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Greek Channels leaving Dish Network


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My guess Mega and Alter will be leaving but will see..... :blink:  :unsure:  :la:

Good guess Kolossos :D

By process of elimination, the candidates are Mega, Alter & ERT Sat. ANT1 just signed a multi-year contract with Dish Network (according to DKSat) which is also why you saw all the new stuff added. So their channels won't be going anywhere, which leaves you with the ones I mentioned above.

I doubt ERT Sat would leave, that would be disastrous for ANT1 & Dishnet but who knows?? Also, my guess is DirecTV for the destination but we will find that out shortly once the mystery channel (s) leave Dish.

Anyone know why they don't bring over any channels from Cyprus, just curious, isn't there a big Cypriot population in North America??

:gr:

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I also assume it is Alter and Mega that will be leaving. I guess Antenna managed reach their goal, which is to become an exclusive Greek language provider on Dishnetwork.

I guess it would have been better for the Greek omogenia to have the channels available on both providers, but Antenna apprently does not want such an arrangement. It will be intersting to see what happens to the packages once those channels leave. I doubt that they will drop the price though.

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I doubt Ant1 is leaving as HellasHub said they have signed a 10 year deal with Dish so they ain't going anywere for a long time and I doubt ERT is leaving Dish as they just made it Al-La-Carte again

So it does really leave Alter and Mega to be heading to DirecTV and then most likely other greek channels will come from else were not Dish ;)

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One thing that I do not understand is why not have cjhannels on both providers.  It would mean more viewers.

Georgios,

The reason they don't do this is because they want the channel to be exclusive to them so then you are forced to go with Dishnet or DirecTV (whatever the case may be) if you want the channel they have. You will also most likely subscribe to other services so more money is made per subscriber. If channels were available on both then you split the subscriber base which is probably not very big to begin with unless you are talking Chinese. People would stay with which ever provider they have and thus less people subscribing.

I wonder what Globestar will tell DirecTV to do, will they package everything together like ANT1 has Dishnet doing or will a la carte be available for the channels they plan to offer?

The only channel that could be available on both is ERT Sat, although I doubt it. They (the people who own the distribution rights to ERT Sat, whoever they are?!) would increase their revenue if they were to offer it on DirecTV as well. That would entice some people to switch, depends on what other channels Globestar brings over. If they are smart they will do this, but it also depends on the contract they have with Dish Network. ERT is the public broadcaster so it should be available everywhere.

As it stands now, without ERT Sat I don't think many will switch to DirecTV for Mega and whatever else, since they would lose ERT. Unless they bring over Supersport (will never happen, just using an extreme example :D), I see Globestar having a tough go of it. Then again I could be wrong, to each his own. Everyone likes something different.

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The suspense is over it took some time to release the ifo but i hope everyone understands

Before releasing any info everything has to fall in place.

The following channels are moving to DirecTV.

Mega cosmos is now testing on DirecTV at the 119.0 w orbital location

Alter Globe will go to DirecTV with in few months.

The new channels that are coming is Alpha Tv and Star Tv they are also going to DirecTV.

ERT Sat is up for bidding and they will not be exclusive to any Satellite platform or cable company so they can go any were they want.

DKSat

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Thanks for the info DKSat! :tup:

So Alpha Sat finally returns to North America. Not much there for programming, I checked out their schedule recently, its mostly reality shows and gameshows. I think they air a few soccer games, not sure if those will be available here?!

As for Star Channel, they air mostly foreign stuff in Greece, so exactly what is going to be on this channel? The same 3 or 4 shows repeated over and over again?!

ERT Sat is the wildcard, if it goes to DirecTV or signs with both companies then I think people will switch to DirecTV. Imagine it- Mega, Alter, Alpha & ERT- my dream line-up, no ANT1 crap!! :D :LOL:

:gr:

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Lets be realistic here. Hardly anyone has the Greek channels for soccer. My parents and grandparents don't watch/nor care about the joke that is the superleague nor do the other Greeks that I know. They watch the news and entertainment programs.

