Missing Channels on NTL Digital

mike65 · 03-02-2002 12:08am #1

Christ! What is the problem with these people?

First they ditch Eurosport on analogue then it goes missing on digital, also Men and Motors has disapeared. Last night
The Studio was in very poor shape with the signal breaking up.

I dunno why we bother...:mad:

Mike.

Mountjoy Mugger · 03-02-2002 12:22am

Yeah - noticed the Eurosport problem today too, Mike. I mailed their Press Officer quoting part of her press release and asked her to comment on it. I'll hopefully hear something on Monday.

I don't watch M&M, so hadn't noticed.

mike65 · 03-02-2002 12:36am

MM,
Do you have the e-mail for customer support/service, I've tried
customer.support@ntl.ie and customer.service@ntl.ie
neither work and I feel the need to give someone a tongue lashing right now!

Mike.

Mountjoy Mugger · 03-02-2002 1:19am

Hmm - according to their website, the address is Customer.Support@ntl.ie

mike65 · 03-02-2002 5:50pm

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at relay07.indigo.ie.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

<customer.service@ntl.ie>:
Sorry, I couldn't find any host named ntl.ie. (#5.1.2)

They could'nt run a piss up in a brewery.

Mike.

patrickmooney · 03-02-2002 6:51pm

Just been onto NTL, Cust Care Rep Mark infomed me EUROSPORT has been removed from all NTL systems, including GoDigital. Although the press release on http://www.ntl.com/locales/ie/en/press/display.asp?id=531
states that :

" This channel is replacing Eurosport in the Basic TV Pack in analogue and continues to be available in digital "

Whats going on NTL.........

mike65 · 03-02-2002 7:40pm

Maybe its time for an on-line petiton, not for Eurosport but to get rid of NTL!

Mike.

Oh yes, Welcome on-board!

Mountjoy Mugger · 05-02-2002 11:27am

Funnily enough there was an item on Marian Finnucane this morning concerning Eurosport and NTL. Some guy called Mark was on.

I emailed in this morning, commenting on the oddness of the press release telling us that Eurosport was remaining on digital, when in fact they had pulled the plug on it there too.

Mark said that was incorrect - no such a thing was ever stated. (So much for sending the URL to RTE - they never followed up).

What he did say however was that NTL were in negotiations with Eurosport with a view to allowing NTL carry the station on Digital.

patrickmooney · 05-02-2002 5:32pm

Well the text from the press release has changed to the following:

"This channel is replacing Eurosport in the Basic TV Pack in analogue. "

Now there is no mention of it staying on with Digital, in fact it doesn't mention Digtial at all only the analogue basic pack. Thus you could still assume it's still available on the digital basic pack.

The annoying fact is that the statement only says that CNBC is replacing it.....but us Digital Customers already have CNBC....and it certainly hasn't replaced it on ch114......

mike65 · 05-02-2002 7:48pm

I heard that chat on Marian Finnucanes prog, and it seems alot of peeps are mightly pissed-off with NTLs decision, the first I heard of the change was on this board. Mark Mahon said they'd been running ads for the last 2 weks on the Irish Channels plus Sky One and News, which explains why I did'nt know sooner.

As I have digital I can only hope Eurosport decides to stay in the Irish market, but what the channel and NTL should have done is market the channel in the first place, in would have been in both thier interests.

As for CNBC its fine to dip into but as soon as the American markets kick in and all those blokes with names like Brad and women with huge hair take over its time to bale out!

Mike.

Mountjoy Mugger · 05-02-2002 8:23pm

Right

I mailed the press Office last week, and haven't had the courtesy of an acknowledgement. So, I ran this off a few minutes ago and hit the send button.

Dear Ms. Barry,

Many thanks for ignoring my mail.

I'm pleased to see you've changed the text of the Press Release dated 25th
January without changing the date.

It's so like NTL.

I'm cc'ing this to RTE as a matter of information. Maybe this will spark a
reply.

Regards

.....

cc'ed to marian@rte.ie

Original Message

To: <anna-maria.barry@ntl.com>
Subject: CNBC to replace Eurosport

> In your press release referring to the above, may I quote:
>
> "NTL Ireland has announced that from February 1st 2002, NTL customers in
> Dublin, Galway and Waterford will receive CNBC Europe 24 hours a day. This
> channel is replacing Eurosport in the Basic TV Pack in analogue and
> continues to be available in digital. "
>
> I'm a digital subscriber, and was somewhat amazed to see that in fact the
> press release was incorrect. Channel 114 which carried Eurosport here in
> Dublin has now been removed.
>
> Comments?
>
> Yours etc..

DMC · 06-02-2002 12:47pm

Well I just heard the end of Marian today, and she certainly seems to be picking up the ball and running with it!!

Campaigning journalism.... cant beat it!

Mountjoy Mugger · 06-02-2002 1:47pm

I missed that, Damo. Can you supply the highlights?

DMC · 06-02-2002 3:57pm

Erm, cant remember much really, I was half awake
She mentioned that a fair few folk have contacted them since yesterday..... mmmmmm still in bed at 10am....

icdg · 06-02-2002 10:29pm

I've updated the site with the latest on this. Certainly NTL should do some explaining on why they never announced Eurosport would be dropped from Go Digital, indeed they initally implied it would stay on...

