UPC - ITV2, 3 & 4

icdg

Sorry Zerks, I promised a 5 day ban for the next person who tried discussing bypassing of regional restrictions on this board, so I have to stick by the promise. Its illegal, so we can't discuss it here.

To the topic - it appears this is the work of TV3 yet again who seem intent on eliminating the competition by any means other than producing superior programming. UPC's announcement, particularly the "ITV were unable to agree to renew this deal on any terms" certainly seems to point in their direction. Thankfully UTV manages to survive and once again we have to be thankful its continuing seperate existance from ITV plc which no one could have predicted would still be the case given the push towards a single ITV in the late 1990s early 2000s. If UTV had been taken over by ITV plc, you can guarentee it too would have went as well.

Everytime we get a channel pulled from UPC, whether it is because it closed down (Channel One, Bravo, ABC1, and others), the carraige deal expires (ITV2/3/4 - this in fact being the SECOND time it has happened to ITV3), or whatever other reason, UPC seems to get the blame and we get the usual "I'm cancelling UPC because of this". Fact is that very few people choose a platform based on the availablity or lack thereof of one channel (though it may be a factor, and in the 1990s, and even up to about 2005 or so, I probably would not have picked a TV provider that did not have Sky One although my Sky One viewing these days is practically down to Soccer AM and not much else. I'm not the only one, people's viewing of Sky One has fallen from the stage where it was effectively the fifth UK terrestrial to now just being another cable channel).

You choose a provider based on a number of factors. Channel line up is among them. Price, availablity, interactive, broadband/phone combinations etc may also be among them. For me the reasons I pick UPC are:

- Channel line up - Availablity of the UK and Irish terrrestrials in the right order, most of the "good" cable channels even now with ITV2/3/4 gone.
- EPG line-up. The Irish and UK terrestrials being at the top of the EPG instead of scattered or in "Add Channels"
- Sports - Setanta Ireland and ESPN being available to non-premium customers is a big help.
- Inertia - lets not forget this, but many UPC viewers have had cable for anything up to 30 years and changing to satellite is a big move.

Loss of ITV2/3/4 is not a big reason for me to move to Sky. If it is for you, by all means do so.

The Orb

ITV 2,3 & 4 were rubbish anyway, so no loss. Apart from the CBS channels and Five/Fiver what else is there for UPC to get?

JustAddWater

Celebrity juuuuuuuuuuice! Nooooooooooooooo

Elmo

The Orb wrote: »

ITV 2,3 & 4 were rubbish anyway, so no loss. Apart from the CBS channels and Five/Fiver what else is there for UPC to get?

A number of uktv channels such as watch. Five seemed to want to stay away under rtl but this could change with their new owners.

tonyheaney

ronnie3585 wrote: »

Was just enjoying Batman on ITV2 when the screen went black.

In the menu caption where it usually gives a synopsis of the current programme says the following:



Are the ITVs gone?

Is this an April's Fool?

I rang and they said they lost the contract for those channels and that more are coming soon

Sponge Bob

Whhheeeeeeeeeee, more shopping to do !! Maybe even Al Jazeera or something useful like that, it has been free on Astra for years,

decies

Just noticed this tonight, it'd so bloody annoying that free sat viewers get these channels for nothing and none of this rights issue fit sports TDF etc. I hope tv3 go bust crap of a station anyway , the worst news service in western Europe !!!

jack presley

I had a UPC rep call to me today and he wasn't even aware of this.

decies

They should give their customers free dvr boxes !!!

Daisy!

This is ridiculous. No warning and no chance of them coming back?! I'm starting to wonder why I'm even bothering with UPC now. If we didn't live in an apartment and had no other choice we'd be long gone.

As for TV3, they're nothing but a tabloid tv station. TV3 News like to knock on the doors of mothers of dead children the morning after they've died in a car crash and ask them how they're feeling :rolleyes: I refuse to watch that channel since that day. That's the kind of people that run TV3 so what more do we expect from them.

Oh how I look forward to the day that TV3 goes bust. It'll probably never happen but one can dream.

Jesus Wept

lol. I like TV3, it's free.

decies

Well said daisy

Infoanon

Elmo wrote: »

A number of uktv channels such as watch. Five seemed to want to stay away under rtl but this could change with their new owners.

UPC on their website say they plan to launch a number of channels very soon...

5 entertainment channels is going to be hard to replace - Watch / Sony Entertainment.....after that......CBS ?

Five is highly unlikely, same for Sky Atlanic, perhaps Challenge TV and Living it might be added

Quality wise none will be up to ITV2/3/4 standard

Infoanon

The-Rigger wrote: »

lol. I like TV3, it's free.

Its a relay of ITV in all but name

Infoanon

The Orb wrote: »

ITV 2,3 & 4 were rubbish anyway, so no loss. Apart from the CBS channels and Five/Fiver what else is there for UPC to get?

ITV 2,3 &4 are "Essential channels" according to UPC

Jesus Wept

Infoanon wrote: »

Its a relay of ITV in all but name

Only some of it's shows are the same.
go tv3.