I can't see how smart of a decision this is considering that every Greek person has dishnetwork and that the channels were already expensive as hell to begin with.

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Lets be realistic here.  Hardly anyone has the Greek channels for soccer.  My parents and grandparents don't watch/nor care about the joke that is the superleague nor do the other Greeks that I know.  They watch the news and entertainment programs.

I can't see how smart of a decision this is considering that every Greek person has dishnetwork and that the channels were already expensive as hell to begin with.

I strongly dissagree with you.

The only reason people have dish is obvious.

They are the only ones that carry the channels.

I became a dish subscriber about a month after dish

first offered antenna, and if it was not for the sports

and the news I would never subscribe to this americanized

version of Greek tv.

Everyone I know feels the same.

The fact that antenna has repeatedly somehow extorted from us expatriates,

gives me an added incentive to run as fast and far away from them

as possible.

They can stick it up where the "Lampsi" don't shine.

Off with their heads!!!!

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I strongly dissagree with you.

The only reason people have dish is obvious.

They are the only ones that carry  the channels.

I became a dish subscriber about a month after dish

first offered antenna, and if it was not for the sports

and the news I would never subscribe to this americanized

version of  Greek tv.

Everyone I know feels the same.

The fact that antenna has repeatedly somehow extorted from us expatriates,

gives me an added incentive to run as fast and far away from them

as possible.

They can stick it up where the "Lampsi" don't shine.

Off with their heads!!!!

Well said THYRA 13 :tup:

Gyros,

Antenna is the one to blame here, they came in and hijacked the show by forcing Dishnet to add their other uselss channels and then more importantly change around all the packages. You can't fault Unitel here, if I were them I would probably do the same. Instead of wasting their time trying to stand up to Dish/Antenna they are picking up their channels and moving to another provider, who may have offered more money, not sure about that. Its a free country, that is the beauty of competition my friend, they can go where they please.

The Unitel channels are no longer a la carte and the ERT/Mega/Alter package is gone, hopefully lots of people complained to Dish & Unitel about this and maybe that is why they decided to just leave and go to DirecTV where they would be in charge instead of towing the line here where Antenna is the boss.

As for your comment about hardly anyone subscribing to the Greek channels for the soccer, I am dumbfounded as I was under the impression that Soccer was the main reason people subscribed, based on the discussion on these forums. We will find out soon enough if that is true or not based on how many people switch to DirecTV. If they don't care about soccer then they will probably switch because the better channels (Mega, Alpha & Alter) will now be on DirecTV. IMO these channels have better entertainment shows then Antenna does and ERT has the best newscast of the lot as far as I am concerned. Antenna has tabloid style news which I don't really care for. Hopefully whoever ends up with the distribution rights for ERT Sat will be smart and signs with DirecTV, then that should be the final nail in the coffin for Antenna and their garabage programming. Without ERT Sat, how many people will subscribe to Dishnet where they will have nothing but ANT1 channels?!

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I don't disagree on Antenna being garbage but I don't see many Greek people being proactive and switching to directv. A lot of us have invested money in HD receivers, have contracts, and may not be able to get directv because of trees or other obstructions. Again, I can pretty much say that the majority of Greeks I've encountered in my area do not care nor watch Greek sports.

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The suspense is over it took some time to release the ifo but  i hope everyone understands

Before releasing any info everything has to fall in place.

The following channels are moving to DirecTV.

Mega cosmos  is now testing on DirecTV at the 119.0 w orbital location

Alter Globe  will go to DirecTV  with in few months.

The new channels that are coming is Alpha Tv and Star Tv they are also going to DirecTV.

ERT Sat is up for bidding and they will not be exclusive to any Satellite platform or cable company so they can go any were they want.

