Another South African Rip Off [Archive]

pat22

25-07-2004, 05:45 PM

Being fed up shelling out R379 per month for DSTV, I decided to see what Sky costs in the UK at www.sky.co.uk

Various packages are available, the most expensive being GBP 40.00 (R456). But just see how many channels you get. There are about 30 movie channels alone.

Why oh why oh why do we always pay so much for so little???[xx(]

BTTB

25-07-2004, 06:54 PM

Well I was peeved with DSTV for canscelling the SCi Fi channel.

I emailed them that they could of easily dropped one of the many sports channels if money was a problem. I for one never watch sport on TV.

<hr noshade size="1">You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.

Jerrek

25-07-2004, 08:10 PM

Satellite TV isn't _that_ cheap here in the United States. Here are DishNet's prices, in US$.

Choose one to serve as your "basic" package
--America's Top 60: $25
--America's Top 60+: $30
--America's Top 120: $35
--America's Top 180: $45
--SPANISH: Dish Latino: $25
--SPANISH: Dish Latino Dos: $35
--SPANISH: Dish Latino Max: $45

Want local channels? $5

Want sports package (27 channels)? $6

Want Christian package (36 channels)? $10

Want a season ticket for sports?
--baseball (MLB): $238 for the season [all MLB games on 15 channels]
--baseball (College): price not listed, all games on 10 channels
--football: price not listed, all games on 15 channels
--hockey: price not listed, all games on 12 channels
--soccer (major league): $70 per season, on 10 channels
--soccer (English Premier League): price not listed

Want movie package(s)?
--Showtime (10 channels): $12
--Starz Super Pak (8 channels): $12
--HBO (8 channels): $14
--Cinemax (5 channels): $12

Want HDTV package? $10

Want pr0n channels?
--TenXtsy: $28
--Ten: $22
--Spice (3 channels): $30 (one is HDTV!!)
--PrivateFantsy: $11 per movie you view (European porn channel)
--Playboy: $15

Combos:
--America's Top 120 + HBO + Cinemax: $52
--America's Top 180 + HBO + Cinemax: $62
--America's Top 180 + HBO + Cinemax + Starz + Showtime: $78

Want foreign channels? (there are smaller breakdowns for individual channels which I'm not printing here)
--Arabic Elite Pack (10 Arabic channels): $30
--Asian Pack (5 channels): $50
--Polish Pack (3 channels): $30
--Greek Pack (3 channels): $37
--Chinese Pack (3 channels): $28
--Russian Pack (1 channel): $25
--Korean Pack (4 channels): $37
--Urdu Pack (3 channels): $35

All prices per month.

Note: America's Top 180 and pretty much all the foreign channels require a second dish. The first dish continues to point to 110 degrees, but the second dish has to point to another Echostar satellite at 61.5 degrees. So, in order to sign up for the "Everything" pack, you need to ensure you have a second dish.

Here's the complete channel lineup:

The first number, on the left, is the channel number. The number on the right is the satellite number. There are four satellites: 110, 119, 61.5, and 148.

If you have a ONE dish system, you point it to 110/119 (one dish tracks both). If you want foreign channels, HD channels, or the America's 180 package, you need two dishes (one pointed at 110/119, and one at either 61.5 or 148)

East and West refers to time-shifted channels. East is typically 3 hours ahead of the West channel, so if you miss X on Disney East, watch it 3 hours later on Disney West.

I wouldn't go quite as far as to say there isn't anything to watch. I don't watch too much television, and when I do, I enjoy History, History International, Discovery, Discovery Times, Discovery Civilization, and Discovery Wings.

Regular watching (for me):

- O'Reilly Factor at 8pm on FOX
- Stargate SG-1 season 8, Friday nights on Sci Fi
- Stargate Atlantis, Friday nights on Sci Fi
- Enterprise, Wednesday nights on UPN

