Re: AT&T U-verse is adding 4 new HD channels by July 10th

BeeBeeSA · ‎06-26-2009

I have to agree in part with Vols, but I do have a buddy of mine that is currently with Dish and has Asian channels (his wife is Korean) here in SA, TX. Due to our abundance of military bases we have quite a large Asian population here believe it or not. I'm sure it's not as prevalent as some places but none the less we do have people that would like the service. I have tried to get him to switch to UV but of course his wife says NO WAY until she can get her Korean channels she currently has thru Dish. Now business 101.......Offer the channels BUT maybe charge $30.00 a month for those that want it. I think he pays $40.00 a month thru Dish. At least folks will have the option to switch to UV and also get international programming for those who desire it.

Oh and one more thing.......I'm sure there is a satellite farm somewhere where AT&T gets their signals so it would just be a matter of capturing the signal for the programming if of course they pay to do so.

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PotatoeGuru · ‎11-21-2007

Chances are they'll be added overnight during some sort of maintenance window.

I tried to got to KERAHD (1013) and got an error message while going recording Showtime on Monday. 1013 isn't showing up in my guide, but I'm taking that as a sign it's almost time for it to pop.

JiminSTLouis · ‎12-18-2007

Check your monthly U-guide. U-verse offers:

Filipino TV Package

South Asian TV Package

Vietnamese TV

Paquete Espanol (Spanish-language programming)

TV Japan

mikeyt · ‎08-30-2007

As bad as my current provider is, they do have a Russian channel which I pay dearly for. U-verse doesn't have one at any price. So I don't have to ask my current proivider to add a Russian channel - they already have it. Since Grandmother speaks mostly Russian and little English, I may not be able to sign up for U-verse until they have a Russian channel. The people at U-verse need to be aware of which channels are "nice to have" vs. "deal breakers", how many people would like each channel and the cost of the channel. As for Russian, it's a profit center for U-verse since IPTV does not run into bandwidth limits based on the number of possible channels. U-verse could have thousands of channels at very little cost. Watching or recording more than 2HD/2SD live channels is a bandwidth issue with U-verse, but I digress. ONE OF THE STRENGTHS OF IPTV / U-verse is the ability to offer THOUSANDS of channels using switched video as opposed to cable / satellite broadcast video which maxes out in the 500 channel range.

Ps. so far all of my TV providers have been a number of different cable companies. I've considered satellite providers before but there never was a compelling enoough difference to make me switch from what was already installed. U-verse is a nw option that I'm really excited about and can't wait to sign up for when it's available to me which should be within the year. But if they don't add a Russian channel before then or some indicatinos that it will happen within three months of my signing up, then U-verse cannot meet the needs of my particular household and that's lost revenue to U-verse, just for the base packages, not too mention the premium fees for premium International channels.

$25/month premium charge for Russian and other International channels? What's not to love for AT&T? In many cases, that is a 25% or more increase in the revenue from such subscribers. Do they hate MONEY? And the International channel providers will for the most part be EAGER to sign up with U-verse because it greatly expands their relatively small market for a less common International channel and increases their revenues. It's not the same tricky, political, competitive, blackout complex transaction for a major sports network. As far as I know, many of the International channel providers are independent of the big media / cable companies including Comcast, Time Warner, Showtime, HBO, etc.

Adding more International channels at the profit levels they represent is not so hard, and it makes money for AT&T and the International channel provider. The only plausible reason for them not being available is that AT&T is too dis-organized and slow to respond to user requests and make more money from these premium services.

The sales people do have a responsibility not to outright lie. And if their training told them lies or they weren't trained right, the ultimate responsibility still lies with AT&T and U-verse. If AT&T didn't endorse these lies by inactions, thaty would take reports of sales people who made false promises or lies seriously and reprimand, possible with small finanacial consequences, if reports of that particular sales person lieing or making false promises continues, AT&T could terminate that person or the agency AT&T contracts to do it. There's no excuse for continued bad conduct by some of their sales people.

Vols89 wrote:
... A little Business Class 101, there isn't a market for international channels so it won't be profitable for AT&T so I don't blame them for not taking a financial hit by adding them.

An extra $25/month for channels like Russian which I pay now to my current provider? To say it nicely Vols, I can only presume you did not take time to research the economics and profit of this business proposition. If there was no market, these International channel providers which do not have deep pockets would not be in business. These channels are on Comcast, Dish, etc. You think Comcast would carry them if it was a bad business proposition and they weren't otherwise forced to? Think again. Before I engage in any business proposition, I do more research than you appear to have done in this case vols.

