Most recent changes to the Dish Channel List page 01/04/08

[grasshopper]

Most recent changes to the Dish Channel List page

1/3/08 (Changes entered 1/4/08) (ANON)

* Added a channel listed as "Coming in February 2008" by its Web site. The Pursuit Channel. This channel is supposedly coming to channel 230. It appears to be and outdoor themed leased access channel similar to the "Men's channel" which was removed in the Turner Media shake-up last year. (Juan)
* Channel 7014 has been added to the Shreveport market and mapped down to local channel 4. 7014 is a mirror of The Hallmark Channel and is available to all local subscribers in the Shreveport TV area. This is being done while Dish and the local ABC duke it out. The local ABC is asking for "only a penny a day from each subscriber in the area" (that's 30 cents a month per subscriber for a channel that is FREE over the air). Dish has placed their thumb on their nose, extended their fingers and blown them a giant raspberry yanking the channel last week just before they lost the legal right to carry the channel due to the dispute. Channel 7015 is currently showing a slate telling subscribers the local ABC is not available.
* The free preview channels 281 and 282 changed from DIY and CNBCW to Animal Planet and Discovery Health, respectively.
* Dish changed the EPG name of channel 204 from COURT to TRU. Court TV changed its name to TruTV on new year's day.
* The following International channels at 121° have been replaced by a slate telling subscribers to call dish for the repoint kit to 118°. 727 VIDIT, 739 RTVI+, 747 ARYOW, 795 SUNTV.
* RAIRD 729 and RAD60 757 were removed from 121°. These channels are currently available at 118° and 61.5°.
* Christmas is officially over. Channel 982, the Holiday Music Channel has been removed from the system for the season.
MPEG4 test channel "MT68" has been added to channel 5418 on tp 31 at 129°
* Temporary channels 5723 (APUNJ) and 5728 (RAI) were removed from 121°. The transition to 118° is complete for these channels.
* Wausau, WI and Wichita Falls, TX local channels at 121° were book-ended by INFO channels (7209, 7217, 7859 and 7867 all on tp 14 at 121°) telling subscribers to those local markets that the channels will be leaving 121°. These channels are currently available at 129°. All local markets at 121° now have warning slates telling local subscribers that their local channels are moving off on 121° "soon".
* Another "Warning" channel telling subscribers about channels moving off of 105° has been added to channel 9794 on tp 2 at 105°. It is unclear if this channel is available to anyone yet. Only Sioux City, Columbus (OH), Dayton, Charleston (WV), Clarksburg and Charlottesville locals are at 105°. No other DBS services are available there at this time.

1/2/08

* No uplink changes. However, added info on the HD channels. Dish will be adding a second tier to the HD channels. Here is how it works:
- HD Essentials $10 includes all the HD channels that have a standard definition counterpart on the AT package one subscribes to. So National Geographic or the Science Channel would require AT250 plus the HD Essentials package. Animal Planet requires AT200 plus HD essentials. So far, all the others would be AT100 + HD Essentials.
- HD Ultimate $20 includes all the channels you would get with HD Essentials plus HDNet, HDNet movies, Universal HD, HD Theater, MHD plus the 15 Voom channels. The net change to anyone with Dish HD package going to Ultimate HD is ZERO. HD Ultimate is identical to Dish HD now.
- There was a rumored third HD package. Two thoughts on this. 1)It could be that Puerto Rico/USVI may be offered the same HD package for $10 which is now available to Alaska and Hawaii. Or 2)it was a misunderstanding of the Essentials explanation. The channels on Dish Essentials are lebeled "Dish HD1, 2 or 3" which corresponds with AT100, 200 and 250. So National Geographic (AT250) is available in Dish HD 3. Animal planet (AT200) is available in Dish HD 1 and 2. A&E HD (AT100) is available in Dish HD1, 2 and 3.

1/1/08

* HAPPY NEW YEAR!
* Well... with a new year looks like we have the "Annual Dish Network Contract Dispute Game". This year the winner is "Then N/Noggin". You can't blame Dish though. They only had 3 and a half months since the press release to prepare! Who can negotiate a contract in 3 and a half months? Come on!
- Kidding aside, it looks like as of now (12:17 AM Eastern) Nick GaS and Noggin/The N remain on their old channels regardless of the EPG.
- A post on DBSTalk reports that a CSR has stated the split channel will remain for the time being with the channel switching between the N and Noggin at 6am and 6pm Eastern. Must be hell for the Pacific time folks!
- The guess is the dispute (if there is one and it's not just a slow change-over) arises from the fact that Noggin/The N are on AT200 and Nick GaS is on AT250. This would mean Dish would lose one channel off of AT250 and add one channel to AT200.
Court TV has switch to "TruTV" as of midnight.