When TataSky is adding more HD channels

Seeing what TS charges I'm thinking Netflix and Amazon Prime video make a better combo/package for the latest TV shows. ISP and b/w might be a limitation for some but at least Netflix and Amazon score when it comes to customer care.

I am not sure of Amazon Prime but Netflix has a lot of serials which are a season old. So if your series is in Premier, it will be a wait before they come on Netflix.
 
Well, if Tata Sky had some bandwidth available for one HD channel, why did they not start any other HD channel like Movies Now HD, History HD, CNBC Prime HD, Sony Six HD, Life OK HD, Zee Studio HD ?

Simply because these channels would have been part of most the packages customers are subscribed to. Means, no additional revenue for Tata Sky. It clears proves that Tata Sky is not committed to its existing customers.

In future, there is very little hope to get these HD channels because if Tata Sky has any bandwidth available, they will try to use it to fleece the customer with so called "premium channels".

Time to move? Don't know, I have 1 HD+ and 3HD boxes. Though I am using only one HD+ and two HD boxes as of now. One HD box is de-activated.

What do you think guys?
 
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I am concerned that this has set a bad precedence and going forward, they can categorize any channel into a Specials category to begin with. This can very well happen to Sports channel when there's some big sporting event (World Cups/Olympics/Champions Trophy, etc.).

Well said Kneo, I think this is also what Justforkix infered in his earlier post.... having major sports events as specials...only question is what if it is on a channel that is already available to subscribers.
 
i scaled down my TS package some time back, when they started increasing the Metro price from Rs 300 to now being Rs 340. Switched to netflix and i am happy watching the same. I don't mind the delay in watching the latest season as long as i have the ability to watch at my leisure. Got tried of downloading stuff to watch.

How did you get netflix working? I'd love to get services like netflix, and amazon prime, hulu here in India but they're just way too strict with US ip requirements.

I am not sure of Amazon Prime but Netflix has a lot of serials which are a season old. So if your series is in Premier, it will be a wait before they come on Netflix.

Not surprising considering these services cost 10-15 bucks compared to an average US cable subscription which is $60+ Per month.
 
How did you get netflix working? I'd love to get services like netflix, and amazon prime, hulu here in India but they're just way too strict with US ip requirements.



Not surprising considering these services cost 10-15 bucks compared to an average US cable subscription which is $60+ Per month.

Well currently Sam and me are sharing a netflix connection and its been pretty good. Only requirement is good broadband speed at least 4 Mbps and low latency and a VPN provider.

We already have a thread running on the same, do check out the same.

http://www.hifivision.com/general-l...-amazing-service-can-accessed-india-well.html


So post downgrading my TS i have switched to Netflix. Also i don't mind waiting for the latest season as there is plenty of stuff to watch on netflix. Also movies are there. Plus i can pause and resume from where i left off.
 
Star Premiere seems to be a premiere channel only in name. The whole day is full of reruns. New episodes start only after 8pm. Yesterday, on saturday there were no new episodes at all. Hardly worth the "premium/special" tag!
 
Star Premiere seems to be a premiere channel only in name. The whole day is full of reruns. New episodes start only after 8pm. Yesterday, on saturday there were no new episodes at all. Hardly worth the "premium/special" tag!
Yeah, like I already stated earlier in this thread, you get a grand total of 15 hours worth of content in the whole week. That's 3 hours a day on weekdays and zero on weekends. Absolutely ridiculous.
 
Well, if they do not live up to the hype they have created, many users would drop off as 3 hours of content is very less and weekends is when people get time to sit and watch where they are playing only reruns.
 
I am not sure of Amazon Prime but Netflix has a lot of serials which are a season old. So if your series is in Premier, it will be a wait before they come on Netflix.

Just checked out hulu plus. Seems to have most of the latest episodes of the shows on SWPremier there (including sleepy hollow and agents of SHEILD). Its a bit expensive at $8/month considering it still shows some ads. Am thinking of giving it a try along with netflix. At the very least shows won't be censored and available on demand.