Anf if someone in your house only spoke French, and that person's needs were a requirment for the tv provider you select for your household, I'm sure you'd have a completely different attitude and conclusion. Or maybe you'd like to raise your kid's bi-ligually or just have TV programming to re-inforce the learning they get in foreign language classes.

I'm thrilled Sci-Fi HD is available. That will be nice for me too. I'll be watching it at times. But too my personal and household priorities - Sci-Fi isn't a deal breaker for me, and since there is already an SD version, even less so. The Russian channel IS a DEAL BREAKER for me.

I respect that Sci-Fi HD is a deal breaker for some other people, though possibly less than a Russian (or others) channel since Sci-Fi SD is already available. Mind you, I prefer ALL my channels in HD. Others may have no use for HD, and I respect that too. With U-verse's IPTV platform they can eventually provide both, though eventually I think many of the SD channels will fade just to aspect ration issues as people continue to replace their TVs when they upgrade or ultimately break.

Why did I jump into this thread, well unfortunately, it's the only I found where an AT&T or at keast U-talk forum administrator made an announcement about channel availability of any sort that I've run into recently. The International channel thread has gone for a long time with no official AT&T involvement. U-talk is funded by AT&T so I presume the Administrators have a stronger connection to AT&T than I do.

mikeyt · ‎08-30-2007

JiminSTLouis wrote:
Check your monthly U-guide. U-verse offers:

Filipino TV Package
South Asian TV Package
Vietnamese TV
Paquete Espanol (Spanish-language programming)
TV Japan

Your point is?

It's really cool they have these. And it's great for people who speak / need these languages. But it does nothing for other language speakers, French, Russian, German, Polish etc. Some competing providers already have these premium International channels and more.

AT&T U-verse Channel Line-Up

From the service ordering process in northern CA at uverse.att.com:

Optional Add-on Ethnic Packages

Paquete Espanol $10/month View details
TV Japan $25/month View details
Filipino Package $21/month View details
Zee TV $15/month View details
The Filipino Channel $12/month View details
S. Asian Package $35/month View details
SET Asia (S. Asian) $15/month View details
GMA Pinoy TV (Filipino) $13/month View details
TV Asia (S. Asian) $15/month View details
SBTN (Vietnamese) $15/month View details

So, many of the International channels make more money for AT&T.

Message Edited by mikeyt on 07-09-2008 05:19 PM

JiminSTLouis · ‎12-18-2007

My point was mikey,,,,,,,, people were asking why U-verse doesn't offer "International" channels. I was simply pointing out that they do. Sorry I didn't know you specifically wanted Russian until after I posted that message. I speak Hungarian so your Russian channel does nothing for me. I don't expect U-verse to offer a channel for every language on the planet.

mikeyt wrote:

Your point is?

Message Edited by JiminSTLouis on 07-09-2008 08:02 PM

mikeyt · ‎08-30-2007

Hey, thanks! It's certainly an interesting trade off with thousands of languages / dialects on the planet! The economics of how many customers there are for a language will help determine the mainstream channels carried by TV providers, and for now, that's an increasing number. I think some years ago Russian, Polish etc. weren't available or at least not widely so. You'd get Spanish and if you were lucky some Asian channels. Now we have multiple channels for a singlue language and even language packs!

So maybe the TV providers will give us the top 10 or 20 languages or more with switched video. Then the next few hundred might be delivered to a smaller audience over the Internet as we all get megabit and mutli-megabit connections on the way to 100 Mbps.

Your post also made me check the ordering site and they used to have like two or three ethnic options, now they have 10 options, including a few new languages. I'm surprised they don't have German, French, Russian and a few others yet, but hopefully soon, and then, not much later, in HD.

And back to new HD channels, I'm always pleased to hear when they've added HD content. So in General U-verse is definitely improving over time, ignoring a cost increase or two, and even if it isn't as fast as we would like in all cases!

Oh, and hey, while you're at it U-verse people, please add a Hungarian channel, in HD of course, for my friend, JiminSTLouis !

Message Edited by mikeyt on 07-09-2008 06:11 PM

callmeox · ‎08-30-2007

First, thanks for the new channels, ATT. Only a few malcontents should be able to drown out the majority of customers who appreciate the upgrades.

Second, apparently there's not much of a market for Russian or Polish speakers.

ATT is a business and not a charity, so if it would make money for them, I'll bet they would package it up and show it.

If it was up to me, I'd have them swap out all of the foreign language channels for English fare.

Message Edited by callmeox on 07-09-2008 10:33 PM

Message Edited by OptimusPrime on 07-10-2008 01:27 PM

shoe · ‎01-05-2010

Any one get them yet?

JiminSTLouis · ‎12-18-2007

I checked this morning on my way out the door. Nothing yet.

shoe wrote:
Any one get them yet?

