UPC Customers loose ITV Channels

Chicken1

From today UPC customers no longer can receive ITV, 2, 3, 4 see statement below and its not an Aprils Fool joke

ITV Channel Update
ITV2, ITV3, & ITV4 channels are no longer available



Unfortunately, ITV has withdrawn ITV2, ITV3, & ITV4 from the UPC channel line up, effective from midnight Thursday 31 March 2011 as UPC's carriage agreement with ITV has expired.

ITV was not in a position to renew the current agreement with UPC on any terms. ITV has an exclusive rights arrangement with another Irish channel provider for ITV programming content.

We have tried every effort to keep these channels but unfortunately we have been left with no option but to remove the channels as our contract has expired.

We are very disappointed with this outcome, we recognise that these are popular channels. However many of your favourite ITV programmes will continue to be available on TV3 and 3e. In addition we are planning to launch a number of new channels shortly. We would like to apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

Note: UTV is not affected by this change.

Here is some further helpful information:

Will these channels be coming back?

No, but we are currently in discussions with a number of other channel providers. We plan to launch a number of new channels very soon.

Will I lose my ITV 2, 3 and 4 Digital+ recordings?

No, you will not lose any of your ITV 2, 3 and 4 Digital+ recordings.

Where can I watch my favourite programmes?

Many of your favourite programmes will continue to be available on UPC and these include the Xtra Factor, American Idol and Britain's got talent on TV3 or 3E. Gossip girl is available on TG4.

Will I lose any more channels?

The removal of ITV 2, 3 and 4 were outside the control of UPC. UPC has no plans to remove any other channels but we are working to replace the ITV channels. We constantly review the channels we offer so we can provide the best quality programmes to our customers.

Jumpy

Loose them on what?

sink

Who is the other irish channel provider? Sky don't offer them either.

It's 'lose' not 'loose' btw.

Chicken1

sink wrote: »

Who is the other irish channel provider? Sky don't offer them either.

It's 'lose' not 'loose' btw.

They are all available on Sky, you have little to do if you pick up on a typo error.:D, they are also available on freesat.

Chicken1

Chicken1 wrote: »

They are all available on Sky, you have little to do if you pick up on a typo error.:D, they are also available on freesat.

They were never that tight to begin with to be honest. Link

McLoughlin

sink wrote: »

Who is the other irish channel provider? Sky don't offer them either.

It's 'lose' not 'loose' btw.

TV3

FreudianSlippers

This is not an April Fool's joke either btw.


From the hoor's horse's mouth: http://support.upc.ie/app/answers/detail/a_id/324

Chris P. Bacon

I'm fairly annoyed over this,they had good films on the channels but not much else,anybody know what the new channels are that UPC are talking about?

Corsendonk

I only could get ITV2 on my UPC but it did have the odd good movie. I have lost Bravo and that channel that had the latenite lonely ladies with nothing replacing them. So now it looks like I am down 3 channels while paying the same to UPC:eek:

Luckycharm

We still have UTV though- didn't really watch the others

pinkypinky

Chicken1 wrote: »

They are all available on Sky, you have little to do if you pick up on a typo error.:D, they are also available on freesat.

You can't record them on Sky though - and you have to tune them in yourself.

Oh_Noes

Luckycharm wrote: »

We still have UTV though- didn't really watch the others

I only really watched it to see those crazy public information ads with paramilitaries shooting up churches etc. They were fantastic!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i_p1mupPio

lunneybun

Corsendonk wrote: »

I only could get ITV2 on my UPC but it did have the odd good movie. I have lost Bravo and that channel that had the latenite lonely ladies with nothing replacing them. So now it looks like I am down 3 channels while paying the same to UPC:eek:

I spoke to upc today and suggested that as a show of good faith, they would make universal and fx available to the lower packages while waiting to add new channels, it makes sense to me and it could even introduce customers to these channels and encourage them to upgrade, but they weren't interested, customer satisfaction and value for money doesn't mean much it seems... also there are more than 3 channels gone bravo and channel one went earlier in the year, there is now very little difference between the lowest and medium priced packages!!

lunneybun

lunneybun wrote: »

I spoke to upc today and suggested that as a show of good faith, they would make universal and fx available to the lower packages while waiting to add new channels, it makes sense to me and it could even introduce customers to these channels and encourage them to upgrade, but they weren't interested, customer satisfaction and value for money doesn't mean much it seems... also there are more than 3 channels gone bravo and channel one went earlier in the year, there is now very little difference between the lowest and medium priced packages!!

Why not ask them for Sky Sports and Sky Box Office while you're at it?

lunneybun

Deleted User wrote: »

Why not ask them for Sky Sports and Sky Box Office while you're at it?