Well, if Tata Sky had some bandwidth available for one HD channel, why did they not start any other HD channel like Movies Now HD, History HD, CNBC Prime HD, Sony Six HD, Life OK HD, Zee Studio HD ?

Got another call from tata sky rep to renew my mega pack yesterday. Asked the same question to him and once again, the answer was downright stupid. Says these channels aren't "asli" HD. Told the idiot I already have a Videocon connection at home so go fool someone else with that crap. All the HD channels I've seen on Videocon are on par with HD channels from tata sky as far as quality is concerned.
 
I recharged my Annual Mega pack of TS. Regarding the Star Premier HD the cc guy tells that it is a topper channel and not part of it.
 
To me 60 bucks a month is ok. I dont have a Unlimited connection and I cant just donwload and watch episode after episode. Its too tiresome. Even if they introduce HBO Package at around 100 per month, combining this 2 will cover most of the primetime shows from US and will save lots of hassle and headache.

Only issue would be to Megapack subscriber who need to cash out extra, but I dont think people will mind to pay ~$1 for such a good audio/visual experience.
 
To me 60 bucks a month is ok. I dont have a Unlimited connection and I cant just donwload and watch episode after episode. Its too tiresome. Even if they introduce HBO Package at around 100 per month, combining this 2 will cover most of the primetime shows from US and will save lots of hassle and headache.

Only issue would be to Megapack subscriber who need to cash out extra, but I dont think people will mind to pay ~$1 for such a good audio/visual experience.

Nope, 60 bucks is too much for the little content they are showing in that channel. Yes, Rs. 60 is not much but add up individual channels and you are looking at a huge monthly subscription. I already pay Rs. 400 or more each month and this will take it to Rs. 460... add in a couple more "Specials" channels and the cost will only rise.

Not good news if the operators don't plan to have an eat all you want package. The ISPs too have gone that route with their FUP limitations, mobile internet (3G at least) is the same and there is no unlimited pack (GPRS had unlimited back in the day).

The worst part is I'm saddled with crap I don't want in the name of South Pack, Sports Pack or Mega Annual Pack and yet the really good channels are not included in them.

Imagine the DTH providers move to pay per view for specials like IPL... and begin to charge per match and not the entire tournament. That's how pay per view works in the US... I've known people to pay anywhere from $25 to $50 to watch one boxing match.
 
Same thing happened with Videocon users, another thread already started here.
Wow. Videocon again proves how much of a better value it is compared to tatasky. Now if only they'd fix their abysmal STB software, I'd dump all my tatasky connections and convert to Videocon dvrs no matter what the cost.
 
Nope, 60 bucks is too much for the little content they are showing in that channel. Yes, Rs. 60 is not much but add up individual channels and you are looking at a huge monthly subscription. I already pay Rs. 400 or more each month and this will take it to Rs. 460... add in a couple more "Specials" channels and the cost will only rise.

Not good news if the operators don't plan to have an eat all you want package. The ISPs too have gone that route with their FUP limitations, mobile internet (3G at least) is the same and there is no unlimited pack (GPRS had unlimited back in the day).

The worst part is I'm saddled with crap I don't want in the name of South Pack, Sports Pack or Mega Annual Pack and yet the really good channels are not included in them.

Imagine the DTH providers move to pay per view for specials like IPL... and begin to charge per match and not the entire tournament. That's how pay per view works in the US... I've known people to pay anywhere from $25 to $50 to watch one boxing match.

You might be correct and it may lead to a different trend where all thing is paid. But with cost comes the quality also and you cannot deny that. See how Videocon is ramping up channel after channel but compare its AV with TataSky and you will get to know that nothing comes for free. Even if you go to Cable route there also Premium Channels are paid (like HBO Package in Hathway ).

In no way I am advocating TataSky here, and saying what I feel right.

The problem is we are in a mind set that TV watching is cheapest mode of entertainment but in current scenario with Premium content, Interactive Shows, Stunning HD and 5.1 sound its bound to get costly. People are ready to pay 12-15$ a month for Netflix but same people are not ready to pay < 10$for TV viewing. I am not pointing fingers to anyone just stating generic trend.
 
