Goodbye Sundance
Thanks to the programming boneheads at AT&T Broadband, the company that provides our digital cable service, we no longer receive the Sundance Film Channel.
Part of the reason why I signed up for digital cable in the first place was for channels like IFC, MTV2, and yes, Sundance. In order to receive the aforementioned, plus HBO, we had to pay for two additional "packs" of programming on top of our basic digital. The cost was well worth it, for I love documentaries and foreign film - not exactly the easiest programming to find. Sometime over the past two weeks however, AT&T Broadband quietly removed Sundance from our premium package, and is now bundling it with...sports?
According to a sales rep at AT&T, I would have to subscribe to a slew of crappy sports channels just to receive Sundance again. Poor guy didn't know what to do with me, as I ranted and raved about target market demographics, and how ridiculous it was to bundle Sundance with a bunch of sports channels and sell them together.
I already receive enough sports - too much, as a matter of fact. To me at least, there's nothing quite as stupid as the ESPN Classic channels, where you can watch a whole baseball game from 1975. Wow. That's...fun.
And while I've got my bitch hat on, what about all the money grubbing religious channels I receive? And the endless stream of shopping channels? What about these so-called "theme" movie networks, like the not-without-my-daughter Sally Field, er, Lifetime Movie Network? And the Action network? And God almighty, someone get off their horse and put a bullet in my head if you catch me watching the Western Movie Channel.
And how about the channels we don't get at all, including CNN International? I live in Atlanta for God's sake, and we can't get the International flavor of CNN? Travel overseas, and you'll find CNN International everywhere. And the sad truth is that it's ten times better than the American CNN, which is too busy chasing Fox News around and wasting money on washed up ex-network news flunkies like Connie Chung.
So after listening to my complaints, he suggested I go to their web site and fill out a form to submit my thoughts about the move, and subsequent loss, of Sundance. I did just that, clicked Submit, and received a 404. Ahhh...how precious.
Comments
Welll, I guess you don't have DSS for a good reason, so I won't suggest that. :)
Posted by: jca at August 5, 2002 7:58 PM
My sentiments exactly. I have always said that cable TV should be ý la Carte. I choose from a list of channels and pay for only those channels I want. Until then, I'm buying a TIVO so I can work around the muck.
Posted by: Ryan at August 5, 2002 9:06 PM
fuck tv, mostly because i like it too much.
mine is currently sitting in the middle of the floor, unplugged and holding my towel, as i sit here naked and slightly wet.
and anyways, tvs are only good for watching movies with a girl.
and thats only good if you have a girl and a VCR, not cable, because picking a movie out at the rental store is a classic relationship defining moment.
Posted by: robrhyne at August 5, 2002 9:21 PM
you're funny when you're mad.
Posted by: dave at August 5, 2002 10:03 PM
there is no way that they'll ever offer cable a la carte... they want to charge you as much as they can by offering these dadgummed packages. I could probably live with less than 10 channels of my choosing. Not like that'll happen anytime soon... :/
Posted by: courtney at August 6, 2002 2:10 AM
You think that's bad? Check this out:
About six months ago, my IFC (the *only* indepdendent film channel in my package) was replaced by.... The Soap Opera Network. Classic.
I'd like to meet the genius who thought that was a good idea and throw a bucket of cold water on him. :P
Posted by: david at August 6, 2002 8:22 AM
Your complaints are valid, but when it comes to CNN, FOXnews and MSNBC is far superior.
Posted by: Ed at August 6, 2002 10:08 AM
Just a suggestion ... why not go around the problem from a different perspective? Get ahold of a real, live person at the Sundance Channel and explain your problem. I imagine they won't be too happy, and they might have a bit more 'oomph' to their displeasure than you (no offense meant).
I also agree with Dave ... you are funny when you're mad. :-)
Posted by: Mike at August 6, 2002 11:40 AM
I hear ya man. I want a cable package that offers the following channels and nothing else besides. This is my dream package:
IFC
Bravo
TLC
HGTV
Turner(for the times when I actually feel like watching "Roadhouse" or something equally as cheesey)
Cartoon Network
Discovery
Sci-Fi
Sundance
VH1(for the behind the music documentary things)
Fox(for the simpsons and futurama)
Everything else I would love to be rid of.
Posted by: Kent at August 6, 2002 11:41 AM
I agree with Mike. you should definately contact a sales rep at sundance. -or- write a letter to the president of the company - R.Redford. what can you loose? let them know AT&T is lumping them with redneck sports channels (which makes 0 sense). there was a great article about R.R. and sundance in the recent Havard Business Journal. They tend to be a very grassroots company despite the success. I would be just as upset as you to have it pulled out from underneath me - it¥s one of the few good channels out there.
