Jump to content
Phantis Forums

New Greek Channel Package Platform.


Recommended Posts

I don't think DKSat jokes.

You're right, I was hoping it was an April Fools prank- this sucks! :tdown:

Well without ERT World, Home2US is officially screwed IMO. They need to lower their prices ASAP as now $40 is really not worth it for the package of channels they are offering.

It looks like someone at Dish may have put in a phone call to someone at ERT in Greece to put a stop to this move and by the looks of it they succeeded.

If ERT goes to Home2US in May, then Dish may stop carrying ERT altogether, since there will be no profit for Dish.

What makes you think they will drop ERT World if it goes FTA?!

RTP from Portugal is available FTA but it is also available as a pay service on Dish and certain cable providers in the US & Canada. I don't see why ERT World can't be available as both a FTA service and a pay service?! There are those who don't want to go to the expense of getting a dish & receiver to watch it FTA or others who can't have satellite so having it available on cable/satellite as a pay service would serve everyone.

It's puzzling to me that April 1st is a little over half over and yet still no announcement from the GreekTV-America website and absolutely no update on the Greek Media Group website.

Yes, I was just about to comment on that- this is seriously pathetic! How do they expect to get subscribers if they don't even bother informing them of what is going on?! GMG is digging themselves into a bigger and bigger hole as far as I am concerned and I don't know if they will be able to find a way out?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 543
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Thought on ERT: Couldn't Home2us technically re-broadcast the FTA C-band ERT World signal on their satellite and argue it the way UBI did a few years ago in Australia? If I recall SelecTV had pushed Comart to get UBI to stop broadcasting it because they falsely sold the rights to them (just like Dish...), but UBI put up a fight saying they were only re-broadcasting a FTA signal. If I recall the Greek courts had agreed that UBI did nothing wrong saying that it was a good thing as ERT World was reaching more people with no cost to them, as UBI was taking on the cost of rebroadcasting it on their satellite.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So it looks like Home2us updated their site, they only mention offering Mega as of now with the rest of the channels coming May 1st. Still no mention of ERT, (though it looks like that is a no-go now anyway) despite the fact that the banner on their front page still says ERT World.

"Package information:

Greek package I – MEGA Cosmos

Coming soon - May 1st 2011 RIKSAT, ALTER, STAR, GMTV !"

Also GreekTV-America.com STILL not up....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coming soon - May 1st 2011 RIKSAT, ALTER, STAR, GMTV !"[/i]

The way this is going, who knows if these channels will actually show up on May 1st.

Mega may be the #1 rated channel in Greece, but outside of Greece, they've screwed w/ us royally big time. If it was possible,I wish I could strip them of their title. :angry:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The way this is going, who knows if these channels will actually show up on May 1st.

They told me this last night and I wrote it in my initial post about prices. The only difference is they said Mega and RIK would be available as of today. It seems only Mega though.

I hope they take a good hard look at the situation and re-adjust the other package prices. Even if they do it is still a hard sell for them especially without ERT.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They told me this last night and I wrote it in my initial post about prices. The only difference is they said Mega and RIK would be available as of today. It seems only Mega though.

I hope they take a good hard look at the situation and re-adjust the other package prices. Even if they do it is still a hard sell for them especially without ERT.

I know what you wrote and what they told you but it troubles me that the day is almost over and they still don't have the website up. I mean what kind of people do they have working over there?
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What makes you think they will drop ERT World if it goes FTA?!

RTP from Portugal is available FTA but it is also available as a pay service on Dish and certain cable providers in the US & Canada.

Indeed. RTPI is on Dish, in a 29,99 package of 6 channels. The only one.

The explanation might very well have to do with the fact that "sports in Portuguese" equals Brazilian soccer.

Different level of leverage, I suppose

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The banner on Home2us's site has been updated, no more mention of ERT World. This is ridiculous........Dish Network must have made a phone call.

I presume we can officially call the day for this thread: there isn't going to be any "New Greek Channel Package Platform", at least not one with a worthwhile "package" on Home2US.

