HellasHab

How nice, they issue an announcement about the channel launch... 2 months after it has launched?! :rolleyes: Another one bites the dust, oh well it was bound to happen sooner or later- I am surprised that they kept a free stream going for this long, the mighty $$ always wins out in the end. No big loss IMO as this was a direct stream from Greece, with the 7hr time difference you couldn't really watch anything. Great to see that Skai has created a page on their website for this channel, hopefully they put up a schedule at some point as Ethnic Channels is useless when it comes to such things. On a related note, anyone know where to find a schedule for Alpha Sat, Alpha doesn't even mention Alpha Sat on their website let alone have a schedule on there for it.

Based on their current pricing/packaging structure, I think if they add Star, RIK Sat & 4E they will be sold as add-ons just like Alpha Sat, Skai & MAD World currently are. If you look at all the other multicultural channels they offer, they are all sold in the same manner (i.e. a base package consisting of a few popular channels, all other channels are then offered as an add-ons). Look at the South Asian channels, they have one package of 4 channels and all the rest (30-40 other channels) are sold as add-ons- there are no other packages offered. If I were in charge, I would package them as follows: Greek Basic OTN (ANT1 Satellite) MEGA Cosmos Alpha Sat ERT Greek Premium Greek Basic + Skai TV, Star International, MAD World, Greek Cinema & 4E PIK Sat- $5/mo al a carte Both of these channels will be approved, I don't see any reason not to approve them. From what I have seen the process takes about 2 months, which means these channels will most likely be approved by the end of March or early April.

To each his own I guess, I am more interested in quality over quantity. The point I was trying to make was do they make money by carry all these channels, Fibe TV now has over 200 ethnic channels and counting. Rogers would be the main competitor as they carry the most channels after Bell Fibe but Fibe TV has now left Rogers in the dust. Due to the bandwidth constraints of cable, there is no way Rogers can compete with Fibe TV, even if they wanted to- Fibe is beating them on price as well as number of channels. I think Rogers is going to lose a lot of ethnic customers due to Fibe TV's more attractive offering (lower prices, more channels). Videotron, on the other hand, is not doing anything as far as the ethnic market goes- they haven't added any new multicultural channels in years. I can't believe they don't carry MEGA Cosmos, they dropped OTN2 and added Alpha Sat but didn't add MEGA?! That is a question to ask Titan Television who own the distribution rights to MEGA Cosmos not OTN. I don't understand why they decided to launch MEGA Cosmos via OTN, when all their other channels are available here as foreign services?! People want the direct feed not a Canadian clone that has to air local programming due to CRTC regulations which means that some programming from MEGA Cosmos is cut out to make room for the Cancon. Hopefully when the new ERT international service launches it will be brought in as a foreign service, of course that will depend on who gets the distribution rights?!

They have launched them via their IPTV service (Ellas TV). Dishnet carries MEGA Cosmos & Alpha Sat, the others (4E, Star, PIK Sat) it appears are not popular enough to attract subscribers or enough subscribers to make it worthwhile to carry them?!

That is correct, OTN3 is MEGA Cosmos not Alpha Sat. The only 'licensed' channels are Odyssey (ANT1) and MEGA Cosmos (OTN3), OTN2 which used to be ERT World but currently airs programming from Greek Cinema is no longer licensed, it is operating as a license-excempt Canadian service. The following channels are all available in Canada as foreign services which means they are exactly the same as the channel that is distributed in the USA, Australia and wherever else they are available: Alpha Sat Greek Cinema Star International 4E RIK Sat Skai & MAD World are most likely exempt channels like OTN2, although Ethnic Channels still has one license for a Greek channel so its possible that Skai may have been launched via that license?! The license they launched MEGA Cosmos with was returned to the CRTC. Hopefully that clears things up for you MCIBUS, not sure what you want the radio stations for however?! You can very easliy listen to those stations through the internet, how many are going to listen to radio through their television?! I still maintain that there are too many channels, although Bell Fibe seems intent on carrying like 10 channels for each ethnic group for some reason?! I would pick 2 or 3 of the most popular channels and carry those, they are starting to carry too many niche channels (music, movie, religion, lifestyle, sports) like Dishnet. They probably carry close to 50 channels from India- does anyone subscribe to let alone watch that many channels?!