I must agree with some arguments here, especially what nSinghal said about what constitutes a "premium" channel. At this moment, the Star Premiere HD channel is showing four or five different serials and the rest of the time is full of reruns and fillers. This may change in future but at the moment it is just very limited content. Then there are ad breaks. Premium channels do not have ad breaks.
 
I got this channel added because my mega pack subscription began before Feb, 13. I complained that mega pack has lost it's sheen. The person at cc said that my feedback will be forwarded, etc., etc.
 
You might be correct and it may lead to a different trend where all thing is paid. But with cost comes the quality also and you cannot deny that. See how Videocon is ramping up channel after channel but compare its AV with TataSky and you will get to know that nothing comes for free. Even if you go to Cable route there also Premium Channels are paid (like HBO Package in Hathway ).

Are you implying videocon's AV quality is somehow worse than tatasky? I don't consider myself an expert and could be wrong here, but I have both and I don't really see a difference. Certainly not in the favor of tata sky atleast. If anything, I thought the picture quality of Videocon was slightly better than tatasky when it came to SD content. HD on the other hand looked the same to me. The only thing tata sky has over Videocon is the STB software with a neat GUI. Its a lot faster & easier to use compared to Videocon.

But even there they've been messing it up now. First came the spamming yellow message icon. Shows up twice a week to tell me about offers which I dont care about. Won't go away until I check it out first. A real PITA if you're watching/recording two live feeds as you can't even check the message until you free up one of the feeds. Then came channel 100. A channel dedicated to advertising. And that too in your face. Everytime you turn on your tatasky, it's there! Spamming you with the same stupid annoying ads every single time. Thankfully they aren't smart enough to turn off blocking for channel 100 which gives me black silent screen instead of the loud annoying ads. Then they added ads in the info screen (which shows up everytime you change the channel Or press the select button on your remote to check out what's next). And now they're spamming both the Star world hd and star movies HD with a huge ugly ad banner with link to the new "special" channel, SWPremier. And it doesn't go away even after you've checked it out. Doesn't even care if you already have the channel. The only way to get rid if it is to not watch the live feed of these to channels and record it instead. Or pause it for a few seconds and then play it once the ad disappears. That's only if you have the DVR. I don't even know what people without Dvr stb are doing to get rid of it. And in the end, tatasky might not have bandwidth for new channels but how about another brand new channel for ads? Sure why not. Welcome channel 101. Another channel dedicated just for ads! Exactly what we needed. Its not like there's over two dozen channels waiting to be find some free bandwidth in tatasky dth broad cast :rolleyes:

In no way I am advocating TataSky here, and saying what I feel right.

The problem is we are in a mind set that TV watching is cheapest mode of entertainment but in current scenario with Premium content, Interactive Shows, Stunning HD and 5.1 sound its bound to get costly. People are ready to pay 12-15$ a month for Netflix but same people are not ready to pay < 10$for TV viewing. I am not pointing fingers to anyone just stating generic trend.

Breakfree content is worth paying premium to me. Just the ability to watch the shows a couple of months before we could have otherwise, is not. Especially considering that's the only premium part of this channel, a quick delivery. Not the selection of better quality content. They're not showing hbo shows. Still the same bunch of rehashed comedy/case-a-day series. Barely 25% is worth wasting your time.

Again, that's personal opinion and preference. Netflix is not just break free content but on Demand as well. And once you consider the library of excellent content available, its certainly worth the price to me including the faster broadband connection.

SWPremier at ?60/month (with no discounts in any bundle package or even the mega/platinum package) with barely 15 hours of content, that too interrupted with ad breaks every 7-10 minutes is NOT exactly premium in my books. Even in that 15 hour a week programming, one should consider himself lucky if he can find even half of the shows worth his time. Though he sure could do with a little better taste in that case IMO.

There are barely 5 shows on SWP which I'd actually watch (SHEILD, Sleepy hollow, POI, homeland and maybe white collar). Rest are all time killers. Even these 5, I don't really care if I have to wait a few months to see.
 
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