Ok, it was just a suggestion, perhaps naive considering who I was dealing with.... I'm not foolish enough to be looking for miracles tho!!!:)

abracadave

It makes no difference that these popular programs are available on other stations. The fact is that I have lost 3 good channels from my service. With no compensation from UPC.

I have posted this on their Facebook page, we'll see if they leave it up there. I'm betting they will be moderating and remove it.

Time to switch methinks.

gandalf

Their service is going to pot at this stage. I have had 3 total service outages in the last 3 weeks, the worst for around 14 hours. They have dropped channels, have feck all HD channels and they have upped their prices! My apartment complex is wired for Sky and I am now seriously considering moving to them.

krudler

No UTV? this makes switching to UPC even more enticing, no x factor, no i'm a celeb, no ant and dec, no dramas starring James Nesbitt, yay!

Chris P. Bacon

krudler wrote: »

No UTV? this makes switching to UPC even more enticing, no x factor, no i'm a celeb, no ant and dec, no dramas starring James Nesbitt, yay!

UTV hasnt gone,only ITV 2,3,4.

Ally Dick

Lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose.....the most misspelt word on the internet

Darlughda

Ally Dick wrote: »

Lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose.....the most misspelt word on the internet

No. You are wrong. Its seems that word is the 34th most misspelled word.
http://www.faqs.org/shareranks/1097,Most-Frequently-Misspelled-Words

Now-is it misspelt or misspelled?:P


Are there any alternatives to UPC or SKY?

pixelburp

So basically UPC customers are losing the pointless, filler, add-on channels but will still get the core UTV channel? What exactly is the problem here? Who actually watched ITV2,3 or 4? It's the one thing I hate about digital TV is that my channel listing is filled with worthless '+1' channels and somehow this constitutes a good deal or "choice".
As far as I can see, the only station who have got the '+1' channels right is the BBC (and maybe Channel 4). BBC3/4 actually broadcast and create original work - highly praised work - for their digital channels, they don't just stuff it full with repeats of The Professionals

Seems like a standard case of "I don't use it, but I paid for it & I demand I get it back!"

gandalf

ITV3 & 4 played a good choice of films so I did watch them on occasion. I agree an awful lot of the TV show content was repeated but then again some people did watch them too.

If UPC handled this correctly they should have given their customers advance notice of this possibility and they should have either lined up immediate replacements or had a message about what those replacements were ready to be communicated yesterday. Of course they botched it and created a lot of bad feeling among their customer base. It does show what their attitude is to their existing customers.

Darlughda

Darlughda wrote: »

No. You are wrong. Its seems that word is the 34th most misspelled word.
http://www.faqs.org/shareranks/1097,Most-Frequently-Misspelled-Words

Now-is it misspelt or misspelled?:P

I'd say it's both with "misspelt" being an archaic way of putting it.

Darlughda

Darlughda wrote: »

No. You are wrong. Its seems that word is the 34th most misspelled word.
http://www.faqs.org/shareranks/1097,Most-Frequently-Misspelled-Words

Now-is it misspelt or misspelled?:P


Are there any alternatives to UPC or SKY?

The only problem with that list is that judgement isn't necessarily the most misspelled word - it's just different variations on the same one.

krudler

pixelburp wrote: »

So basically UPC customers are losing the pointless, filler, add-on channels but will still get the core UTV channel? What exactly is the problem here? Who actually watched ITV2,3 or 4? It's the one thing I hate about digital TV is that my channel listing is filled with worthless '+1' channels and somehow this constitutes a good deal or "choice".
As far as I can see, the only station who have got the '+1' channels right is the BBC (and maybe Channel 4). BBC3/4 actually broadcast and create original work - highly praised work - for their digital channels, they don't just stuff it full with repeats of The Professionals

Seems like a standard case of "I don't use it, but I paid for it & I demand I get it back!"

but where will people watch a weekly showing of Predator now?

Rubik.

pixelburp wrote: »

So basically UPC customers are losing the pointless, filler, add-on channels but will still get the core UTV channel? What exactly is the problem here? Who actually watched ITV2,3 or 4?

I did. I liked watching old episodes of The Sweeney, Minder, The Professionals and Randall & Hopkirk(deceased) on ITV4. I would much prefer to watch them than all those anodyne overly slick US cop shows which are repeated everywhere ad nauseum.

Chaotic_Forces

I'm with Sky but as far as I know, Sky bought the rights to Channel 1, no? So wouldn't that explain why UPC can't get it? If so, they didn't "remove it" they just can't show it.

Dman001

Chaotic_Forces wrote: »

I'm with Sky but as far as I know, Sky bought the rights to Channel 1, no? So wouldn't that explain why UPC can't get it? If so, they didn't "remove it" they just can't show it.