May I offer another guess? Now that Home2US sees how serious TITAN is, putting them in a position to announce ERT only to go backwards a few hours later, and when they find out

1. that ALTER was stopped from being traded in the Athens Stock Exchange only yesterday, because the company is in huge financial trouble, owing $750 million with annual sales one tenth of its loans

2. both STAR and ALTER were launched on RCN, only to be removed a few weeks later due to lack of subscribers

3. RIK had never any demand in the US, its news are rebroadcast by ERT and is being carried under TITAN's approval and endorsement on a piratic site such as ellastv.gr

I bet there will be no other Greek channel launches on Home2US

PS: for the winner of the bet, 3year prepaid subscription to the "Greek Package of Home2US" :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL: :LOL:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Besides knocking on this platform which I have done multiple times, do you guys really think that all these Greek subscribers watch it for sports? A lot of Greeks I know don't care at all about the sports. Personally, I never watch the super league when you can watch EPL on HD on the weekends.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Besides knocking on this platform which I have done multiple times, do you guys really think that all these Greek subscribers watch it for sports? A lot of Greeks I know don't care at all about the sports. Personally, I never watch the super league when you can watch EPL on HD on the weekends.

Greek football is not my favorite to watch either, but in the western world platforms only succeed if they have sports--you can see it with Nova Sports in Greece, BskyB in the UK, and so on and so forth.

I am sure people watch other things on GreeK TV too, maybe for nostalgia, maybe to feel connected, or whatever. I suspect that incomes which can afford two platforms have them exactly so that in addition to ERT (which is the best for the nostalgia factor, lots of shows focused on areas of Greece, travelling in Greece etc) and ANTENNA for sports, they can also have MEGA as this is currently the channel with soap operas (I ZOI TIS ALLIS, TA MYSTIKA TIS EDEM, KATHE LEPROS KAI KAIMOS, aka TO NISI) etc. But when people can afford only one platform, that platrform usually turns out to be DISH. Here in Astoria when you look at roofs you can see both dishes together on Greek houses, but when there is only one, 9/10 times that is DISH.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you were to believe that survey some Athens university did a few years back, they claimed something like only 25% of the people polled from the US put sports as their top priority of what they want in Greek TV, I think the highest percentage of all regions they surveyed. If I recall the top priority listed in the US was news/information, with entertainment also taking a high spot along with sports. It was a pretty confusing survey though, and went on to list the reasons why people subscribe to Greek TV and sports was almost last if I recall. I think the biggest reason was a connection to Greece. (Which is a bit vague in my opinion as a connection can mean many things) If I recall that survey was also posted here, and it was discredited as there were various inconsistencies, it was unclear, and the number of people they polled worldwide for it was tiny.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well this Home2US launch (if you can call it that) looks like one big disaster to me. They launched the Greek package yesterday with only 1 channel- MEGA Cosmos, where the heck are the rest of them?! This is truly pathetic, why are the rest of the channels launching a month later when they were all (except for RIK Sat) just available on DirecTV?! Why bother launching if all you have to offer is one channel, how many are going to switch just for MEGA?! If ERT World had launched FTA as well then that could have attracted some people (I would have signed up, as MEGA & ERT are the only two channels I am interested in) but one channel- this is ridiculous to say the least!

I am not sure who is to blame for this whole fiasco- Greek Media Group, Home2US or Euro World Network?! What is preventing the other channels from launching at the same time as MEGA Cosmos?? Perhaps Home2US or EWN have realized that these other channels are stinkers and the only channels that will bring in subscribers are MEGA Cosmos and ERT World. They are probably trying to figure out what to do, I hope they can find a way to add ERT World- perhaps they can bribe the right person at ERT, isn't that how things work in Greece?! :whistle: B)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The other thing that I don't like is the apparent premium on RIK Sat and the way they are pricing it. $10 jump for 1 channel that is available free on the web and FTA in Europe, then just $10 for 3 more channels.

I think that GMG probably overpaid to get the rights to RIK Sat and now are trying to recoup that money by charging a premium for a channel (as you mentioned) that is available FTA elsewhere and frankly should be FTA here as well IMO.

I don't get why they would offer a MEGA-RIK package, it should be MEGA-Alter or MEGA-ERT (if they offered it). As Harlem-reporter mentioned above, RIK Sat has never been available before in North America and the demand for it probably isn't very high so what logic do they base this decision on to offer a MEGA-RIK package?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you were to believe that survey some Athens university did a few years back, they claimed something like only 25% of the people polled from the US put sports as their top priority of what they want in Greek TV,

[...]

sports was almost last if I recall.