Interesting, does that mean they are simulcasting New Greek TV if the schedule is the same?! NGTV is a local Greek channel in NYC, they air several original programs in addition to the content from Greece- I wonder if those are showing up on 'Skai TV' here in Canada as well?! If they are then you know that ECG is simply taking the feed from NY and airing it here which means the channel we are receiving here is NGTV not Skai from Greece. On another note, Soundivew has now applied to add 4E & RIK Sat to the approved list- these are the last two channels from Titan Television that are not yet available here. I wonder what the plan is here, is Bell Fibe going to carry all of these or are they hoping that they will?!

They probably haven't added the schedules yet, they are slow to update their website. Don't worry about it, I have a feeling that this channel might launch in the US soon, I might be able to get a schedule from there?!

what exactly are they promoting- they only offer 1 Greek channel, which is quite pathetic IMO?! They should add MEGA Cosmos (at the very least) and perhaps Alpha Sat as well and then start promoting their 'new' Greek package. ;)

Wait, what?! They are airing programming from 4E on Skai?! If it has commercials from Canada & the USA then that means someone has created an international feed for this channel?! I wonder if they have partnered up with Dish Network as Dish carries several channels from ECG?! On the other hand, 4E is distributed by Titan in the US, this is getting weirder and weirder?! I tried to get an answer but these guys just ignored my emails so I gave up. Is it possible for you to send me the schedule for Skai, the Bell website only has online TV listings for Satelite not Fibe TV and Zap2it has no listings for most of the ethnic channels so its useless.

I am aware that Euronews has launched a Greek version although technically its not a true all-Greek news channel. The content is not dubbed, Euronews offers the same video feed, the audio feed is what is different for each version. The Greek version has Greek newscasters that they hired that read the different news stories in Greek. This channel is not like a traditional news channel as it doesn't have any live reports, except perhaps for a breaking news story?!

Mystery solved. Skai & MAD World have been launched in Canada by Ethnic Channels Group, the same company that brought MEGA Cosmos back to Canada in 2007. They have updated their website with listings for the two channels, however they don't list MAD World but rather MAD- I think this is a mistake as Bell Fibe clearly has MAD World listed on their site. According to the description on their site for Skai, it appears that they are airing the direct feed from Greece?! Here is the link to their listings: http://www.ethnicchannels.com/category/country/greece/

The channel that previously aired ERT World (OTN2), now airs programming from Greek Cinema. This channel is currently only available on Bell satellite and Bell Fibe- Rogers Cable & Videotron Cable both dropped ERT World Canada and replaced it with Alpha Sat. If NERIT ever launches an international service, OTN2 will air programming from that channel and Greek Cinema will be spun-off onto its own channel. Odyssey TV is connected to the Alpha Sat application, Titan is involved with both channels as they are the official distributor for Alpha Sat & Star International. I think the reason for the different sponsors is that Alpha Sat is the more popular channel and OTN chose to be involved with Alpha Sat and probably aren't interested in Star International (rightfully so IMO as Star doesn't really offer much). Titan wants to try and get all their channels into Canada so they partnered up with Soundview on the Star application, I think its a waste of time as aside from possibly Bell Fibe (who are adding international channels like crazy), I don't see anyone else being interested in adding this channel. Star failed to get distribution in the USA (Dish doesn't want this channel), I don't think it will fair much better in Canada. Bell has adopted a different pricing model for International services than other providers, I presume that it's doing well for them otherwise they would have made changes?! They have a base package with a few popular channels then all other channels from each ethnic group are sold as 'add-ons'. They charge a lot less than other providers for these channels, which typically sell at a premium- I think the reason they charge so little is to try and deter people from signing up for IPTV services (there are many IPTV services that cater to ethnic audiences and they usually offer a wide selection of channels). I would not have added MAD World as I think its too niche- people tend to listen to music not watch it on television. There were two music channels in the USA (Blue & GMtv), both sold in packages yet still could not survive and ended up shutting down. IMO the only niche channels that tend to fair well are movie channels and news channels. I am surprised that no one has ever launched an all-news channel in Greece?! Portugal, which is a bit smaller then Greece but has roughly the same population, has 2 news channels yet Greece doesn't even have one?! Here ya go: http://www.titantelevision.tv They are the official distributor for MEGA Cosmos, Alpha Sat, 4E, PIK Sat & Star International.

Here is the link: http://www.bell.ca/Fibe-TV/Products/Fibe-Good-Package/Want_more_channels.tab (Scroll down until you see 'Greek Combo')

Bell has updated their website, Skai & MAD World are both avaialble as add-ons to the Greek package for $5. each.

