mcdanielw03's profile

Contributor

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Monday, September 26th, 2016 5:13 AM

Is there a way to remove "not subscribed to" channels within bundled packages

I find myself asking why channels whos social and political views I do not agree with are added to bundle packages. Why must I pay for these channels and add revenue to these companies and organizations I do not agree with or watch. Is there a feature to remove and credit channels in bundled packages. If there is not I find myself considering other cable providers other than AT&T.

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

ACE - Expert

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27.6K Messages

8 years ago

You can hide channels that you do not watch.

 

  • Menu (button)>Options>System>Hide Channels
  • Be sure to "Save" when done. 
  • Each TV must be done separately.

I've hidden all the sports, shopping, kiddie and Jesus channels.  I do not watch these channels and have no need for them but they are included in my package.

 

What I want and what you want can be polar opposites but "pay" (ie. cable) TV is designed to appeal to a larger demographic.  It will be the same no matter who the provider is.

Scholar

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153 Messages

8 years ago

Now people want to even run form having a debate. It's my way and I don't want to be exposed to other viewpoints. WOW! 

 

It's part of a package. Like the man says, hide 'em if you can't take an opposing opinion. 

ACE - Expert

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27.6K Messages

8 years ago

Sadly, some of the most negative posts were about the now defunct Al Jazzera TV ("terrorist" TV) and Logo (LGBTQ TV).  smh

 

We'd tell them "Don't like it?  Hide it!"

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

8 years ago


@mcdanielw03 wrote:
I find myself asking why channels whos social and political views I do not agree with are added to bundle packages. Why must I pay for these channels and add revenue to these companies and organizations I do not agree with or watch. Is there a feature to remove and credit channels in bundled packages. If there is not I find myself considering other cable providers other than AT&T.

I'm not aware of any provided that lets customers pick and choose what channels they pay for; as far as I know, all providers have bundles of channels. 

 

Remember that the major news channels are owned by much larger companies that own multiple channels and the monthly fees go to those larger companies. The individual channels are only effected they actually get viewers, not neccearily subscribers. 

 

Since these large companies own multiple channels, they might own channels you enjoy. For example, I don't watch Fox News, but I do enjoy FoxSports Midwest and FXX. I rarely watch CNN, but watch TBS and Cartoon Network ocassionally. I don't watch MSNBC, but do watch USA, Bravo, and the cable channels that carry the Olympics. 

ACE - Professor

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7.6K Messages

8 years ago

I believe Dish has a "slim" package which is more like "sports" or "news" or "entertainment" or whatever. I find that interesting, considering that channel owners typically force TV companies to combine their channels. Want to carry ESPN? Well, you also need every Disney and ESPN channel on certain tiers.

Tutor

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7 Messages

8 years ago

Sad - It seems the respondents so far are missing the point that McDanielW03 was making.  The concern is not the superficial, “How do I get these channels out of my face while I’m channel surfing?”  Rather it is, “How do I keep my money from going into the pockets of organizations whose practices I find morally objectionable?”  Specifically, McDanielW03 asked,

 

“Why must I pay for these channels and add revenue to these companies and organizations I do not agree with or watch.”

 

If you feel deeply about your beliefs you probably have no problem with engaging in civil conversation or debate about important topics that you care about.  But surely you are justified in not wanting to pay to support the opposition’s propaganda machine.  Withholding your patronage is the very essence of “boycott”, which is widely recognized as an effective means of getting the attention of “The Big Boys” focused on your point of view.  I believe that was the point being made.  To paraphrase the closing line of the post: “If you can’t provide me the option to honor my moral convictions through boycott, I’ll take my business elsewhere.” 

 

The concerns expressed by McDanielW03 are clearly not from a lone voice in the night.  If you are paying attention you will notice that various providers are in fact offering services on a more granular level, allowing you to be much more specific in picking only the channels you want to subscribe to.  It’s the way of the future; have a look at the customized cell phone options you have these days.  As the houses that The Big Boys live in become more and more transparent, they are going to have to pay closer attention to who they are in bed with.  At some point the customers are going to notice.

 

The truth is they are all trying to make a buck.  On a much more superficial level, I think AT&T’s tactic of making sure you wade through all the channels that you are NOT subscribed to (as well as all those free junk advertising channels) when you are simply looking for something that looks interesting, is disgraceful.  It’s their not-so-subtle way of forcing you to browse through all the advertisers’ channels and the really cool stuff you are missing on the premium channels.  For AT&T it’s a thinly veiled way to bait you to “upgrade”.  If you as the customer tolerate it, so much the better for AT&T – it’s an advertising gimmick and I’m sure it works on some small percentage of us.  Unfortunately it’s at the expense of the rest of us who find it annoying.  Yes I know, they say you can go through one-by-one and “hide” any channels you don’t want to appear in the line-up.  But there are literally hundreds of them and it’s an absurdly tedious thing to do.  My previous service provider had a very simple option for this “hide the channel” feature:  You could click on one choice that said basically, “Show only the channels I’m subscribed to.”  That takes care of a huge chunk of them.  Then you go in and customize the result to eliminate the rest of the junk.  You know AT&T is aware of how easily they could do this, but instead they present you with a “solution” that is so cumbersome that nobody will do it.  And so we are forced to continue to plow through the junk as we look for the gems.

 

So,  putting morality aside, using a strictly technical interpretation and with emphasis on “easily”, I'd like to ask the original question once again:

 

Is there a way to (easily) remove not-subscribed-to channels within bundled packages (so they do not appear in the line-up when browsing)?

