Comments on: Dish drops unpopular Voom HD channels

Satellite TV broadcaster Dish Network has dropped the 15 specialty Voom channels from its high-definition lineup.

[dumbdish]

Unfortunately, I'm a Dish Network subscriber. The only reason I went with Dish Network over DirectTV was because they offered specialized channels that DiretTV didn't. MonstersHD, Filmfest, and KungFuHD were awesome commercial free movie channels. Sure maybe everyone doesn?t watch those channels, but it was something that made them unique. Personally, their other offerings that make them unique aren?t really all that great. The DVR is mediocre at best compared to using a Tivo DVR. Removing those channels makes the decision a no brainer; everyone should drop Dish and move over to DirectTV. DirectTV now has way more HD channels than Dish. In my opinion, this has got to be a complete revenue move. They?ve removed channels that showed commercial free movies, and they have added garbage cable channels. Channels that I wouldn?t have watched to begin with, but now they are in HD. Dish now has absolutely nothing that DirectTV doesn?t already have. Great move Dish, I was once praising what you had to offer and tried to get more people to subscribe, but now I can?t wait until my contract is up. Needless to say, the next opportunity that I have, I?ll be dropping Dish Network.

[Upset_about_DishNetwork]

I'm right along with all of your. the deception that DishNetwork has shown is horrible, then to call us CSR who says.... If I understand you correctly, you are missing the Voom Channels, is that correct ??? I'm told the CSR will research and be back with me. Then I get placed on hold for 5 minutes to have the CSR come back and POLITELY inform me, those channels are no longer being provided. This specific CSR offered to lower my bill by $ 10.00 a month for the next 6 months.... I first agreed, then found out on Dishnetwork web site that the larger package of HD content was only going to include 7 channels.... 3, i could care less about, 2, I would have liked to have kept and 2 that I had not even tuned to yet.

It would be one thing if the channels that dishnetwork added ACTUALLY had HD content, that would be one thing, but to add "stretch-o-vision" and plaster that stoopid HD logo everywhere is another thing. Yes Voom had Monsters HD, but it was/is good NO COMMERCIAL television... again "pumped" up but none the less good programming on a specific title.

I then called back , after sending a few emails voicing my concers over losing all the Voom Channels and what was actually watched on each of them and I was told that I had been compensated with the addition of the "NEW" HD channels to make up for that. Yes I was then told that a survey had been conduced and they, dishnetwork, found that subscribers were wanting other channels. I simply said... was I included in that survey ?? They told me, no it was just from caller input... I ask... did you ever ONCE think that if I subscribed to the VOOM channels and if I was unhappy, I would not have called you ? Maybe that was a error on my part... I should have called everyday THANKING them for the wonderful VooM package. And the CSR heard that from my lips. To think of all the times I should have/could have called complaining about the sports on Dishnetwork ( no no no, don't wanna hear from the guys watching sports all the time, but u know what I mean )

Once again i fired off emails and called CSR... this time.... to actually be connected with someone on "this side of the world" who actually understood my concern and said she had been taking complaints all day. I ask her why from several lines up I was given $10.00 off for 6 months and she could not give me an answer. I told her that previously I was told that a survey had been conduced. All she could tell me was they had taken complaints about the programming that was offered and VOOM was one of the complaints. I fluffed that one off as well, still boiling that the channels were gone to read elsewhere that DirectTV mite be picking them up.. So... silly me... called DirecTV who was more than happy to lead me into their cult and want to sign me up. I told him what I was currently paying Dish... 138.00 a month with 2 receivers.... a 301 ( which I purchased on my own for over 250.00 and a VIP222... he said WOW we'd never charge that much for those and could give u DVR service as well..... and gave me the run down. ( Didn't tell him that I had 2 Direct TV receivers in my closet that we also paid for out of pocket over 200.00 each ) So once again... I called Dish and connected to someone on this side of the world again... I was offered a DVR free of charge with installation and set up all our TV''s. I did this time think to ask for the CSR user ID and extension # and a phone # to call him at, which to my suprize, he did provide... I've not tried it yet tho...

