New Bell HD Packages (formerly titled: Bell HD Price Increase)

  • Thread starter Thread starter haystack
  • Start date Start date
Just a quick point, I don't believe you get both East and West US HD for free. You only get one set. IFyou buy any extra HD pack, you get the US HD time-share at that point.
 
standard digital is fine, hockey and basketball seasons almost over, no more sports on unless u like da jays
 
Or if you like Canadian football. It is only available on TSN this season meaning that you need Sports Pack 1.
 
I get both feeds??? If you get both feeds in the digital standard,, youll get them in HD automaticaly now.
 
I believe the only theme pack channels that are coupled are TSN, Raptors and Sportsnet. It also looks like HD nets time shifting is now coupled to SD nets time shifting (for $1.)
 
I understand that there is no immediate change for existing customers as long as you stay with your current theme packages. Is that correct? (anyone?)
 
Switching to another service is always an option. It doesn't hurt to remind Bell of that when negotiating a package. ;)
 
I see where rush, equator, oasis and treasure (can't remember exactly) are showing free preview till nov.31. Why is this, i've had these channels since forever, why the change now?
 
This is crazy! Do they have a monkey putting this together? This will really screw me around. Right now all I want is (besides basics and movies) are just 3 themes and 3 of the new HD packs with NO SPORTS.

Currently:
Price protected on my 3 themes at $5 each so
3 SD themes x $5 = $15
Old HD pack = $10
Total = $25. I am very happy and content with my current programming.


Now, if I have to change my subscription to get Nat.Geo HD after the "free" period:

Option 1:
Loose my price protection on the themes so
3 SD themes X $8 = $24
3 HD themes X $5 = 15$
Total = $39

Options 2:
Get 1 HD Sports to get 4/$10 deal, then must add 1 more SD sports theme as well, so
4 SD themes x $8 = $32
4 HD themes = $10
Total $42

An increase of $14 or $17 per month for nothing!
 
Rah, Rah EV... :D

Yes there are some good points to EV... if you want certain package combinations. The same goes for any provider. I switched to EV because their packages were much better organized and cheaper than Rogers or *C at the time. But just look at what has happened in the meantime...
1. Bell service reliability, especially for HD, has gone way down.
2. Bell programming costs have gone way up, faster than the industry average. (Once much cheaper than Rogers or *C, it is now close to par with Rogers and more than *C.)
3. Package choices and organization have gone from very good and easy to understand to sometimes illogical and very complicated.
4. Most HD channels were offered free, were included with the SD channel or offered unbundled from the SD channel. Now they almost all cost extra, are bundled with SD themes and are not offered independent of the SD counterpart.

OTOH, some people just want the tier 1 specialty channels (TSN HD is included with Rogers and *C in basic packages, not for $10 extra) and a simple, affordable choice of extra bundles and/or individual tier 2 channels. Rogers offers a few, individual priced bundles based on content, not one flat price regardless of cost or value. They also offer a choice of any 5, 10, 15, 20 tier 2 channels at a fixed price, not single channels only tied to bundles or at an inflated price.

So I can sing the praises of EV or *C or Rogers, depending on the circumstances. One thing I do know is that EV has gone rapidly downhill in almost all respects in the past two years. What was one a very good service at a very good price is not clearly as good as it was. OTOH, Rogers and *C have improved.
 
Gino this is getting tiring. Anyone who had the HD value pack at that time got Oasis and Treasure as it was the only HD pack available. The only ones the free preview would apply to would be someone with a HD tuner but didn't subscribe to the only plan available the HD Value pack. The two channels I lost, Geo and Showcase which were both on free preview before Bell brought in the new HD themes and I have them in SD. Not only that but IIRC Geographic had come off it's free preview and than gone back on again and after it came off the second time, I lost it.
 
Rediculous packages...



Should be something like

#1
TSN
RAPTORS
SCORE
RUSH

#2
A&E
SHOWCASE
WGN
TREASURE

#3
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
DISCOVERY
EQUATOR
OASIS

Then you get 4 channels each and they are relatively well suited to each other. Of course it's done on purpose so the sports fan needs to get 2 packages and educational fans needs 3. I hate Bell's packages for this reason, their SD ones are just as bad.

What also dosen't make sense is that you would still need the Sports Pack 1 in order to get TSN HD and Raptors, so if you didn't have this package then you are paying $5 for WGN? Frankly if we are paying separately for HD themes now then the SD counterparts should not be mandatory and in that case I can scrap Sports Pack 1.
 
I'm sorry you're tired Interceptor. No one is forcing you to respond.

Anyway, I seem to recall something similar when Geo and Showcase were introduced but in my case I only subscribed to Showcase in SD. When the free preview ended the channels disappeared from my Guide completely. Even when showing 'ALL' available channels they did not show up in red. When I called Bell about it they gave me some BS story that amounted to a technical limitation in their software that prevented me from getting the channel because I was on a legacy package. The only way to get it was to move to their new package system. They've been hiding some of the new HD channels from me ever since but they did add others as well. That was years ago, it wasn't until last week that I finally made the move to their new packages. The amount of new HD channels finally made the move worth the extra expense.
 
Yes you guys are correct. No change for us who have the all in package. Its only for new to HD customers in April onwards. :)
 
Ok, perhaps someone needs to formally ask the question here so we can get a clear answer.

Does a BellTV customer need to hold TSN in SD in order to get it in HD?

About a year ago, Bell forced customers to purchase Sports 1 and HD Sports in order to get TSN in HD.

If you had HD Sports without Sports1, you would be blocked out of TSN.

Is this still the case?

If a customer removes Sports 1, will he still get TSN in HD if he has HD Sports?
 
Who in their right mind is going to pay 5$ for a theme with A&E HD, every time I flip to that channel they are showing stretched SD
 
Is this information anywhere other than Show Magazine? Is it at the website?
Can someone give me the details? My Show magazine never arrives before the 5th of the month.
 
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