DKSat

DKSat,

You mentioned that Mega Cosmos is now testing on a DirecTV satellite, when are Alpha Sat & Star Channel coming??

Also, what about Radio Greece, will that be available on DirecTV as well? Globestar still lists it on their website, so they still must plan on offering it to North American audiences.

:gr:

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I don't disagree on Antenna being garbage but I don't see many Greek people being proactive and switching to directv.  A lot of us have invested money in HD receivers, have contracts, and may not be able to get directv because of trees or other obstructions.  Again, I can pretty much say that the majority of Greeks I've encountered in my area do not care nor watch Greek sports.

Can't really comment since I don't live in the U.S. but is there no way out of the contracts, are you locked in? I keep hearing about people switching back and forth from one provider to the other, I always wondered why it was so easy to switch?!

So there is only a hanful of people who are interested in the soccer, all these discussions on here about ERT and what they will be showing and the discussions last year about whether Alpha is coming (at the time they showed quite a bit of soccer too) were only from a few people? So only a handful of people care, I guess its possible since there are people on the boards here from all over the world- for some reason I thought most were from US/Canada. That's weird, maybe I am losing it :blink:

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Can't really comment since I don't live in the U.S. but is there no way out of the contracts, are you locked in? I keep hearing about people switching back and forth from one provider to the other, I always wondered why it was so easy to switch?!

So there is only a hanful of people who are interested in the soccer, all these discussions on here about ERT and what they will be showing and the discussions last year about whether Alpha is coming (at the time they showed quite a bit of soccer too) were only from a few people? So only a handful of people care, I guess its possible since there are people on the boards here from all over the world- for some reason I thought most were from US/Canada. That's weird, maybe I am losing it :blink:

The people here naturally care a lot about soccer, given the forum. But I don't know (nor does anyone, for that matter) if that is what drives subscriptions to Greek channels in the US.

I believe we will have to see what is the situation once the dust settles. What, exactly, will be left at Dish and for what price, what at Directv, etc. Directv does NOT allow you to only have international programming, however, like Echostar does. Plus, is there any guarantee the channels won't move again back to dish in a few years? For these reasons my gut instinct is that directv won't win over many dish subscribers, unless Dish is left with the ANT1 packet alone.

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I believe we will have to see what is the situation once the dust settles. What, exactly, will be left at Dish and for what price, what at Directv, etc. Directv does NOT allow you to only have international programming, however, like Echostar does. Plus, is there any guarantee the channels won't move again back to dish in a few years? For these reasons my gut instinct is that directv won't win over many dish subscribers, unless Dish is left with the ANT1 packet alone.

I have a feeling that a couple of thousands of people will end up with 3-5 dishes on their roofs :tdown: from both Dish and Directv :whistle:, picking up one channel from here and another one or two from there :tup:

I find the article below from Barrons very very interesting on "how easy is to move subscribers around".

To view this content directly on SmartMoney.com, click this link:

http://www.smartmoney.com/barrons/index.cf...?story=20061115

I No Longer Want My DirecTV

By Mark Veverka

November 15, 2006

PETER LYNCH, the legendary Fidelity Investments stockpicker, may be best-known for one of the simplest investment strategies on the planet: "Invest in what you know." Of course, he might have added: "Don't invest in what you know to be a big problem."

On the latter basis, I think investors should be leery of DirecTV Group (DTV). The company is 38.6% owned by Fox Entertainment Group, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS). DTV's shares have been on a tear, pushed largely by expectations on bets that it might get acquired or merge with a competitor such as EchoStar's Dish Network (DISH). DirecTV hit a 52-week high of 23.07 on Thursday, after reporting strong earnings due to internal consolidation.

But my personal experience suggests the company can't continue to acquire customers — much less retain them — unless they are raging sports fans. In more than seven years penning this column, I've never used it as a bully pulpit for a personal agenda — nor am I about to start now. Businesswise, however — and with a nod to Peter Lynch — I don't see how DirecTV fends off cable and optical broadband.