BTW, CNN International is only slightly less American-influenced that the one at home. You¥re not missing THAT much.
Posted by: alisha at August 6, 2002 12:05 PM
I like kent's list, but I would add the G4 network and Food network. :)
Posted by: courtney at August 7, 2002 12:41 AM
If I had been able to only subscribe to certain channels, I would never have chosen WAM!, but since it was given to me amongst my packages, I flipped it there one day to discover the best show ever.
Posted by: Daser at August 7, 2002 10:21 AM
Oh, try this on for size: AT&T inherited/bought out/took over my cable company (Prime Cable) in late 2000. Digital Cable was not available in my area (yay Chicago politics) until two weeks ago. I called, the installation went through and I discover that the Food Network is not available, at all, in my area's AT&T digial cable, or regular cable - although it is offered in other Chicago areas both in digital and analog. Sweet Jesus, what's a girl gotta do to get her Emeril on?
Posted by: gsh at August 7, 2002 11:08 AM
Do like me, don't have a tv at all. I hate tv. The sound of a tv running puts me in a bad mood. I love movies however, but that's what DVD's are for.
Move the 21" monitor in front of the sofa or, better, onto the bed and you'll do fine.
- ask
Posted by: Ask Bjoern Hansen at August 7, 2002 1:37 PM
I have no cable *at all* at the moment - internet or digital cable - thanks to a lovely labour dispute at Videotron that has hotheaded types cutting fiber-optic cables in the middle of the night (though they're still sending me bills). Analog still works, but my local NBC affiliate has a stuck frame from two-nights-ago's Letterman show, of a man in an Oscar The Grouch T-shirt on it. Stuck there. Day and night. It's freaky. (Don't get me started on tests of the Emergency Broadcast System, either.)
Given the problems I've had with Videotron in the past, I'm really tempted to switch to Bell ExpressVU (DSS, plus a TiVO built in) and Bell Sympatico high-speed DSL (ah hell, why not a whole T1 at this point?). We are rather spoiled for choice now in Montreal - we even have "over the airwaves" digital, provided by LookTV, and a Canadian edition of StarChoice DSS as well. Thanks to the ever-lovin' CRTC we can't watch your cool Super Bowl ads, though :P
They haven't cut any channels on me, thankfully, but in Montreal, at least, you have endless duplication of theme-formatted channels in French and English. Nothing wrong with that, but if I never watch the French version of the Sci-Fi channel, why should it be taking up my bandwidth???
I think it's either time for a customer revolt, the end of "channel packaging." - or for an enterprising entrepreneur to step in and provide an alternative. (Oh yeah, and an all-Apple Channel would be cool, while they're at it.)
Posted by: AJ Kandy at August 7, 2002 4:39 PM
Can someone explain to me any reason -- besides greed -- why we can't have a totally "a la carte" cable system? Most morons would gladly shell out $5/channel for way more channels than they actually watch, just so they can have "choice."
The intelligensia (which obviously includes most of the readers of this blog) could have their 6-12 channels (that's $30-60/month, mind you!), the cable company STILL makes money, and the plebes would still have all their sports and fluff channels because believe you me, they outnumber us.
The only reason I can see why they don't do this is because they KNOW that religious channels, local "all-news" channels, home shopping networks and other CRAP EVERYBODY HATES would die off lickety-split. Instead of offering 200-500 channels, most would be scrambling to have 100 channels to offer by the end of the sixth month.
I'm sick of these companies reminding me during every commercial break that they have an all-digital network, then not letting me configure this all-digital thing the way I want -- supposedly the point of an all-digital network.
Posted by: chas_m at August 8, 2002 1:44 AM
In response to Chas.M's comments, I'm sure that we'd all love such a system - and certainly, bundling non-essential channels (Superstations, sports, etc.) is ludicrous. However, thanks to public access provisions (and in Canada, Canadian Content regulations) there are certain channels you'll always get whether you want them or not. Thankfully, you can usually program your TV or Cable box to skip them if you never watch them, but the law says they gotta be there. (For example, with Canadian cable, you'd always have to have a minimum number of Canadian stations for x number of US ones, for political/cultural reasons on one hand, and economic ones on the other hand. Lots of Canuck specialty channels are funded by an arms-length organization called the Cable Fund, that takes a bit of our monthly bills and funds original Canadian content or co-productions - like, ahem, Andromeda.
Posted by: AJ Kandy at August 8, 2002 2:51 PM
espn classic is the world's greatest channel... i suppose you were talking about game 6 of the 1975 world series, which is the greatest game of all time. oh, classic, oh how i love classic. besides that, i understand your frustration with the cable. luckily, over here in athens, we get some pretty darn good mac-daddy cable with ifc, sundance and espn classic
Posted by: ctrent at August 17, 2002 9:52 PM