I called again today, just to see if anything new had been happening with restoring the Voom Networks... and low and behold... once again was connected with someone on this side of the world.... Perhaps my # is flagged and won't go overseas... All the finer for me.

I'm still thinking about turning off all HD channels and getting rid of the VIP222 receiver. Hummm, I live in town.... I've not yet experienced cable... mite even give that a shot if this does not work out....

BTW: been watching satelite TV since about 1978... still have the old C-Band satellite in the garage and have a KU band satellite set up in the back yard rite now... pole compliments of dishnetwork when I had to abandon that Dish 500 for another one planted on my garage

Sorry to ramble so much.... but I think we all have the same frustration..

[dumbdish]

Unfortunately, I'm a Dish Network subscriber. The only reason I went with Dish Network over DirectTV was because they offered specialized channels that DiretTV didn't. MonstersHD, Filmfest, and KungFuHD were awesome commercial free movie channels. Sure maybe everyone doesn?t watch those channels, but it was something that made them unique. Personally, their other offerings that make them unique aren?t really all that great. The DVR is mediocre at best compared to using a Tivo DVR. Removing those channels makes the decision a no brainer; everyone should drop Dish and move over to DirectTV. DirectTV now has way more HD channels than Dish. In my opinion, this has got to be a complete revenue move. They?ve removed channels that showed commercial free movies, and they have added garbage cable channels. Channels that I wouldn?t have watched to begin with, but now they are in HD. Dish now has absolutely nothing that DirectTV doesn?t already have. Great move Dish, I was once praising what you had to offer and tried to get more people to subscribe, but now I can?t wait until my contract is up. Needless to say, the next opportunity that I have, I?ll be dropping Dish Network.

[dumbdish]

Unfortunately, I'm a Dish Network subscriber. The only reason I went with Dish Network over DirectTV was because they offered specialized channels that DiretTV didn't. MonstersHD, Filmfest, and KungFuHD were awesome commercial free movie channels. Sure maybe everyone doesn?t watch those channels, but it was something that made them unique. Personally, their other offerings that make them unique aren?t really all that great. The DVR is mediocre at best compared to using a Tivo DVR. Removing those channels makes the decision a no brainer; everyone should drop Dish and move over to DirectTV. DirectTV now has way more HD channels than Dish. In my opinion, this has got to be a complete revenue move. They?ve removed channels that showed commercial free movies, and they have added garbage cable channels. Channels that I wouldn?t have watched to begin with, but now they are in HD. Dish now has absolutely nothing that DirectTV doesn?t already have. Great move Dish, I was once praising what you had to offer and tried to get more people to subscribe, but now I can?t wait until my contract is up. Needless to say, the next opportunity that I have, I?ll be dropping Dish Network.

[Ksal005]

The one thing Dish has a is a decent DVR. I'm a Directv subscriber and my HD-DVR totally blows. It's still full of bugs. The recent SW updates have not fixed most of the issues. I'm used to the shotty behavior of my DVR and it's not just my particular DVR as I've seen similar issues on the forums at Dbstalk. Again, I'm used to it but the DVR is far from being fixed. So sad. DTV should have never left TiVo.

[holekow]

I have A Dish Network VIP622 HDDVR I is a large unit that runs hot, putting out a lot of heat. It is very noisy and will wake me up in the middle of the night when it updates the programming. Its a loud whirring hard drive. Sometimes it will not record the end of the movie because its not in synch with the programming. Very dissapointing to watch a movie for two hours and the end it cut off. This is a 2 receiver unit but if you are recording you can watch a different channel on the other receiver? I won't be missing this junk. Dish has torn it for me.