100 Dish Home Interactive TV 110
101 Remote Control Help 119
103 Pay Per View Guide 110

105 USA Network 119
106 TV Land 119
107 Comedy Central 119
108 Lifetime 119
109 Lifetime Movie Network 119
110 Food Network 119
111 Do It Yourself 110
112 HGTV 119
114 E! 119
115 Style 110
116 Game Show Network 119
118 A&E 119
119 The Biography Channel 110
120 The History Channel 119
121 History Channel Internation 110
122 Sci-Fi Channel 119
124 BET 119
128 Women's Entertainment 119
129 Bravo 119
130 American Movie Classics 119
131 Independent Film Channel 119
132 Turner Classic Movies 119
133 Fox Movie Channel 110
135 BBC America 119
137 FX 119
138 TNT 119
139 Dish Network Sports Stop 110
140 ESPN 119
142 ESPNews 119
143 ESPN Classic 119
144 ESPN 2 119
145 ESPN Alternate 119
146 ESPN 2 Alternate 119
149 Fox Sports World 110
150 The Speed Channel 119
151 Outdoor Life Network 110
153 The Outdoor Channel 119
158 Fuse 119
160 MTV 119
161 MTV 2 119
162 VH1 119
163 VH1 Classic 110
166 CMT 119
167 Great America Country 110
168 Spike TV 119
169 Noggin 119
170 Nickelodeon 119
171 Nickelodeon (west) 119
172 The Disney Channel 119
173 The Disney Channel (west) 119
174 Toon Disney 119
175 Boomerang 110
176 Cartoon Network 119
177 Nick GAS 110
178 The Learning Channel 119
179 Discovery Kids 110
180 ABC Family 119
181 Pax 119
182 The Discovery Channel 119
184 Animal Planet 119
185 The Hallmark Channel 110
186 National Geographic Channel 110
188 Soap Net 110
189 Discovery Health 119
191 Tech TV 119
192 Discovery Times 110
193 The Science Channel 110
194 Discovery Home & Leisure 110
195 Discovery Wings 110
200 CNN 119
202 CNN Headline News 119
203 Bloomberg TV 110
204 Court TV 119
205 Fox News Channel 119
206 CNN Financial/International 119
207 CNBC World 110
208 CNBC 119
209 MSNBC 119
210 C-SPAN 119
212 C-SPAN 2 119
213 Nasa TV 119
214 The Weather Channel 119
220 The Travel Channel 119
221 Men's Shopping 110
222 Home Shopping Network 119
223 Healthy Living Shopping 110
224 Shop At Home 110
225 Beauty & Fashion Shopping 119
226 QVC 119
227 Americas Collectibles Netwo 110
228 Shop NBC 119
229 iShop 110
230 TBS Superstation 119
232 KTLA (Los Angeles WB) 119
234 WPIX (New York City WB) 119
235 KWGN (Denver WB) 119
236 WSBK (Boston UPN) 119
238 WWOR (New York City UPN) 119
239 WGN 119
260 Trinity Broadcasting Network 119
261 EWTN 119
262 Angel One 119
264 Wisdom TV 110
300 HBO 119
301 HBO 2 119
302 HBO Signature 119
303 HBO (west) 119
304 HBO 2 (west) 119
305 HBO Family 119
307 HBO Comedy 110
309 HBO Latino 110
310 Cinemax 119
311 Cinemax (west) 119
312 Moremax 119
313 Actionmax 110
314 5Starmax 110
318 Showtime 119
319 Showtime (west) 119
320 Showtime Too 119
321 Showtime Showcase 110
322 Showtime Extreme 119
323 Showtime Beyond 110
327 The Movie Channel 119
328 The Movie Channel Xtra 119
329 The Movie Channel (west) 110
330 The Movie Channel Xtra (wes 110
332 Sundance Channel 119
333 Flix 119
340 Encore 119
341 Encore (west) 110
342 Encore Westerns 119
343 Encore Action 110
344 Encore Mystery 110
345 Encore True Stories 110
346 Encore Love Stories 110
347 Encore WAM 110
350 Starz 119
351 Starz (west) 110
352 Starz Theater 119
353 Starz Cinema 119
354 Starz Cinema (west) 110
355 Black Starz 119
356 Starz Family 119