Chriscl1

aidan_dunne wrote: »

Oh come on, this is just getting to be a load of bollocks now! :mad:

Increasing the prices and then loosing more channels from the line-up, UPC is going to be haemorrhaging customers like crazy to Sky, Freeview/Freesat and Saorview if they keep this up. Pretty soon their only business will be coming from the broadband side of things.

I'm f**king raging over this, the British Touring Car Championship is starting this weekend and I was looking forward to a whole day of vegging out on the couch watching it on ITV4 on Sunday. So much for that plan! :mad:

Time for me to start looking at a combination Freeview and Saorview option, perhaps. I'm sure I won't be the only UPC customer thinking the same after this!

btcc stream

MOD EDIT: Read the earlier posts.Banned for five days.

Not happy with this but there's not much I can do about it. Oh well.

hdowney

Infoanon wrote: »

UPC on their website say they plan to launch a number of channels very soon...

5 entertainment channels is going to be hard to replace - Watch / Sony Entertainment.....after that......CBS ?

Five is highly unlikely, same for Sky Atlanic, perhaps Challenge TV and Living it might be added

Quality wise none will be up to ITV2/3/4 standard

wouldn't mind living it - they were showing the most recent series of the american biggest loser, which i watch, and they show some other stuff.

challenge i can take or leave. i do sometimes throw it on when there is nowt else specific to watch on telly, so i suppose it'd be good to have it on the upc lineup.

not too pushed on the cbs channels, again i would flick them on if there is nowt else to watch. mainly cos the criminal minds and suchlike they show i already have on dvd, so the other stuff like bondi rescue etc would be a when i am bored watch.

don't know much about channel five? anything interesting on there that might make it worth getting?

don't see upc getting atlantic until at least the winter - once sky have added it to a package you have to pay for sorta thing, then they might open it up and let upc pay to have a stream.

Mike Litoris

Thats f**kin Celebrity Juice gone.:mad:

Resi12

I know everyone is mad at UPC but for once I'm not, I'm more mad at TV3 for being complete and utter gob****es. If they made quality programming it would be one thing but they have some cheek to play that card and make their customers lose channels.

Not our fault they're a second rate ITV on all counts.

mike65

hdowney wrote: »

don't know much about channel five? anything interesting on there that might make it worth getting?

Not unless you have a real need for the CSI franchise and Steven Segal type action flicks. That said I dunno why UPC don't already carry it.

Hugh Cream

Hadn't even noticed these were missing until yesterday,if nothing else UPC should at least let customers know of moves such as this.
Not saying I watched any of the itv's but it's a disgrace that channels can be dropped and UPC don't deem it appropriate to inform it's customers.

Either two things will happen,they won't replace them or if they do it will be with some crappy channels.

hdowney

mike65 wrote: »

Not unless you have a real need for the CSI franchise and Steven Segal type action flicks. That said I dunno why UPC don't already carry it.

steven segal i can do with out tvm.

as to CSI - LOVE LOVE LOVE it. however i don't actually watch it on tv. i wait for the box sets to come out and have a veg out day of csi in front of the tv.

(*hmm reminds me. must find out why oh why season 8 of csi:miami isn't out on region 2 yet when it has been out since the 3rd qtr of last yr on region 1*)

tonyheaney

The Orb wrote: »

ITV 2,3 & 4 were rubbish anyway, so no loss. Apart from the CBS channels and Five/Fiver what else is there for UPC to get?

playboy channel
NBC
ABC

oh and bring back Bravo FFS

Hugh Cream

Maybe we should compile a list of 5 or so channels that we want and bombard UPC with said list demanding they do something decent for their customers for once.

Minstrel27

tonyheaney wrote: »

oh and bring back Bravo FFS

Bravo is dead, gone, history

brianof

Does the UPC box have an equivalent "Other Channels" section similar to the Sky box where you can just manually tune these FTA channels and do without the recording facility?

tonyheaney

Hugh Cream wrote: »

Hadn't even noticed these were missing until yesterday,if nothing else UPC should at least let customers know of moves such as this.
Not saying I watched any of the itv's but it's a disgrace that channels can be dropped and UPC don't deem it appropriate to inform it's customers.

Either two things will happen,they won't replace them or if they do it will be with some crappy channels.

UPC reserve the right to add or drop many channels they deem at anytime with out notice.. its in the small print. but i do agree it would be nice to have some warning that its happening. they knew there contract was ending and in that time they could have had some new channels ready to fill the slots but not crap channels like channels south or CTV or DTV what a pile of dung those are.

UPC are the reason so many are buying laptops and computers and downloading what they want with out having to fork out a c rap load of money for a tv licence


also sky will probably buy them out soon anyway

Minstrel27

brianof wrote: »

Does the UPC box have an equivalent "Other Channels" section similar to the Sky box where you can just manually tune these FTA channels and do without the recording facility?

No. You only get what's on the UPC EPG.