Bell TV Pricing and Programming Packages Discussion

[MaxHeadroom]

rosenqui, Do yourself a favour and cancel today. It will be 30 days before service is disconnected and by then CBC will be carrying all the games anyway.

I'm in the same boat as you, with a lot of Bell equipment, and really only wanting TSN and Sportsnet. Unfortunately Bell and Rogers want us to take more channels so they can subsidize the good channels and their owned-sports teams, and the CRTC forces us to pay for local channels that are available for free via OTA.

Maybe if enough of us cancel the providers AND CRTC will get the message. CRTC will want to protect CanCon. I heard on the news today (Bell-owned station, of course) that Rogers lost 7000 cable subs in the last quarter and I noticed their stock price is down over 5% today. Of course, the news outlets are owned by Bell and Rogers mostly now, so the real story seldom gets out.

[rosenqui]

I'd give my 30-day notice now, but I have zero confidence that Bell would get it right and give me the full 30 days of service I pay for. Most likely my signal would cut out during an overtime game I'm watching on TSN :-(

The 7000 lost cable subs was from Rogers themselves at their AGM today, although the implication was that they lost them to Bell's Fibe IPTV service rather than to OTA or Internet-based service. One analyst expects Rogers to lose up to 86000 cable subs in 2012!

[cyclist44]

I read in this forum that The Documentary Channel has been added to the Variety 1 Theme pack. I have Variety 1 but I don't get this channel. Is this something you have to call Bell about. I do not want to switch to the new theme packs. I would be paying more and getting less.

[rogue17]

MaxHeadroom c/p

Maybe if enough of us cancel the providers AND CRTC will get the message. CRTC will want to protect CanCon. I heard on the news today (Bell-owned station, of course) that Rogers lost 7000 cable subs in the last quarter and I noticed their stock price is down over 5% today. Of course, the news outlets are owned by Bell and Rogers mostly now, so the real story seldom gets ou

If Bell would offer a la carte in Toronto than Rogers would lose more subs and fast. One note A la carte is good but they do not have all the channels in there like Speed, GSN etc. But if all you want is TSN,Sportsnet and couple of others than it is good.

Here is a promotion that a member here got with Fibe TV in Quebec.
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/show...=149861&page=3

Of course a la carte is offered in Quebec to counter Videotron which is like Rogers in Ontario.

If Rogers ever changes to a la carte than Bell will respond to that.

[gmd]

"À compter de juin 2012, le tarif mensuel de votre forfait Horaire variable américain augmentera de 2 $."

US West locals are going up from $1 to $3. That a 200% increase.

In the end,
1) We must take Bell-owned stations (they're in the lower-tier basic package)
2) All other stations will cost more

$3 for stations on which simsubs are in full swing.

-gmd

[West of Carp]

@cyclist44 - I'll bet it's only included with the new packaging. Bait & switch. Guess I'm getting cynical in my old age

[reidw]

Remember too there is no longer a Variety 1 theme pack in any area where the New "GBB" packages are in effect. The only Variety is the Variety add-on to the either the Good or Better packages.

[Ronn88]

I am still on the "old" packages,and I just had a look at my online Bell account.I see Documentary is listed in the "More Movies" Theme pack.

I can't remember if it was listed there before or not.

[Phage]

Can you imagine a bookstore run by these guys? "Oh, sorry... you cannot buy Acrhitecture in Canada unless you also buy this Harlequin book, Cooking in Mexico and the Bob Marley biography. Also, all new customers since January must now also buy some screw drivers, scuba diving flippers and packing tape. We are also now including an Oxygen surcharge fee for breathing while you shop."

[jnhto]

I currently have BETTER but was thinking of switching to SELECT.
But when i log into the BELL system. Select isnt there... Even though under better it indicates.. Better includes.. blah blah blah plus the GOOD and SELECT channels...

[MaxHeadroom]

You can still get Select on it's own, you just have to call Bell TV and ask.

[reidw]

When GBB was introduced, Select was a selectable option separate from Good/Better/Best on the web page. That lasted for about a day after which Select was buried in the Better package and became unselectable. I think this may have happened because Bell found too many of us opting for the cheaper Select as our package perhaps with one or two add-ons from the Best package. I know that that would have satisfied me at a lower cost than what I would now be paying if I gave up my old theme packages.

[JoeLouie]

Just call and ask for it. That's all I did.

[reidw]

Do you remember the price for SELECT by itself?

[MaxHeadroom]

I think the pricing of Select was just shy of $61 + taxes.