401 The Golf Channel 110
402 NBA TV 110
405 TV Games 119
407 Gol TV 110
411 Fox Sports West 2 119
412 Madison Square Gardens 119
413 Fox Sports New York 119
414 Fox Sports Rocky Mountain 119
415 Fox Sports Arizona 119
416 Fox Sports Southwest 119
417 Fox Sports West 119
418 Fox Sports Midwest 119
419 Fox Sports Bay Area 119
420 Fox Sports South 119
421 Fox Sports Chicago 119
422 Sunshine Network 119
423 Fox Sports Florida 119
424 Comcast Sports Net Mid Atla 119
425 Fox Sports Ohio 119
426 Fox Sports Northwest 119
427 Fox Sports Cincinnati 119
428 Fox Sports Pittsburgh 119
430 Fox Sports Detroit 119
432 Empire Sports Network 119
434 New England Sports Network 119
435 Fox Sports New England 119
436 Fox Sports North 119
437 Turner South 110
445 Sports Alternate 1 119
446 Sports Alternate 2 119
447 Sports Alternate 3 110
448 Sports Alternate 4 110

450 Dish Network Sports Stop 110
455 PPV Sports 119
456 PPV Sports 110
457 PPV Sports 110
458 PPV Sports 110
459 PPV Sports 110
460 PPV Sports 110
461 PPV Sports 110
462 PPV Sports 110
463 PPV Sports 110
464 PPV Sports 110
465 PPV Sports 110
470 PPV Sports 61.5/148
471 PPV Sports 61.5/148
472 PPV Sports 61.5/148

490 Adult Guard Support 119
493 The Hot Zone 110
494 TEN Clips 110
495 The Erotic Network 119
496 TEN Xtasy 119
497 Playboy 119
498 Playboy en Español 110

500 Pay Per View Guide 110
501 Dish on Demand Preorder Eve 119
502 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 119
503 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
504 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
505 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
506 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
507 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
508 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
509 Dish on Demand (All Day) 119
510 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
511 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 119
512 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
513 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
514 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
515 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
516 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
517 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
518 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
519 Dish on Demand (All Day) 119
520 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
521 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
522 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
523 Dish on Demand (All Day, DD 110
524 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
525 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
526 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
527 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
528 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
529 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
530 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
531 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
532 Dish on Demand (All Day) 110
533 Dish on Demand (All Day) 61.5/148
538 Dish on Demand 110
539 Dish on Demand en Español 110

540 NHL Center Ice 110
560 NBA TV 110
561 NBA League Pass 110

580 International Promotional I61.5/148
581 Phoenix TV 61.5/148
582 China Central TV 4 61.5/148
587 Asia TV Home Channel 61.5/148
592 RTVi 61.5/148
593 RTVi Plus 61.5/148
594 HTB America 61.5/148
596 TV Globo 61.5/148
597 Record Internacional 61.5/148
600 RAI International 119
601 RAI International 61.5/148
602 MegaCosmos 61.5/148
603 ERT Sat 61.5/148
605 Antenna Satellite 61.5/148
606 TV 5 61.5/148
607 Polsat 2 61.5/148
609 TVN 24 61.5/148
610 Sun TV 61.5/148
611 Zee TV 61.5/148
613 TV Asia 61.5/148
614 Sony Entertainment TV 61.5/148
615 RTP Internacional 61.5
616 Prime TV 61.5/148
617 Zee Cinema 61.5/148
619 Bollywood 4U 61.5/148
640 TV Japan 61.5/148
642 ART 61.5/148
643 ART Movies 61.5/148
644 LBC 61.5/148
645 Al Jazeera 61.5/148
646 Egyptian Satellite Channel 61.5/148
647 Nile TV 61.5/148
648 Future TV 61.5/148
649 Dubai TV 61.5/148
650 SBS TV 61.5/148
651 MBN CNBC 61.5/148
652 iSkycom 61.5/148
653 Arirang TV 61.5/148
655 Radio Maria Spanish 61.5/148
656 The Israeli Network 61.5/148
658 Radio Maria Italy 61.5
660 Radio France Internationale61.5/148
664 Radio Maria Poland 61.5
665 Al Zikr 61.5/148
669 ART Music 61.5/148
678 BVN TV 61.5

