why no fox news channel in program guide??

[drfreeman]

when tln came on they put them on the web page right away!
hmmm....... the don't even show fnc on the web page as a channel
and is not even on the program guide...
what do you suppose is going on with that?
a temp spot for fnc??



Dan Freeman

[RJS1111111]

They might have been desperate to find almost anything to carry instead of keeping a vacant channel card up much longer, claiming that a new channel was coming "soon".

FNC may have been the first cable channel that Sky Angel asked, who agreed to be carried; either for free, or for a reasonable price. The deal might have stated something like "no commitment and no immediate listing".

Or maybe FNC approached Sky Angel, wanting to increase its viewership to include the households with SA-only subscriptions.

Maybe DISH is disputing SA carriage of an AT120 channel that is not specifically religious. Maybe DISH was willing to allow it only if FNC is kept off the SA EPG.

[Pepper]

Or it might just be that they don't update the guide data very often.

Ever notice how the descriptions of programs on SA's PAX affiliate are generic descriptions of the series, and those of the same programs that are on Dish's PAX feed are descriptive of the specific episode? For this reason incidentally, a DishPASS will gleefully skip all episodes of any series on SkyAngel once it records the first one.

Example:
(Dish PAX) Sue Thomas F.B.Eye. On a mission to rescue kittens from a terrorist cell, Sue and Jack discover a plan to blow up the Washington subway.
(Sky Angel PAX) Sue Thomas F.B.Eye. Sue Thomas, though profoundly deaf from birth, works as an investigator at the FBI.

[jegrant]

I think it's just a slow process to get on-screen guide listings updated. After all, I know that when RadioU has changed their schedule in the past, it seemed like it was quite a long time before the new show times were properly reflected on Sky Angel.

The one thing that doesn't quite make sense to me though is since Fox News is already carried on DISH, it seems like it would be a simple matter to "mirror" the schedule to another channel (I don't mean mirror the actual video stream; more like a cut & paste in the guide software.)
However, there still might be a delay, because I don't think E* and SA* have ever had an identically listed network. (Even Daystar has one ID for E* (DSTAR) and a different one for SA* (DAY).)

In any case, I highly doubt that Sky Angel would have added this channel or said some of the things they did on the special webpage about it ( http://www.skyangel.com/fnc/ ), if it was merely intended to be temporary filler.
If they really wanted filler, they might have just kept the slide with KSBJ as background.

[RJS1111111]

Okay, I went back and actually read what SA had to say about FNC. It looks like FNC is on SA to stay! I'm somewhat surprised that DISH apparently hasn't raised any objections.

SA has always had generic, static, re-useable schedule info. It may have something to do with relying on a DISH satellite and uplink center. Authorizing new subscribers has always been cumbersome, which could be for the same reason.

Hopefully these things will improve someday, when SA gets its own first satellite and uplink facility.

[mattb]

I have my suspicions about the FNC relationship with SA... It seems weird that they still list the channel as INSP on the guide and dont mention it on the TV listings on their website. It's almost like they dont want to many folks to know that they are now carrying FNC. I admit I like FNC, I dont have access to 110/119 due to no second dish (only having skyangel lifetime) and I like being able to get the news on FNC. :-) without having to sub to standard cable.

Plus it gives me something to watch besides TVU.