Sky bought all of Living TV Group (which consisted of Channel 1, Bravo, Challenge, Living TV etc) and shut down Bravo and Channel 1. They aren't available by any provider anymore.

Chaotic_Forces

Dman001 wrote: »

Sky bought all of Living TV Group (which consisted of Channel 1, Bravo, Challenge, Living TV etc) and shut down Bravo and Channel 1. They aren't available by any provider anymore.

No, I know that. What I meant was that since we have "Sky Living" and so on (basically sky's version of those channels), wouldn't be that Sky has the rights and won't let UPC use them?

Dman001

Chaotic_Forces wrote: »

No, I know that. What I meant was that since we have "Sky Living" and so on (basically sky's version of those channels), wouldn't be that Sky has the rights and won't let UPC use them?

Nope, Sky still "Sell" these channels to UPC and Virgin.

faw1tytowers

I left UPC last year after I lost nations geographic bravo and a few music channels. I am with Sky now. But in fairness what we pay for and what we get is so not worth it when you see what other countries get. Hopefully the new digital conversions will change all this. Rip off Ireland!

Dman001

It's a sad sight when UPC are the only competitor to Sky in Ireland. Freesat/Sat4Free is a great alternative to Pay TV, but there is definitely space in the market for a Pay TV competitor to Sky. UPC need to seriously step up their game and improve their TV Line up. They should make themselves more competitive by bringing Tivo to Ireland, work on improving their HD Line up or focus on IPTV. They have a great advantage over Sky by offering Broadband as well as Digital TV. They should use this to their advantage.

doomed

There was some good stuff on those channels - all repeats but plenty of detective shows - much better than TV3.

Any chance of Atlantic instead? Dustin Hoffman says its great.

jersey_shore

Ally Dick wrote: »

Lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose lose.....the most misspelt word on the internet

loose the attitude

Ally Dick

If UPC were to pull a similar stunt with BBC3 and BBC4, I'd take my business straight to Sky

Biggins

sink wrote: »

Who is the other irish channel provider? Sky don't offer them either.

I get them here in Louth - having added the frequencies for them through the Sky menu set-up.

moonboy52

Ally Dick wrote: »

If UPC were to pull a similar stunt with BBC3 and BBC4, I'd take my business straight to Sky

It was not the fault of UPC man.

I feel a little sad that they are gone. What will i do without Jeremy Kyle:)?

Let's see what channels they replace them with before kicking our toy's out of the pram eh!

iguana

faw1tytowers wrote: »

But in fairness what we pay for and what we get is so not worth it when you see what other countries get. Hopefully the new digital conversions will change all this. Rip off Ireland!

I used to pay £26 for pretty much the same service on Virgin in the UK that I pay €83 for in Ireland from UPC. The difference was that I had no Irish channels on the Virgin service but I could access the BBC Player, ITV Player, 4OD, etc, through my television, which was great.

Oracle

Rip Off Ireland.... the solution is in your hands, stop paying UPC, Sky or other cable providers and get a FTA satellite system. A basic law of economics is called supply and demand. SKY and UPC charge these fees because people are willing to pay.

icdg

pixelburp wrote: »

So basically UPC customers are losing the pointless, filler, add-on channels but will still get the core UTV channel? What exactly is the problem here? Who actually watched ITV2,3 or 4? It's the one thing I hate about digital TV is that my channel listing is filled with worthless '+1' channels and somehow this constitutes a good deal or "choice".
As far as I can see, the only station who have got the '+1' channels right is the BBC (and maybe Channel 4). BBC3/4 actually broadcast and create original work - highly praised work - for their digital channels, they don't just stuff it full with repeats of The Professionals

Seems like a standard case of "I don't use it, but I paid for it & I demand I get it back!"

ITV 2,3, and 4 are not "+1" channels - although they do have their own +1 channels. A "+1" channel shows exactly the same schedule as its parent channel one hour later. In fact the BBC does not operate any +1 channels at all.

ITV2 is much the same stuff as 3e. Some original drama (Secret Diary, if that's what your into) and films but prime time tends to be made up of the "Xtra Factor" style programming. Despite this ITV2 is one of the most popular cable/satellite services in the UK.

ITV3 and ITV4 are big losses IMO.

ITV3 was Granada Plus, and has access to basically the entire ITV network archive other than that of Thames Television. That's over fifty years of programming from back in the day when ITV was known for quality programming.

ITV4 showed many of the old ITV cop shows and dramas. But it was also becoming known for its sports coverage, including live Europa League football and motorsport and highlights of rugby's Aviva Premiership, Liverpool Victoria Cup, and Heineken Cup. Much of this was blocked on UPC, mind you, but some of it wasn't.