[DishUser]

I have to agree with "Dumbdish" about this decision...Monsters HD, Gameplay, KungFu...where else can you find that programming in HD and commercial free. I am in a condo building so I have choices when it comes to service providers. So why should I stay with a company that has limited HD offerings and now little to no distinctiveness to its line-up? Such a huge disappointment!

A Note to Charles Ergen, CEO: You really should have looked at this in a broader context than simply number of people watching a channel. You are giving away your competitive advantage by eliminating these channels.

Now you will try to compete on the same playing field DirectTV owns...and you are nowhere near their level of offerings. Rather than trying to look and feel like your competition, you should have been highlighting what makes you unique. Now I am just disappointed with the same-old-programming I can get anywhere. And frankly, I can get more of it from another provider. Not a winning strategy, Charles.

[swiggins]

What a shame. Unless they are monitoring your set top box and know for sure what IS and ISN"T being watched, they better be dammed sure that they are making the right move, . . I will be losing my subscription after this month sue to their decision

[usedmachineman]

Very disappointed long time dish network customer. EquatorHD was an awesome channel. Really enjoyed the hour long fly over specials of many countries. Gave us a whole new perspective about Europe. Rave had some excellent musical concerts in 5.1 surround. Wife enjoyed the fashion channel Ultra. The best part of watching these was the lack of commercials. Several of the new channels are loaded with irritating commercials. Will truly miss the Voom programming. Will think hard about making a change to Direct TV.

[addiesanti]

My husband is very upset, he only watches the channels that were dropped from dish. when I asked them why they said that the voom network and rave were not popular when survied. Who filled these out, I didn't know about it. They say they are offering better channels and more HD? Ya, then where is it? We just got Dish network 4 mo. ago! They sold us on these networks and now they take them away because they say they are not popular. Man, my hope is that more people cancel Dish network for that reason and show them what was popular. I just can't believe that at all. BRING BACK VOOM AND RAVE!

[Michael.Fuchs]

RIGHT ON!!!!! I MISS VOOM, ESPECIALLY ULTRA. WHAT ARE WE TO DO????????
I HAVE COMPLAINED BY PHONE AND E-MAIL MANY TIMES -TO NO AVAIL. WHAT CAN WE DO-THEY TELL ME THAT VOOM WILL NEVER RETURN. HOW WILL WE KNOW IF SOME OTHER SERVICE CARRIES VOOM IN FLORIDA? I AM SO SO SO MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!

[morleyds]

Oh man that's horrible. I loved those Voom channels and I've long thought that to be a very unique differentiator for Dish Network. I can not believe they are killing those channels to add CNN and CNBC. What a rip!

[stevenww]

I am so upset tonight when I found all Voom HD Channels are suddenly gone from my Dish programs. It is terrible move and weird action of Dish. If it is good and popular choice, why did not Dish send out letter to notify customers about the "smart" decision in advance? The kick-ass CEO thought he could make some money by replacing with cheap and junk HD Channels, but he did not realize his act cut off Dish head, push cutomers out of door. He does not understand what HD TV customers really want. "You're fired!"
I called Dish customer service short time ago. She told me there are lots of customer complaints, and she would pass the messages to Dish management. I hope Dish will reverse its decision soon. Until then I will cancel my HD Channels from Dish package. I would rather save a few dollars than waste my time on the junks.

[krosavcheg]

Look, Voom is on its way out for one reason: THEY HAVE DIVERSE CONTENT. Almost everything you see on cable is an aggregate of big media and thus anything like Voom is a threat to their bandwidth hogging monopoly on content. It's not just about money, it's about predictive control over the way the market evolves (or devolves in this case).

DishNetwork KNEW this would p*** off customers.....don't think for one minute that they really believed their bait and switch with the new channel offerings would go unnoticed. It is their firm intention that every channel you see on their network is EXACTLY the same as the competition, because these people do not care about moving the content market forward (which would entail more risk than simply matching derivatives and trying to push up the number of subscribers).