825 TV Azteca 110
827 Univision 119
828 Univision (west) 110
830 Telefutura 110
831 Telefutura (west) 110
833 Galavision 119
835 Telemundo 110
836 Telemundo (west) 110
838 Mun2 110
840 TV Española 110
842 TV Chile 110
845 Discovery en Español 110
847 Toon Disney 119
853 Gol TV 110
855 Fox Sports World Español 110
857 SUR 110
859 CNN en Español 110
862 De Pelicula 110
863 De Pelicula Classico 110
865 Cine Latino 110
868 Telehit 110
870 HTV 110
872 MTV Español 110
874 Viva Mariachi (mono) 119
875 Fiesta Mexicana 119
876 Latin Styles 119
877 Miami Mix (mono) 119
878 Tejano (mono) 119
879 Latino Pop (mono) 119

923 Hitline (mono) 119
924 Hot FM (mono) 119
925 Expressions (mono) 119
926 Love Songs (mono) 119
927 All That Jazz (mono) 119
928 Moodscapes (mono) 119
929 New Orleans (mono) 119
930 Piano & Guitar (mono) 119
931 7890 - 4 Decades of Music ( 119
933 50's & 60's Hits (mono) 119
934 70's Hits (mono) 119
935 80's Hits (mono) 119
936 Beach Party (mono) 119
937 Country Music One (mono) 119
938 Urban Adult (mono) 119
939 Classic Soul (mono) 119
944 Italia (mono) 119
945 Tropical Breezes (mono) 119
946 Roadhouse (mono) 119
950 New Country 119
951 Country Classics 119
952 Country Currents 119
953 Jukebox Gold 119
954 70's Songbook 119
955 Adult Favorites 119
956 Adult Contemporary 119
957 Adult Alternative 119
958 Hot Hits 119
959 Classic Rock 119
960 Modern Rock Alternative 119
961 Power Rock 119
962 NuJazz 119
963 Urban Beat 119
964 Latin Styles 119
965 Fiesta Mexicana 119
966 Euro Style 119
967 Jazz Traditions 119
968 Contemporary Jazz Flavors 119
969 Acoustic Crossroads 119
970 Contemporary Instrumentals 119
971 Classical Ambience 119
972 Light Classical 119
973 Easy Instrumentals 119
974 Big Band Era 119
975 Contemporary Christian 119
976 Kids Tunes 119
977 New Age 119
978 Blues 119
979 Reggae 119
980 BYU Radio Network 119
981 Hawaiian Music 119

9400 Research Channel 110
9401 HITN 110
9402 PBS You 110
9403 BYU TV 110
9404 University of Washington TV 110
9405 Health TV 61.5/148
9406 Star Net 110
9407 Colours 110
9408 Daystar TV 110
9409 RFD TV 119
9410 Worldlink 110
9411 Northern Arizona University 119
9412 University of California TV 119
9413 Educating Everyone 61.5/148
9414 Family Net 61.5/148
9415 Free Speech TV 110
9416 Good Samaritan Network 61.5/148
9418 Panhandle Area Educational 61.5/148

9420 Discovery Theater HD 61.5/148
9425 HD Events 61.5/148
9428 Dish on Demand HD 61.5/148
9430 Showtime HD 61.5/148
9440 HBO HD 61.5/148
9443 Dish HD Demo Channel 61.5
9453 WCBS-DT 61.5
9454 KCBS-DT 148

9500 Dish Instant Weather 119

9601 Business TV 110
9602 Business TV 119
9611 Business TV 110
9612 Business TV 110
9622 Business TV 61.5/148
9641 Business TV 61.5/148

9900 What's on Dish 500? 110

Andre

25-07-2004, 10:39 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Jerrek
- Enterprise, Wednesday nights on UPN
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Is there a second (third?) season of Enterprise? Sadly with the demise of the Sci-Fi channel I don't know if we would even get to see it.

Jerrek

26-07-2004, 05:01 AM

Yes, the third season ended a few months ago. It was a huge Part1, Part2, ..., Part26 episode really. Quite good! Season 4 should start sometime in September and it is rumored it will cover the formation of the Federation. I'm looking forward to that.

ajax

26-07-2004, 07:54 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Yes, the third season ended a few months ago. It was a huge Part1, Part2, ..., Part26 episode really. Quite good! Season 4 should start sometime in September and it is rumored it will cover the formation of the Federation. I'm looking forward to that.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Maybe Action X will eventually get to it. They're currently screening season 1 (together with Voyager season 7 and DS9 season 6).

pat22

26-07-2004, 08:51 AM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by BTTB
 Well I was peeved with DSTV for canscelling the SCi Fi channel.

