Vote for most useless Directv Channels?

10517 Views 169 Replies 70 Participants Last post by Sharkie_Fan, Aug 7, 2008

mitchelljd

Discussion Starter · Jul 31, 2008

I know there are some Directv channels which annoy you and even though you may think they have no appeal to you, they appeal to someone? they are still harmful and take up valuable bandwidth which lets fewer other channels get carried, or makes your picture quality suffer.

so, my choices for being nuked are:

WIZE (221): Carries nothing but infomercials
DTV (222): Carries nothing but infomercials
CRTV (243): Carries nothing but infomercials
IRTV (268): Carries nothing but infomercials
ION (305): 66% infomercials and then 8 hours of regular reruns or old movies
JTV (313) - How many channels on jewelry sales do we need? there must be 3-4 of them?
CRTV (314): Carries nothing but infomercials
AOR (315) Carries nothing but infomercials
BUY (318) Carries nothing but infomercials
CSTR (319) Carries nothing but infomercials

I would also say that channels 365-378 has about 12 religious channels which could easily be consolidated into fewer. I dislike how i am forced to subscribe to these channels i don't want and my subscription fees support religious stuff. whether or not they have good messages, i just don't want to have to pay for them. let it be optional.

ok, any thoughts? just felt like adding a topic some peeps may chime in about

1 - 20 of 170 Posts

Guesst925XTU

· #2 · Jul 31, 2008

Aside from an occasional soccer game or NASCAR race I don't watch sports, neither does anyone in my household so all those RSNs and ESPNs would be the first to go! That would cut a good $20 per month off my bill!

I'd also drop FOX News and FOX Business in a heartbeat. CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN along with the news programs on LinkTV & BBC America are all I need.

Brian Hanasky

· #3 · Jul 31, 2008

I would dump nearly all of the "fringe" shopping channels. I can see maybe 1 or 2 to please people but there are too many now.

The infomercial channels are the same way. Probably could dump a bunch of them. Ditto for the religious channels a handfull is enough.

The above would be to please the people who say that these are important channels and D* should dump all the sports channels. It's like compromising on pizza toppings...give a little and get a little.

If I wasn't trying to please everybody I would love option to dump all channels I find useless and subtract $ off of my bill each month. Mabye 50 cents a channel or something. This is like ordering my own pizza and getting the toppings I want and only what I want.

Mariah2014

· #4 · Jul 31, 2008

any channel that is constant infomercials would be on my list to get rid of.

Sirshagg

· #5 · Jul 31, 2008

I could easilly do without:
All shopping channels
All religious channels
All non-english language channels
All XM channels
All MTV / VH1 channels
All PPV channels
All but 1-2 SD channels
Most sports channels

Brian Hanasky

· #6 · Jul 31, 2008

It seems that most of us would like to get rid of some or a lot of channels.

How much money would you associate with each channel?

Sirshagg

· #7 · Jul 31, 2008

Brian Hanasky said:
It seems that most of us would like to get rid of some or a lot of channels.

How much money would you associate with each channel?

Well, they would have to pay me a significant amount of money to watch the first three I listed

Doug Brott

· #8 · Jul 31, 2008

Brian Hanasky said:
If I wasn't trying to please everybody I would love option to dump all channels I find useless and subtract $ off of my bill each month. Mabye 50 cents a channel or something. This is like ordering my own pizza and getting the toppings I want and only what I want.

You do realize that many of these channels actually pay DIRECTV to be carried. So if they were dropped, your bill would likely be higher.

demonstimpy

· #9 · Jul 31, 2008

Agreed on these:

All shopping channels
All religious channels
All PPV channels

Sirshagg said:
I could easilly do without:
All shopping channels
All religious channels
All non-english language channels
All XM channels
All MTV / VH1 channels
All PPV channels
All but 1-2 SD channels
Most sports channels

dcowboy7

· #10 · Jul 31, 2008

Guesst925XTU said:
I'd also drop FOX News and FOX Business in a heartbeat. CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN along with the news programs on LinkTV & BBC America are all I need.

i know who your voting for. :lol:

Mod Edit: Folks, this is not the place for a political discussion - Stuart

Stuart Sweet

· #11 · Jul 31, 2008

Folks, that's what favorites lists are for. The channels you all speak of are SD-only, and so aren't taking up huge amounts of bandwidth (especially the audio-only ones).