Also, the long term outlook for Dish is that they will merge with DirecTV to stave off FiOS and cable advances. Usually when Murdoch's empire is threatened, he simply tries to eat another company, and there's no reason to expect that Dish fails to see the writing on the wall and wants to position for a future sale.

Finally, if Voom survives at all it will be through IPTV distros (the future of all TV anyway) and international markets. The content producers in the US have been under the influence of fascist elements for a long time now, and although Voom was a well intentioned experiment to make a buck off content diversity, it's not wanted here; Not because people wouldn't watch it (bored, distracted f**** will watch almost anything), but because it makes the job of predicting what people will appreciate a LOT harder.

[sheph3]

What a bunch of crap. This is all over a power play between Voom and Dish. It has bupkas to do with what's popular. Dish is mad because Voom didn't spend as much money on content as they should have. Grounds for some sort of finanacial wrangling? Sure, but to drop their content all together was stupid, irresponsible, and a disservice to the ones paying for the content (hint: it's your customers stupid). Corporate liars. Oh it's going to be so much more exciting to watch the Weather Channel in HD instead of live concerts, and action like KungFU. I think I'll go home and make some popcorn. MORONS. Better yet I think I'll go home and cancel my service.

[voom withdrawl]

Like everyone else, I am upset with Dish's decision to drop those wonderful channels. When I called Dish last night they were giving out the party line about more channels being added but they are not commercial free and are not of the quality of the Voom suite of programming. But, what to do? Is going with DirecTV the way to go? They don't have Voom and what are the chances of them being added? Anybody have any insight? I did read an article today that Amazon.com will be selling some Voom programs starting this summer.

[voom withdrawl]

Like everyone else, I am upset with Dish's decision to drop those wonderful channels. When I called Dish last night they were giving out the party line about more channels being added but they are not commercial free and are not of the quality of the Voom suite of programming. But, what to do? Is going with DirecTV the way to go? They don't have Voom and what are the chances of them being added? Anybody have any insight? I did read an article today that Amazon.com will be selling some Voom programs starting this summer.

[hapwill]

I have been with DishTV for more than 6 years. When i decided to update my equipment to HD I stayed with Dish BECAUSE they carried the VoomHD channels. I know there are problems with the DirecTV DVR, and it will cost me around 170$ to cancel with DishTV (due to my current agreement with them), but sometimes the only thing a consumer can do to protest is give their dollars to someone else. There is nothing on DishTV now that I actually watch that I cannot get with DirecTV and I no longer am willing to "trust" corporate at DishTV to add anything that won't also be on or added to DirecTV over the next year or so. So as soon as I get my rebate check I am going to pay the early cancel penalty with Dish and make the switch to Direct. (Thing is that I would have agreed to pay Dish MORE money each month to get VoomHD as a "premium HD" tier - (even beyond their current "ultimate" tier) now they will lose more than $1600 from me over the next 18 months even though they will get an up front cancellation fee of around $170 (less than two months service for the level of programming that i currently have.)

Actually they will lose more as I plan on keeping Sat service as long as it is available and I am alive. And in addition, my son and his family were planning on getting Sat service as soon as they pay off their mortgage (2 months to go!) So Dish is losing a long term customer who carried the everything package AND a new subscriber as well.

[hapwill]

I have been with DishTV for more than 6 years. When i decided to update my equipment to HD I stayed with Dish BECAUSE they carried the VoomHD channels. I know there are problems with the DirecTV DVR, and it will cost me around 170$ to cancel with DishTV (due to my current agreement with them), but sometimes the only thing a consumer can do to protest is give their dollars to someone else. There is nothing on DishTV now that I actually watch that I cannot get with DirecTV and I no longer am willing to "trust" corporate at DishTV to add anything that won't also be on or added to DirecTV over the next year or so. So as soon as I get my rebate check I am going to pay the early cancel penalty with Dish and make the switch to Direct. (Thing is that I would have agreed to pay Dish MORE money each month to get VoomHD as a "premium HD" tier - (even beyond their current "ultimate" tier) now they will lose more than $1600 from me over the next 18 months even though they will get an up front cancellation fee of around $170 (less than two months service for the level of programming that i currently have.)

