network channels and feeding through only HD programs from any one network at a time. When ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX only had a handful of HD programs in prime time, this temporary measure might be ok. But in fairness, a channel is a channel: I don't want Bell, Shaw or Rogers cherry-picking programs they want me to watch -- I want them to give ME the choice and deliver the channel as is.

High Fidelity is a different animal. Treasure, Oasis, Equator and Rush are completely fabricated channels designed expressly for Bell's HD market share grab. The content is stale, timeless, off-the-shelf, from now-defunct VOOM programming which the High Fidelity folks are recycling, playing "network programmer", sitting in studios at/near the Bell head-end and using, as I understand, Bell facilities. Some Canadian programming appears daily on three of the four channels -- how many times a day do you want to see the same broadcast on Alberta Rose or Algonquin Park?

These FOUR channels repeat about 75% of their content during each month with just 25% new ... and over a few months perhaps it all repeats. There would be no crime in rebranding these four channels into two channels and having "theme nights" -- Friday Sports, Sunday "Travel", Tuesday "Museums" and rerun the other reruns on other nights and mornings and afternoons.

08-02-2010, 05:40 AM

A few people who have posted to this thread have said they're eager for "new" HD channels like National Geographic HD. They automatically assume it will be better than what's currently available. This is puzzling to me. NatGeo will be just like the other so-called "HD versions" of the main channel. Some HD programming some of the time, lots of SD programming a lot of the time. And then there's A&E HD, which seems only to want to try to trick viewers not as knowledgable as some who go to the trouble to post on these sorts of threads. Their decision is "let's stretch the picture and pretend it's HD!" That channel is a joke, and it's unconscionable of BEX to give it any channel space at all in the HD realm. I want 100% HD 100% of the time, and only a few channels (the High Fidelity suite chiefly among them) give me that. BEX better not drop any of them or it'll have at least one unhappy customer.

**Sportsfan** · 08-02-2010, 05:59 AM

You left out a verb. What don't you do?

HDNet was added after these channels, but everyone with the HD pack gets it without having to make a change to their programming. Why are Rush, Equator and A&E treated differently?

08-02-2010, 08:16 AM

Our system doesn t let us do a search by theme...we can not select a certain programming than get all accounts that have that theme. To make the change we would then need to go over each BEV account, open it, see if there is a HD pack, and if yes make the change.

Can you imagine how long it will take and the waiste of time encountered?

Considering that it is much cheaper to wait until the customer calls, which represents very few calls a week and have the rep offer the client extra theme (client has HD, therefore could add Sports 3 or any theme)

08-02-2010, 10:19 AM

None of the new HD channels will be added if you have the HD VALUE PACK OLD...

If HD NET came in automatically after the free preview that probably means you have the new HD pack and that there is a technical problem refraining you from getting the other 4 channels. In that case a HIT performed by a CSR or done by goign on bell/ca/missingchannel should solve the issue

08-02-2010, 12:30 PM

HD Value Pack? I've never seen that term used before from Bell or in thier brochures. So 4 channels are free, the others are in a "value pack". Is this a segue into multiple "value packs"? "News & Learning HD", "Sports HD", "Family HD" and "Lifestyle HD"?

08-02-2010, 01:26 PM

A&E HD stopped stretching its HD signal after several days ... and yes, a stupid idea. But they learned and fixed it. Showcase HD and National Geographic HD did not make the same mistake: true HD programming looks great, and upconverted stuff is proper ratio and looks better than SD by dint of more bandwidth.

All three (brand name) channels run programming which far and away exceeds anything on High Fidelity channels, in terms of ratings (ie. people actually watch the channels). The HF stuff wears thin in a few weeks thanks to 25% repeats during each week and 100% repeats over a few months. This is archive, timeless, no expiry shelf programming; nice to have access to from time-to-time, but a terrible waste of four HD channels.

**Sportsfan** · 08-02-2010, 01:28 PM

I don't think anyone is suggesting that a CSR find all the old HD pack customers.

A database programmer could make the change for all customers. It would have been much easier than:

1) Allocating bandwidth to an HD channel - 807
2) Making a promotional real encouraging customers to order Rush and Equator for no extra charge (if they have the HD pack).
3) Receiving and dealing with the calls.

Theory number 4: Get customers to add the channels so BEV can make a sales attempt when they are adding them.

08-02-2010, 02:13 PM

What part of THEY ARE NO LONGER FREE is not understood here? Those channels were in FREE PREVIEW until NOVEMBER.

If you want them now you have to get the HD VALUE PACK, which is 10$ a month and will provide ALL ENGLISH HD CHANNELS.

To get the French HD channels you only need to suscribe to the equivalent theme in SD

**Dean W** · 08-02-2010, 04:19 PM

SP - "The HF stuff wears thin in a few weeks thanks to 25% repeats during each week and 100% repeats over a few months. This is archive, timeless, no expiry shelf programming; nice to have access to from time-to-time, but a terrible waste of four HD channels."

Well said.

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