Maine_1 · ‎02-25-2008

Nothing in Connecticut yet either. Checked this morning.

Scott53 · ‎10-25-2007

Nothing in Detroit

loopguru · ‎02-10-2008

nada in SE Michigan

shoe · ‎01-05-2010

Scott53 wrote:
Nothing in Detroit

Grand Rapids either.

Would be nice if our site admin would step up to the plate and find out what's going on

bigdmrk1110 · ‎10-23-2007

Nothing in Dallas area yet.

robino2001 · ‎07-09-2008

They're in my guide but I get the message

"Service is currently not available in your area. Coming Soon..."

on the channel when I turn to it.

longhorns232323 · ‎02-26-2008

I'm in houston, and I get the channels but it also "service currently not available in your area. Coming soon..."

shoe · ‎01-05-2010

what are the channel numbers

longhorns232323 wrote:
I'm in houston, and I get the channels but it also "service currently not available in your area. Coming soon..."

skeeterintexas · ‎12-09-2007

shoe wrote:
what are the channel numbers

I haven't seen them yet but I read on UU:

Bravo 1181

USA 1124

SciFi 1151

CNBC 1216

Can't vouch for the accuracy of the above informatio.

shoe · ‎01-05-2010

thanks

hpmsrm · ‎09-14-2009

Kansas City area - 8:50 AM - Nothing yet. Channels have not been turned on at all. Don't show up in the guide. I did a reboot of the DVR just to see if that might make them show up (had to do that back when new local channels were activated) but it had no effect. Oh well.....maybe by this evening.

Phil

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randyl · ‎10-25-2007

suspense builds !!!!

by july 10th around

Message Edited by randyl on 07-10-2008 09:02 AM

Freebird_1 · ‎12-01-2007

new hd channels not showing up in northeast ohio yet.did reboot and still not nothing

shoe · ‎01-05-2010

Freebird wrote:
new hd channels not showing up in northeast ohio yet.did reboot and still not nothing

Tier 2 had me do a reboot still nothing then he said to look at my bill when it comes maybe there will be a notice in it as to when they will be available

pif_t · ‎07-10-2008

when i first saw them on the on sceen guide i was thinking what do we need cnbchd for then i noticed sci-fi, bravo, and usa and i immediately thought olympics so sure thats why we're getting them, regardless im pretty happy with that.

quite a few more would be nice though, like Spike, Travel Channel, FX..

phr · ‎01-15-2008

I see them on the online dvr remote with the guide data.. It seems you can also schedule recording. I don't know if they are already on...

I am in 77479 texas..

Hope it is there before I get home tonight..

Stars_Fall_Down · ‎07-07-2008

On the previous topic of the international channels, to quote Mikey...

"The people at U-verse need to be aware of which channels are "nice to have" vs. "deal breakers", how many people would like each channel and the cost of the channel."

...in response, you'd be surprised how many channels are "deal breakers" in television programming. You want Russian channels, and if you can't get them...that is a deal breaker. On the other hand, someone who speaks Italian wants Italian channels...which is their deal breaker...and so on and so forth. This even carries on with other channels such as Comedy Central, Sci-Fi, Etc. Unfortunately, U-Verse can't provide everyone with what they want as quickly as it is asked for, so they try to knock out the most requested channels first.

I'm sure that a lot of people here would agree that they would rather see 4 new HD channels than 4 new international language channels simply because they cater to a higher number of individuals. I'm sure in time that AT&T will have many more international channels, it's just a matter of patience and understanding on the customers end...which rarely occurs.

Vols89 · ‎12-10-2007

I'm sorry but why would someone that doesn't even have UVerse make such negative comments mikey. I can see someone wanting to check these forums and to enquire whether UVerse is right for them or not. Maybe ask some questions on how others like their service but come on. I was under the impression you were a customer because you were acting like you had all these complains because you were paying for the service and weren't getting what you want. LOL You obviously are getting Russian TV with the service you have so why complain that another service doesn't have it? Guess some have too much time on their hands because I don't see myself going to Dish Network forums and complain that their service goes out during storms. LOL In fact, I can't believe I am finding the time to reply.

It all goes back to choices....go to the service that is right for you. You seem to have found one since they have the Russian channel. Since you are complaining in a UVerse forum and not their forums, I have to assume that they provide your perfect service. To each their own. As far as researching whether it is profitable for AT&T to have a Russian channel, I don't have to because they don't have it. If it WAS profitable, they would have it so what kind of research do I need to do? LOL You have your service and we have ours so please complain in your service's forums and leave the whiney to the people who actually have the service since they know what there is to complain about. What a waste of time.