TV and Movies

[Caffeina]

Comcast is moving TCM to the Sports Entertainment Package, an extra $9.95/mo. This is supposed to happen October 10.

According to a Comcast employee on the Xfinity forums, "Every month, Comcast pays programmers like networks, local TV station owners and others, for the ability to bring their programming to you. We regularly review our programming and sometimes make changes to ensure we're offering a wide variety of programming at the best value. We look at a variety of factors, including customer viewership and programming costs when making these decisions. Viewership of TCM is low, as over 90% of our customers watch less than two movies per month. Given this and contractual limitations on offering TCM a la carte, we decided to move TCM to the Sports Entertainment Package, which will help us manage programming costs that are passed on to our customers while continuing to make the channel available to those who want to watch it."

[wishmoon]

I love the way these mega corps are crying poor mouth as they reach into our wallets. Disgusting.

[Shelbelle]

Guess that ends my relationship with Ben Manckiewicz, makes me very sad. 

[GAQShopr53]

These companies are getting ridiculous with all of these ancillary charges to the point where it is more beneficial to just subscribe directly to the channels (CBS, NBC, Epix). It only cost $5.99 to subscribe directly to some of them.

I think that if you were already receiving this channel as part of your package you should not have to pay the new charges (regardless of viewership). A smart company should start with new customers when implementing a change like this...just my opinion.

[wishmoon]

New customers get the most perks. Directv gives cut rates to new customers on occasion. I know we all got three months of the pay channels in the beginning...

[tucsongal]

So are they expecting people to purchase the sports package just to get TCM? As much as I enjoy an old movie from time to time, that’s not happening 🙁.

[sunshine45]

i already get the sports package so i guess i am safe......for now.....

[LisaMofSLC]

Like CMT was moved to a package. Now I can'r watch the only TV show on that channel I watched, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Making the team. I could see pay channels like HBO and Showtime costing extra but they are taking regular channels, lumping them together for more money, and not reducing our monthly cost. At this rate, TBS and TNT will cost extra while all I get is umpteen commercial channels and others I don't watch at all.

[wishmoon]

These companies have a captive audience in ppl like myself, I live in the country (which has many pros) but comes equipped with a few bad things, for instance, cable tv is awful so I have satellite, you have to go out in the lane to use your cell phone, wifi is spotty, etc. So ppl like me will have to go along w/these shananigans.

I envy those who can get the other channels like Roku, I have no idea how they work but when my TV tries to buffer shows, it's very slowwwwwww...

[Alter Ego]

This is horrible news! TCM is literally one of the few channels my 87 year old mother watches. Seriously, she often keeps it on 24/7. Cable is already so expensive on her limited budget that I know she won’t want to pay more. (And she tried Dish once; will not go back to satellite. Comcast is the best choice for her.)

But to include it in a SPORTS package!! I know I’m stereotyping here, but I’m guessing that the majority of people who are TCM fans are not into watching multiple sports channels and vice versa. 🙁