Well, if the Greek fiscal crisis has taught us anything, it is how good people there are with numbers.

So if sports constitute the last reason people in the US get Greek TV why, I ask for the millionth time, are we not having this discussion on a forum about "proino moy" or "poly bla bla" or what have you, since entertainment is the most important reason Greeks subscribe to Greek TV? <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I didn't say they were right or that I believed that, like I said it was posted here and we all basically discredited it. Plus the top reason given for subscribing was a "connection with Greece" which is vague in my opinion, as that can include any type of programing. News, sports, entertainment, documentaries, etc is all a connection to Greece in my opinion.

Edit: Here is the survey from 2008: http://archive.enet.gr/online/online_text/...596036,25323652 (towards bottom) You will notice that it is not clear, has many inconsistencies, and the survey size was only 2,053 people worldwide. In no way a good representation, just like it was discussed back then. In my opinion this is as reliable as the channel popularity charts GMG has on their site. :LOL:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you were to believe that survey some Athens university did a few years back, they claimed something like only 25% of the people polled from the US put sports as their top priority of what they want in Greek TV,

[...]

sports was almost last if I recall.

Well, if the Greek fiscal crisis has taught us anything, it is how good people there are with numbers.

So if sports constitute the last reason people in the US get Greek TV why, I ask for the millionth time, are we not having this discussion on a forum about "proino moy" or "poly bla bla" or what have you, since entertainment is the most important reason Greeks subscribe to Greek TV? <_<

This is just my opinion so I'm not stating these as facts.

Most Greeks in the US/Canada have been here for at least 30 years and quite a few have been here since the 1960's. A lot have disconnected with Greek sports. A lot of Greeks follow NHL/NFL/NBA because their was no satellite or internet back then so they had to adapt to new sports/leagues. Now that we got the Greek channels and the internet during the past dozen years or so, some have reconnected but I would say most have not.

I would also venture to say that most subscribers are probably over the age of 50. I'll ask my dad if he watches it and he tells me that the super league is garbage and I would rather watch EPL. He seems to be more interested in watching news and some entertainment programs but he has related to me lately that if it wasn't for my mom, he would cancel it because its all reality junk. I would not doubt the Greek subscriber base is in its peak now or has peaked already and its going downhill with the aging of the Greek immigrant population in North America. I can tell you that most of their kids who were born here can care less about Ert and Mega let alone being diehard Olympiakos fans. They are diehard Bears, Red Wings, or Knicks fans or whatever their local team is. Antenna and ERT were smart. They jumped in there at the beginning and now they are riding high.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Concerning this GreekTV-America, what's the point of having a website if you're not going to have much information on it. All they say is Mega Cosmos now available and the other 4 channels coming soon. They list 2 phone # and a fax # and that's about it.

It's like they're all secretive about it. And don't get me started on the GMG site! In my opinion, this is a bonehead move by Mega and I wouldn't be surprised if they went crawling back to Dish in the near future.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems like this whole launch was rushed, EWN only registered the site 2 weeks ago. Someone definitely dropped the ball. What is a tragedy is that GMG can't even get on their site and change some simple logos. That is the least they could do at this point until EWN launches the other site IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi everyone,

I have been monitoring the forums now for the last month. I too, have

DirecTV and I am in Canada. I did sub to the Greek Package with DTV when

I found out that MEGA COSMOS was with them.Back then it was not available

in Canada until a couple of years ago.Once that I found out that MEGA is now

with Home2US and not with Dishnetwork, I too said forget it. Too expensive just

for one channel ($19.99 / month USD).

Here in Canada MEGA is available with your local cable company for $14.99 / month and if you want ANT1 and ERT, that package is $14.99.So, with all 3 channels combined, you are looking at $29.99 for all 3 channels through the local cable here in Ontario.

But, if you hook up one of the Satellite providers up here, when you subscibe

to all 3 Greek channels, you only pay $5.00 for all 3 for one year. After that, it is $15.00 / month after one year. So, I decided to go with with the satellite provider

with the basic package and the $5.00 / month for all 3 Greek channels for one year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...