After nearly 10 years in San Francisco, my wife and I moved our family to the 'burbs, in August. You may have noticed DirecTV's commercials where the churn-averse telecommunications company pledges to move with its customers for free. All you have to do is call a toll-free phone number, leave your old dish on the roof of your former abode, pack your digital satellite receiver, and DirecTV will hook you up at your new hacienda for nada.

Or so the offer goes. But the transition, for me at least, was a little more involved. Okay, a lot more involved. Let's put it this way: I was a loyal DirecTV customer for nearly a decade, having taken it from our first San Francisco home to our second, and I was determined to take it to our latest Bay Area residence.

Yet, I feel like the folks at DirecTV could not have tried harder to lose my business during the move. A few months later, the only reason I remain a customer is that I'm a sports addict, especially when it comes to pro football and basketball (I originally signed on to watch Michael Jordan during his Chicago Bulls days).

One of the few advantages that DirecTV holds over its cable-television and fellow satellite competitors is the exclusive right to televise most major American pro sports events, just about anywhere. I'm an out-of-market, die-hard Chicago Bears football fan, and my team happens to be enjoying one of its best seasons since its Super Bowl run 21 years ago (The New York Giants might change this situation by the time many of you read this).

As pathetic as my condition may sound, were it not for this near-monopoly on pay-per-view National Football League games, I would have bolted from DirecTV, based on my recent experience. It would have been "Hello, digital cable." But considering that I had shelled out the fat fees to watch the Bears during some pretty lean seasons over the years, I couldn't walk away now. They had me by my clicker.

And therein lies the investment problem. DirecTV won't be able to retain its monopoly forever. On top of that, digital cable is catching up in nearly every way and is much less hassle to install, maintain and operate. Plus, its signal doesn't get knocked out during rainstorms.

DirecTV boasts low customer churn rates, but not because it's less expensive or provides vastly superior service. It retains "high-quality" customers who are willing to spring for on-demand NFL and other sports, such as college football. And it also attracts early adopters of new technology.

DirecTV has also managed to gain an edge over many cable outfits by offering the newest mousetraps first. It was among the first to offer receivers that were also digital video recorders, or DVRs, featuring TiVo time-shifting technology — which provided a meaningful advantage over cable and other satellite outfits, like EchoStar. Now, DirecTV is offering high-definition television technology superior to that from many cable competitors.

Which leads me back to my dissatisfaction with DirecTV: The installation nightmare. The company's reps were inefficient, incompetent, inconsiderate and ill-informed. I was plunged into call-center hell on way too many occasions. One phone rep caused me to be charged for services I couldn't use while being disconnected.

Of course, third-party service providers often present problems, but this was like nothing I'd ever experienced. There were scheduling gymnastics and hidden charges. It took four separate visits by two different outsourced installation outfits to finally put in my dish (Admittedly, one delay was partially due to trees blocking satellite signals).

Even then, my television still wasn't properly connected. The contractor for DirecTV blamed the television-installation crew from Best Buy (BBY), where I purchased my television, with improperly wiring my set. During past moves with DirecTV, technicians connected peripherals, such as DVD players and theater systems — not to mention the TV — making sure it was properly running. But this installer said it wasn't his job and that it would "take hours" for him to figure it out. So he left, with my new HDTV projecting only a black-and-white image, but not before he charged me an added $85 for running an extra-long chord.

The whole experience wasn't about customer service. It was customer abuse. Of course, I could have caved and cancelled the service, but I'm an irrational Bear fan, who is now bearish on DirecTV. When the satellite company loses its grip on the NFL, it will lose me. And others who, like me, know the company.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Want to read more from Barron's? Try Barron's Online for two weeks FREE! Click here.

SmartMoney.com

Attn: Customer Service

250 West 55th Street

10th Floor

New York, NY 10019

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