Yes that is the same Soundview that I was referring to. According to the Titan website, they have formed a partnership with Soundview to distribute their channels in the US and Canada. Soundview has operations here in Canada, they distribute several channels including South Asian & African channels. Interesting to note, Titan partnered with OTN to launch Alpha Sat in Canada but have partnered with Soundview for the Star International application. That is entirely possible, we will find out eventually who distributes these channels. I think if Skai has launched an international service you will probably see that on Dish at some point, Star International on the other hand probably won't be added. RCN carried Star awhile back but dropped it a short while later, most likely due to low viewership.

Welcome to the Phantis Forums MCIBUS! :) Wow, I can't believe that Fibe has actually added these channels- first Alpha Sat and now Skai & Mad World, its a Greek channel bonanza! :D I wonder who launched these channels, I cannot find any info at all about them. I suspect that either Odyssey TV or Soundview Entertainment are behind the launch?! Soundview has applied to add Star International (another channel coming soon MCIBUS!) to the approved list, so its possible they are the ones that have brought Skai and MAD World to Canada?! As far as I know, Skai does not have an international channel so is this the channel from Greece or have they now launched an international service?!

I think the names for the TV channels will be NET & NET2 (or NET DYO). These are the names that were mentioned a while back when the government first started talking about reforming ERT. I hope they keep the international radio service name the same- H FONI TIS ELLADAS is a great name for this service and it should be retained IMO.

The logo and the name (the acronym specifically) are both horrible IMHO. They both look rushed, like someone was told to come up with something in a hurry- not very professional IMO. Why the heck do they need 'internet' as part of the name, it doesn't go and sounds stupid- Nea Elliniki Radiofonia Internet Tileorasi. ;) I think they should use NERIT as the corporate name and continue to use the ERT brand for the TV and radio services, except create a new logo which would distinguish it from the old ERT..

I thought this new entity was supposed to launch late September/early October, what is this about 2014 now?! ;) I would not be surprised if in the end they scrap this NERIT and just keep this DT as the new entity since its already on the air broadcasting. I wonder how long it will take them to launch the international channel or whether it will ever launch at all?!

Welcome to the forums! :) There is a huge thread on here about Ellas TV (http://forums.phantis.com/topic/13485-ellas-tv/), people's reactions to this service are mixed. The legality of the service has also been discussed and debated on here but that is neither here nor there. As for other options, the only other Greek IPTV service is Wherever TV, howevery unlike Ellas TV they only carry a few channels- MEGA Cosmos, ERT World, Star International, PIK Sat & Skai TV. (https://wherever.tv/partners/greece/index.jsf) The traditional sources for subscription TV in Canada suck, you are forced into subscribing to a very expensive basic package before you can subscribe to anything else. Also the Greek channels are quite pricey, except for Bell who for some reason offers them quite cheap but I suspect in order to get them at that price you have to sign up for a long term contract?!

Thanks for the explanation DKSat, now I understand. :)

Just because there was no satellite feed does not mean it wasn't available on satellite?! Bell operates an IPTV service in addition to their satellite service, perhaps they were getting the feed for MEGA Cosmos Canada via fibre?! Why was this channel still listed on the Bell website if it wasn't available?!

Is this a satellite change because MEGA Cosmos has always been on Bell TV since it launched in Canada?! It should be mentioned however that this channel is now 'MEGA Cosmos Canada' as it is now distributed by OTN.

I am surprised to see it available a la carte as well but the price point is the same as what they charged on Home2US so no surprise there. I don't see very many subscribing to MEGA a la carte but I guess they threw in the option for the heck of it so people wouldn't say its not available on its own. To each his own but why would you want them to add more channels, I think the current lineup is great?! What else is there for them to add that is not currently available through the existing channels?! The Greek television industry is currently in a state of decline due to the economic climate over there, programming has gone way down in quality. Most channels now produce very little original programming aside from news and reality crap, the rest is all foreign programming. I am surprised that all current channels are still on the air, I would have expected some to shut down- I guess the owners all have deep pockets and are able to weather the severe economic hardship they are experiencing?!

I was thinking the same thing, ANT1 probably doesn't want MEGA anywhere near it so they stuck it at the end of the line, after all the radio stations. :LOL: I think that should tell you how this channel will be packaged- only available in the most expensive package is my guess.