BTW, I see some of you are Go Digital subscribers, could you please email me the latest channel list icdg@oceanfree.net .

Marconi · 07-02-2002 10:02am

For anyone interested in listening to the NTL/Eurosport debate on the Marian Finucane show in the past few days go to the archive at

http://www.radio1.ie/morning/marianfinucane/

select "Tuesday" (it's at the very start - angry viewers and NTL spokesman)

then,

select "Wednesday" (it's near the end - a spokesman from Eurosport being interviewed)

Interesting stuff!

By the way, you'll need Realplayer.

apiou · 07-02-2002 10:27am

NTL seems to change from one minute to the next - They also took off the French channel TV5 during the day time without bothering a know who watched. it. Does anyone know what they are up to.

Washout · 07-02-2002 10:34am

Originally posted by apiou
Does anyone know what they are up to.

I doubt they even know what they are up to themselves.

patrickmooney · 07-02-2002 3:48pm

Chris Barry discussed this issue last nite for about an hour. I rang in..but alas didn't get a call back to be put on air

Updated: Just noticed since posting earlier today, NTL have republished the origional press release online. It's back to saying EuroSport "continues to be available in digital"

icdg · 07-02-2002 7:23pm

Just to update people further, Broadcast have apparently solved the mystery : its' NTL trying to force Eurosport to give them a cheaper carrige fee. Maybe it'll be back if they reduce the fee.

Their other theory is that they are trying to force people to upgrade to digital. For the vast majority of NTL Ireland viewers, the only way to upgrade to digital is to get Sky however...

Mountjoy Mugger · 08-02-2002 1:11pm

Originally posted by patrickmooney
Updated: Just noticed since posting earlier today, NTL have republished the origional press release online. It's back to saying EuroSport "continues to be available in digital"

I got a mail from their Press Office.

I misread the release, much the same as everyone else it seems.

This channel is replacing Eurosport in the Basic TV Pack in analogue and continues to be available in digital

The "This channel" referred to is in fact, CNBC.

DMC · 08-02-2002 2:10pm

That's a bit ambiguous... I can see how you misread that..

Mutor_CS · 15-02-2002 11:58am

This confused me for a while, I had to read it quite a few times... ok here goes...

"NTL Ireland has announced that from February 1st 2002, NTL customers in Dublin, Galway and Waterford will receive CNBC Europe 24 hours a day. This channel is replacing Eurosport in the Basic TV Pack in analogue and continues to be available in digital. "

So it says: yada yada CNBC is replacing Eurosport.... This channel (i.e. CNBC) continues to be available in digital.

It doesn't say Eurosport continues to be available in digital. I wish it did.
I sent a very snotty letter to ntl and got back the normal PR cut and paste. I've never had a good customer experience with them

Can someone tell me if ntl GoDigital includes the current ntl analog channels. Meaning can I dump my analog connection and just use digital alone? Is that €12.70 a month or do they still charge the analog fee and add €12.70?

apiou · 15-02-2002 2:43pm

This is very worrying for terrestrial television. As you no see it is NTL that is taking off the channels and not the channels (TV5 or EUROSPORT (funny that both are owned by the French)) Is there anything to protect the customers - we all pay (even though I am in France I have the same problems - they took off the BBC and then MTV without telling us or replacing them) for a package - the cable operators seem to be able to change the package as they like.

Does anyone know if we have any protection on this.:(

dmeehan · 15-02-2002 2:57pm

doubt it!
its probably written somewhere in the small print of the contract

DMC · 15-02-2002 2:58pm

"...channel line-up can change from time to time....."

icdg · 15-02-2002 4:11pm

Originally posted by apiou
This is very worrying for terrestrial television. As you no see it is NTL that is taking off the channels and not the channels (TV5 or EUROSPORT (funny that both are owned by the French)) Is there anything to protect the customers - we all pay (even though I am in France I have the same problems - they took off the BBC and then MTV without telling us or replacing them) for a package - the cable operators seem to be able to change the package as they like.

Does anyone know if we have any protection on this.:(

Unfortunately not - the must carry rules are as follows:

Analogue cable: RTE 1, N2, TV3, TG4
Analogue MMDS: TV3
Digital Cable: RTE 1, N2, TV3, TG4, RTE Digital services, TV3 Digital Service.
Digital MMDS: TV3, TV3 Digital service.

In practice BBC ONE, BBC TWO, ITV1, and Channel 4/S4C are carried as a matter of course and are highly unlikely to be dropped except if the channel concerned requested it specifically.

Anything else is purely a commercial matter for the cable companies concerned - the regulator has no jurisitction. Indeed most cable/MMDS companies have a clause in the contract with their customers, "Channel line up is subject to change".

JTMan · 15-02-2002 11:17pm

Meaning can I dump my analog connection and just use digital alone?

Yes. But with analog you can tape and watch so it is worth keeping.

Is that €12.70 a month or do they still charge the analog fee and add €12.70?

They still charge the analog fee.

the regulator has no jurisitction

Really? I read that ODTR has to aprove any changes to NTL's basic package