I emailed them that they could of easily dropped one of the many sports channels if money was a problem. I for one never watch sport on TV.

<hr noshade size="1">You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

DSTV are doubling the live Prem Soccer from England they show to 380 games over 3 seasons. Just imagine how the bill is going to rocket to pay for it.....

VQuest

26-07-2004, 09:12 AM

South African's and their sport [:(]

R379 wouldn't be so bad if there was actually more entertainment. Personally, it's not worth it for me. Cut down on the sport channels and give us some more movie channels. The channel I watch the most is the Series channel. And that drives me nuts because they repeat the programmes FOUR times a day?!?!

You can't win.

----------------
United we stand!
----------------

podo

26-07-2004, 09:16 AM

I have it for Discovery Channel, History Channel and the DMX music channels. Pretty much everything else is unwatchable. That which I do watch otherwise, like the F1 GP, is broadcast by the state monkeys anyway.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

TheVoice

26-07-2004, 01:16 PM

I usually watch movies over and over again on MM and MM2 if there's something decent on. Sometimes there's something good on Reality TV - mostly it's just Coppers these days, the rest seems to be the same old American police pursuits where the Yanks decide to ram someone off the road for speeding.

History and Discovery sometimes have decent stuff on but I've noticed they too are repeating stuff a lot now. Series is a bit crap these days, Spin City and Whose Line are about the only things worth watching, there's far too much old rubbish on there though.

Otherwise though, I'll just have the DMX Dance channel on in the background while I'm doing other stuff...but even that's become a bit crappy in the passt few weeks!

VQuest: I agree with you. A good feature would be to have the ability to suggest programmes or movies to show again on the channels like Series and MM. I mean, I could watch Snatch over and over again until my eyes bleed and still enjoy it, plus there's agood movie that was on a quite a while ago called Who Is Cletis Tout? but it seems there's no plan for it to be shown again.

If only DStv would listen to what the customers want instead of doing their own thing, like bringing in crappy African channels that few people are actually interested in, or Project Lame, which is just a complete waste of time, money and oxygen. Only a live-broadcast execution of the utterly talentless contestants would get me to watch it.

martin

26-07-2004, 02:06 PM

I got rid of my tv, best thing I ever did.

BTTB

26-07-2004, 04:10 PM

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">DSTV are doubling the live Prem Soccer from England they show to 380 games over 3 seasons. Just imagine how the bill is going to rocket to pay for it.....<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

I'm going to phone them asking if they could consider a bouquet without the sport channel.

Im still pissed off about the Sci Fi channel.

<hr noshade size="1">You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.

playkiller no.2

26-07-2004, 04:29 PM

Why could they not drop CCTV none of us Speak Chinese.

Cartoon Network is nothing but repeat,repeat repeat.............DIE TOPCRAP.

TheVoice

26-07-2004, 05:04 PM

"I'm going to phone them asking if they could consider a bouquet without the sport channel."

I agree with that - if a sport addict wants the sport channels he should have to pay for them while we don't. Same goes for all the African crap and all the foreign channels that aren't on their own "bouquets", if you want the Chinese or Dutch channels then buy them, I don't see why we should have to put up with it or pay for it.

Leave like one or two sports channels (like they do elsewhere in the world) just for those times when they're actually wanted, but have 7 or 9 or however many there are is just stupid.

Why don't they drop the Travel Channel? I've never, ever watched it (other than for a few seconds), and I've enver seen or heard about anyone else watching it either. But no, instead they get rid of a channel they're too lazy to improve (sci-Fi), regardless of the fact that people actually watch it.

BTTB

26-07-2004, 05:35 PM

I'm glad someone else thinks that a separation of the sports channels is a feasible idea.

<hr noshade size="1">You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.

Chris

26-07-2004, 06:08 PM

Guys are you freaks or anything???

I mean you don't watch SPORT???
It's the BEST thing in the world and F1 Grand Prix, Rugby, Cricket and Athens 2004!!!
These are great sport channels AND the are live and REAL unlike the movies, which are fake and most of them are trash e.g American Pie Series, Scary movie series.