Clearly these channels appeal to someone. Everyone has different likes or dislikes. If you consider the number of DIRECTV subscribers (18 million give or take) that means there are more DIRECTV subs than there are citizens of the Netherlands. In fact, if DIRECTVland were a country it would be the 58th largest of the 221 listed by Wikipedia.

That's a lot of different people with a lot of different ideas about what's entertaining.

For the record, my favorites lists contain zero religious channels, one shopping channel (Mrs. Shadow, senior, likes it when she visits) zero non-English channels and all the PPVs are in their own favorites list. But I would defend your ability to watch all that stuff to the best of my ability. You are entitled to like what you like and ignore what you don't.

tftc22

· #12 · Jul 31, 2008

Doug Brott said:
You do realize that many of these channels actually pay DIRECTV to be carried. So if they were dropped, your bill would likely be higher.

Also, you could say part of the money from these channels is helping to finance the launch of new satellites so they may actually be increasing bandwidth (yeah I know that's a bit of a stretch

). There must be some demand for these infomercial channels or they'd all just go bankrupt. As far as bandwidth, I would guess that Directv will eventually switch even the SD channels over to MPEG4. (Of course, that won't happen anytime soon since equipment upgrades would be so great).

But personally I just ignore the infomercial channels like I assume most people do. Although I find it fascinating that infomercial channels are perceived as junk channels and "regular" shopping channels are perceived as content. (Yes the shopping channel format even tricks me to some degree.)

Old Tv Watcher

· #13 · Jul 31, 2008

Stuart Sweet said:
Folks, that's what favorites lists are for. The channels you all speak of are SD-only, and so aren't taking up huge amounts of bandwidth (especially the audio-only ones).

Clearly these channels appeal to someone. Everyone has different likes or dislikes. If you consider the number of DIRECTV subscribers (18 million give or take) that means there are more DIRECTV subs than there are citizens of the Netherlands. In fact, if DIRECTVland were a country it would be the 58th largest of the 221 listed by Wikipedia.

That's a lot of different people with a lot of different ideas about what's entertaining.

For the record, my favorites lists contain zero religious channels, one shopping channel (Mrs. Shadow, senior, likes it when she visits) zero non-English channels and all the PPVs are in their own favorites list. But I would defend your ability to watch all that stuff to the best of my ability. You are entitled to like what you like and ignore what you don't.

I agree. If you don't like them don't watch them.

smokes20

· #14 · Jul 31, 2008

Doug Brott said:
You do realize that many of these channels actually pay DIRECTV to be carried. So if they were dropped, your bill would likely be higher.

Exactly, I would much rather have channels that support my habit to watch the channels in my favorites list, than to pay an increased fee to watch my favorites.

As for the oodles of shopping channels, you would be surprised how many people do watch and order from them. I don't, but again, they allow Directv to charge us less.

HSN, QVC and ShopNBC have a following that would rival the NFL channels. Many wives, GF and others are watching those shopping channels while we die hard NFL fans are watching our games.

Elephanthead

· #15 · Jul 31, 2008

Many people love to shop from home, and don't know what the internet is, so they get infomercials. Everyone needs a pocket fisherman now and then.

DCSholtis

· #16 · Jul 31, 2008

Also that old dude on Coin Country is a hoot to watch.

GregLee

· #17 · Jul 31, 2008

Stuart Sweet said:
Clearly these channels appeal to someone.

Why is that clear?

Stuart Sweet

· #18 · Jul 31, 2008

Because, Mr. Lee, they are still in business. If they had no appeal then their ongoing survival would be threatened by their lack of capital.

LOCODUDE

· #19 · Jul 31, 2008

GregLee said:
Why is that clear?

Because it's not...... dark?

techdimwit

· #20 · Jul 31, 2008

1. Shopping channels
2. PPV channels
3. Religious (don't hate 'em, just don't watch 'em.)
4. Anything with infomercials
5. RFD (I mean, what is THAT?)
6. XM (What is the point?)
7. tru.tv (I seriously despise those "World's Worst Driver" shows.)

I'd also drop FOX News and FOX Business in a heartbeat. CNN, MSNBC, CSPAN along with the news programs on LinkTV & BBC America are all I need.

Some of us enjoy more than one viewpoint. However, I agree on BBC America - we just need it in HD.

1 - 20 of 170 Posts

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