Regarding Living TV Group. When Living TV Group (nee Virgin Media TV, formerly Flextech) was integrated with BSkyB, Bravo, Bravo 2, and Channel One closed completely, while the Living branded channels all gained the "Sky" prefix. Bravo and Channel One are closed - Channel One (previously Virgin One and before that FTN) had no unique content of its own anyway and was a "window shop" for Living TV Group's content. At Sky, that role is taken by Pick TV so Channel One had no useful purpose in staying on air.

wing1004

Oracle wrote: »

Rip Off Ireland.... the solution is in your hands, stop paying UPC, Sky or other cable providers and get a FTA satellite system. A basic law of economics is called supply and demand. SKY and UPC charge these fees because people are willing to pay.

Exactly, FTA satellite plus an aerial i paid tenner for to get Irish channels, never will I go back to paying for tv services that are meant to be free to air.

DrumSteve

pixelburp wrote: »

So basically UPC customers are losing the pointless, filler, add-on channels but will still get the core UTV channel? What exactly is the problem here? Who actually watched ITV2,3 or 4? It's the one thing I hate about digital TV is that my channel listing is filled with worthless '+1' channels and somehow this constitutes a good deal or "choice".
As far as I can see, the only station who have got the '+1' channels right is the BBC (and maybe Channel 4). BBC3/4 actually broadcast and create original work - highly praised work - for their digital channels, they don't just stuff it full with repeats of The Professionals

Seems like a standard case of "I don't use it, but I paid for it & I demand I get it back!"

If I am paying for it... why shouldn't I get it back? I can only watch one channel at a time and if there was something on those channels I wanted to watch then I would... Because I have paid for the option to have it there.

sheelbee

pixelburp wrote: »

So basically UPC customers are losing the pointless, filler, add-on channels but will still get the core UTV channel? What exactly is the problem here? Who actually watched ITV2,3 or 4? It's the one thing I hate about digital TV is that my channel listing is filled with worthless '+1' channels and somehow this constitutes a good deal or "choice".
As far as I can see, the only station who have got the '+1' channels right is the BBC (and maybe Channel 4). BBC3/4 actually broadcast and create original work - highly praised work - for their digital channels, they don't just stuff it full with repeats of The Professionals

Seems like a standard case of "I don't use it, but I paid for it & I demand I get it back!"

I for one watched ITV 3 "A Touch of Frost" "Foyles War" and also Poirot so I am upset.......This is Misery being peddled by UPC and what do they give me (nothing, as we speak TV3 has just gone again...check your leads: blah blah blah, "This station is not part of your package.........give me patience you morons...IT IS. SKY for me by to U.

ardmacha

ITV was not in a position to renew the current agreement with UPC on any terms. ITV has an exclusive rights arrangement with another Irish channel provider for ITV programming content.

ITV pulled these channels. Why then does this thread refer to UPC peddling misery, UPC pull a stunt etc? I have no brief for UPC, but if ITV don't allow them show the channels why are people blaming UPC. The only thing you can blame UPC for is not sourcing other content. Why is the UK channel 5 never in a package or content sourced in the US directly?

I do miss Channel One though :mad:

scootermart

Anyone know if there is a way to watch shows that were recorded on the UPC DVR before the channels went? I have tons of Poirots, Marples, Sherlocks, Minders that I want to see!

Dennis the Stone

scootermart wrote: »

Anyone know if there is a way to watch shows that were recorded on the UPC DVR before the channels went? I have tons of Poirots, Marples, Sherlocks, Minders that I want to see!

Mon ami, it appears that you should still be able to view these shows.

Dennis the Stone

Dennis the Stone wrote: »

Mon ami, it appears that you should still be able to view these shows.

Sacrebleu!

scootermart

Nope, either the little grey cells are experiencing technical difficulties, but when I try and watch something recorded a month ago it says you can no longer watch a show recorded on a channel you are no longer subscribed to. That doesn’t seem fair.

icdg

This is a known issue with the conditional access system used by UPC.

If the channel is removed, or changes it name, the CAS doesn't see it any more, so the system won't let you view recordings because it thinks you aren't subscribed to it.

The rather inelegant workaround used by UPC recently is to create "dummy" channels up in the late 700s with the old names of channels. It fools the CAS into thinking the channels are still there so you can view old recordings.

There was some confusion last week when the ITV channels appeared to revert to carrying programme listings from Friday. Some people thought they were coming back and phoned UPC. As a result UPC pulled the entries completely.

Why they won't create the dummy channels for the ITV channels may be linked to the above. It is causing people not to be able to view recordings though.

Stench Blossoms

Not happy about this. I need my car crash TV fix from ITV2