REMEMBER THIS IS MY OPINION

Cloud

26-07-2004, 07:46 PM

Yo, i watch sport too and really appreciate the coverage that we get here. I mean they show UEFA games, La Liga, the Premier League etc.

I love sport, and btw, soccer is the worlds most popular sport and we are hosting the world cup in 2010. The more soccer we get to see the better.

deal with it.

VQuest

26-07-2004, 08:20 PM

I was patiently waiting for the pro-sports comments to arrive and finally they have. No one said do away with all the sports channels. In my opinion they have too many sports channels as apposed to movie and other entertainment channels. Remember before the days of DSTV the non sports lovers couldn't watch TV on the weekends because all we had on were sports.

Wouldn't it be great if DSTV let us choose which channels we could view? Well, at least gave us a better choice of channels.

I personally didn't watch the Sci Fi channel much, so I haven't been directly affected, but I fully feel for everyone else who loved it. We need more entertainment channels (full stop).

----------------
United we stand!
----------------

BTTB

26-07-2004, 08:59 PM

Many people bought into DSTV, just because of the Sports Channels. I’m fully aware of this fact.
I was raising the point that by cancelling the only Sci Fi Channel, without consulting with anyone isn’t fair. I mean their was only one anyway. One Channel people? Let’s be reasonable.
But on the other hand their are several sports channels. How many sports channels can you watch at once??? Maybe I shouldn't ask a question like that, but you can get my point. Hehe.

And yes, some people in this world don't watch sport on TV.
Besides until DSTV stopped the Sci Fi channel, I didn't give the sports channels much thought as in the reasons given by DSTV (Multichoice), that the Sci Fi channel was cancelled due to financial reasons. It had my mind thinking, as in 7 or 8 sports channels can't cost 2c.

Well that’s my 2c.[:)]

<hr noshade size="1">You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.

TheVoice

26-07-2004, 09:30 PM

Only sport I ever watch is motorsport - F1, rally, touring cars etc - anything else and I'm completely uninterested.

And eugh, please don't call it soccer, it's FOOTBALL! :p

BTTB

26-07-2004, 09:38 PM

Football, soccer, i don't care. They should give each fellow in the team his own ball and then they needn't have to dribble each other for the one ball. [:p]

DSTV, should just reinstate the channels the way they were and be done with it. I'd hate to get the sporty folk upset. And in future make more informed choices in channel selection. Like consult their customer base for one.

<hr noshade size="1">You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.

Chris

27-07-2004, 12:39 PM

There are lots of sports on the at the same time that's why there are more sports channels.

Also I'm *sure* that more people watch sport which means more advetsining and to cater for that, they more channels

ajax

27-07-2004, 01:10 PM

I don't think they'd consider a system where one can choose channels and only pay accordingly. The problem is MNET on its own costs nearly R200 pm. So any boquet will have to be more expensive than just MNET alone, otherwise the MNET only subscribers will complain or they'd have to drop MNET's price.

VQuest

27-07-2004, 02:22 PM

ajax, you're spot on there. In my mind they should have one set price, as they do now, but they should let you choose say 50 channels out of a choice of 100. That means although you only have 50 channels, they will be what you want to see.

My biggest complaint with DSTV is the fact that they have lots and lots of channels, but only a few of them are watchable. Now I know they are trying to cater for everyone, which is a good thing, but everyone I've spoken to says the same thing - the majority of DSTV channels are pathetic.

I guess we should count our blessings - before Mnet and DSTV, what did we have? I shudder to remember those days.

----------------
United we stand!
----------------

podo

27-07-2004, 05:04 PM

The problem is, they're not really trying to cater for anyone. The few watchable channels on the network are only there to keep geeks at bay, otherwise we might just all cancel our service entirely.

Mainly, MultiChoice are trying to target those markets that are most easily susceptible to advertising and have the most spending power. Channels like MTV, Go and the utterly useless Project Fame (through INVASIVE product placement) peddle garbage to the teen market, while the sports channels peddle equally useless garbage to the below average intelligence market, the most lucrative, while channels with lots of soppy soap trash, like BBC Prime and Hallmark, are often used to push products for women. It's all about how much money they can make, advertising is big revenue.