Actually they will lose more as I plan on keeping Sat service as long as it is available and I am alive. And in addition, my son and his family were planning on getting Sat service as soon as they pay off their mortgage (2 months to go!) So Dish is losing a long term customer who carried the everything package AND a new subscriber as well.

[hapwill]

I have been with DishTV for more than 6 years. When i decided to update my equipment to HD I stayed with Dish BECAUSE they carried the VoomHD channels. I know there are problems with the DirecTV DVR, and it will cost me around 170$ to cancel with DishTV (due to my current agreement with them), but sometimes the only thing a consumer can do to protest is give their dollars to someone else. There is nothing on DishTV now that I actually watch that I cannot get with DirecTV and I no longer am willing to "trust" corporate at DishTV to add anything that won't also be on or added to DirecTV over the next year or so. So as soon as I get my rebate check I am going to pay the early cancel penalty with Dish and make the switch to Direct. (Thing is that I would have agreed to pay Dish MORE money each month to get VoomHD as a "premium HD" tier - (even beyond their current "ultimate" tier) now they will lose more than $1600 from me over the next 18 months even though they will get an up front cancellation fee of around $170 (less than two months service for the level of programming that i currently have.)

Actually they will lose more as I plan on keeping Sat service as long as it is available and I am alive. And in addition, my son and his family were planning on getting Sat service as soon as they pay off their mortgage (2 months to go!) So Dish is losing a long term customer who carried the everything package AND a new subscriber as well.

[jetdoc3037]

Dropping UNPOPULAR voom channels? Thats BS, all of those channels were very popular. Most of the posts here reflect that opinion. I knw me and my family loved most of those 10 UNPOPULAR channels.

As other posters have said, Voom was the main reason I kept Dish over Direct....I do not have a contract anylonger, I will be dropping Dish in short order.

I loved the monster channel, and Equator was the best. I can't believe this has happened, too bad Dish doens't care.

[bdgold84]

Unpopular, huh? So we're forced to accept this bait-and-switch tactic on the specious notion that these channles were UNPOPULAR? Give me a break! How the heck do they know they were unpopular? I was never asked by a survey what channles I like to watch. Were you? As far as I'm concerned, those channels gave Dish Network an edge in uniqeness as a satellite TV provider. As a direct result of this questionable (or even downright poor) decision on the part of Charlie Ergen and company to remove these channels from their HD line-up, much of that uniqueness is now gone. I for one enjoyed the programming on many of these channels, and found it refreshing that great programming was NOT CONSTANTLY DISRUPTED BY COMMERCIALS! If DirecTV ever gets to produce the same kind of multi-room receivers as Dish Network, it may be time to switch.

[FTBLMom61782]

I can honestly say that 75-80 % of my viewing was VOOM channels. I've been with Dish since 9/01 and endured too much BS. This move with VOOM is the last straw. VOOM was the ONLY reason I stayed with DishNetwork. My hope is the outrage this is creating with dish customers will have 2 results.. A- dish customers finally leave ol' Charlie as high and dry as he left them.... and B- more providers will offer VOOM and their HIGH quality HD content ... I like satellite, but will consider cable if I can get VOOM again
DishNetwork's claim to be improving the HD experience insults the intelligence of their customers... I've had all the Disney channels for years.... giving me one in HD is rediculous... Goof Troop sucked when it was premiered 15 yrs ago... stretching it and adding the HD icon isn't fooling me into thinking you've showered me with fabulous NEW content... Don't P#%$ on my leg and tell me it's raining
Dish dropped the ball and customers will be dropping the service