The Sci-Fi channel wasn't economically viable, not in their opinion anyway. No marketing people wanted to advertise there anymore, because all their research showed that advertising on the Sci-Fi channel didn't work. That's because advertising doesn't work on geeks. Expect Discovery and History to go the same way in the near future, since they don't seem to have much advertising left either, again, because nobody wants to try to sell anything to a geek, simply because it doesn't work.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

BTTB

27-07-2004, 06:00 PM

A sobering independent point of view.

Well, I'd hate to think of myself as a geek for one even if I like Sci Fi, but I get your point. I for one, never watch adverts on TV. If adverts come up, I switch over to another channel straight away.
If Multichoice were to abandon the Discovery and History Channels, I would definitely start spending more time on other things. I might possibly even cancel DSTV. But that would have to go through the wife first anyway. Hehe.

But still I’m really peeved at Multichoice for doing what they did.

I phoned Multichoice today about 2 matters. I wanted firstly to buy a copy of a program screened last night, 26 July 2004 on Channel 67 at 9.00pm, called the Natural World, Animal Planet Wildlife Series,The Secret Garden. They referred me to overseas and they couldn't help.
I then asked the lady who I could talk to about the Sci Fi channel. She eventually put me on hold and I sat like kippie waiting for a answer. I had to put the phone down and never got anywhere with my enquiry.
I wonder if Sentech farms out ORCs to Multichoice. One scratch against Multichoice in my books.

<hr noshade size="1">You can take Telkom out of the Post Office but you can't take the Post Office out of Telkom.

podo

28-07-2004, 09:53 AM

BTTB,

I never intended to insult any one by referring to us all as geeks. A geek, in my opinion, which is more or less in line with the opinion of Slashdot, is anyone who:

a) possesses an above average intelligence,
b) chooses to apply that intelligence and
c) does not respond well to marketing of any kind

From this, I think most of us who participate in the forums can be defined as geeks. Please note the distinction between geeks and nerds: Nerds are the funny looking fellows who always have at least 7 large books with them and think a threesome is some sort of tripple-variable mathematical equation. Geeks, on the other hand, are the cool, yet often misunderstood and ostracized, highly intelligent minority, which is present in all societies. Geeks are the people who, ever generations, have been responsible for progressive thinking, science, great literature and generally helped to steer humanity in the right direction to build the world we know today.

The world might have been a lot different today, were it not for these great geeks leaving their stamp on it:

Gallileo Gallilei,
Sir Isac Newton,
Gottlieb Daimler,
Charles Babbage,
Dennis Ritchie,
Sir Tim Berners-Lee

Some of these names are extremely famous, and some of them, have faded into obscurity, yet, without these people, we would not have space travel, computers, cars, or in the case of the last great geek, the world wide web, so, we would not have this forum.

Anyway, I am going dangerously off topic with this. Basically though, from what I see DStv to be doing, it appears that they are not, as they claim, catering for all tastes. Since the highly intelligent are a minority everywhere, why should they waste their time keeping us happy? We don't watch advertising, so they don't make money from entertaining us anyway.

As for Discovery and History, we have long decided that if they should drop either, or drop any of the classical music stations on DMX, or drop the DMX jazz station, we are cancelling. Not that MultiChoice would care, what's the contempt of a few geeks, compared to the revenue they make from placing Trojan condoms in Project Fame, making the brainless adolescent population of South Africa believe that if they use Trojan, not only will they not get AIDS (you're still at risk, by the way), but they will also be famous, just like the famous people who **** with Trojans.

Willie Viljoen
Web Developer

Adaptive Web Development

Pizzaman

15-08-2004, 02:03 AM

I agree, DSTV has degraded… especially the late night movies on weekends. If it’s not some Z-grade Soft Porn, then it’s another repeat of some really stupid movie. I rather spend time on the Net than having to torture myself watching things like: Project who can sing worse or the Jerry Springer Circus. Anyhow, if I don’t like public channels and I don’t like DSTV/MNet, whom else can I go to? Guess no one. Smells like another monopoly to me.

mbs

15-08-2004, 03:27 PM

Here's a heads-up for all those who are currently highly frustrated with the D-amn-S-tink-TV offerings we have: do a mindset change and fall back onto that old faithful mechanism that still keeps people entertained, irrespective of location, power supply, condition of weather or wife, etc. - read a good book!! [:p][:p]