 

Thanks.

ACE - Expert

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27.6K Messages

8 years ago

If you find that hiding channels is exhausting, your other option is to set up a "Favorites" list. 

 

Some subs like the "Favorites" option.  Me?  I'm a bit of a clean freak so I choose to hide the channels I don't watch.  Besides, I like the ability to hide channels on each TV.  I have channels hidden (sports) on the TV in my workroom.  DH has them on the big TV in the LR.

 

AFA channels being packaged, that's part of the negotiation between the networks and the provider.  Let's use Discovery Communications as an example.  Of course they want all their channels out there...from Animal Planet to TLC to OWN and all of the others.  If it means I have to hide Discovery Kids in order to have TLC on my U300, so be it.

 

ACE - Expert

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14.1K Messages

8 years ago


@pLamps wrote:

 

 

So,  putting morality aside, using a strictly technical interpretation and with emphasis on “easily”, I'd like to ask the original question once again:

 

Is there a way to (easily) remove not-subscribed-to channels within bundled packages (so they do not appear in the line-up when browsing)?

 

Thanks.


That's not the original question at all. The original question was about channels the poster subscribed to, but didn't like. Your question is about channels not subscribed to, but in the guide.I'm not sure you say not-subscribed-to channel within bundled packages, as a not-subscribed-to channel is, by definition, not within the bundled package. 

 


@pLamps wrote:

 

 

The concerns expressed by McDanielW03 are clearly not from a lone voice in the night.  If you are paying attention you will notice that various providers are in fact offering services on a more granular level, allowing you to be much more specific in picking only the channels you want to subscribe to.  It’s the way of the future; have a look at the customized cell phone options you have these days.  As the houses that The Big Boys live in become more and more transparent, they are going to have to pay closer attention to who they are in bed with.  At some point the customers are going to notice.

 

 


What providers are these? 

Tutor

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7 Messages

8 years ago

Hi skeeterintexas,

Here's my issue in its simplest form: I don't understand why AT&T would include channels that I am not subscribed to in the listings when I'm browsing for something to watch. It makes no sense. Unless I'm missing something, there is no way for me to watch a channel I'm not subscribed to, so why present it to me in the listing?

I appreciate your suggestions for work-around though. I can either hide the channels I don't want listed, or I can create a "Favorites" list to include the channels that I do want listed. Unfortunately either way you come at it the task is daunting. There are far too many channels in either category.

Consider that the full listing includes several hundred channels. Lets say roughly 100 of those are not in my U300 service package, so I can't watch them even if I wanted to. Then there are all the shopping channels that I am not interested in. Now among the remaining channels essentially all those below 1000 I would not watch because they are duplicated in HD in the channels above 1000 and the only TV I have is an HD TV.

Now, seriously; step back and take a deep breath and visualize the situation. Does it sound sane to ask a customer to go through that many channels using the TV remote to pick the channels one-by-one to hide?

And if you take the converse approach of adding the channels you DO want to watch to a "Favorites" list, you are again faced with selecting a hundred or more channels one-by-one to add to the list using the buttons on a TV remote!

Either of these task are made that much more difficult because nobody has memorized which channels are or are not in their package, nor have we memorized which are junk shopping channels. If you've ever tried it, you know that the list presented from which you make your picks is in channel number order. Sadly the channels you will be needing to select are quite often scattered through different parts of the list. The task is far more difficult than even what is obvious from selecting hundreds of channels for your list by clicking with the TV remote.

You know, I did a quick Internet search and found this exact same concern voiced back in October of 2013! Here's part of a post from October 15, 20013 (3 years ago):

"Going through 600+ channels one by one, checking to see if they are under the subscription or not, and going through the steps of disabling it is ridiculous. The default should be that these channels are not visible, with only one button or setting to enable or disable them."

I was also totally amused that the very next post closed the discussion even though no solution had been presented:

Open quote

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Taylarie
Oct 15, 2013 5:39:27 AM
Moderator

I would like to thank everyone for taking the time to post your comments and opinions related to this topic. This topic has been thoroughly discussed and will now be closed.

Remember to always mark items that you find useful as "Accepted Solutions", you can even mark multiple posts in a single thread. This will help other users find this information too!!

Close quote

And obviously, now 3 years later, people are still bringing it up and there is still no hint that AT&T is willing to acknowledge that it IS a big annoyance to the customers. It is becoming obvious that this situation is not simply due to incompetence, but rather it is deliberate and AT&T has some specific reason to perpetuate this practice.

If they can't have the list default to just the channels I'm subscribed to, then how about a compromise. At least implement a means for identifying a block of channels that can be selected, as you would in almost any modern computer application. You know, like pick the first and last in a series and "select block", or something like that. If you can't do it using the TV remote, then how about at least implementing some more efficient way for us to make selections through our on-line account.

I feel I'm wasting my time. History shows this is and has been a real issue with AT&T customers, and yet every time someone brings it up again, it's treated like, "Oh, this is a new one. Let's see if we can blow some smoke and eventually the complainers will get tired of breathing it and give up."

Well I'm about at that point. The problem is obvious and I am certain someone at AT&T is surely smart enough to fix it. But if nobody down in the AT&T front-line trenches is brave enough to pass the complaint up the chain, it just isn't going to get addressed.

Thanks again though for at least giving it a little thought.

ACE - Expert

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27.6K Messages

8 years ago

Geez, you are waaayy over thinking this!   

 

I'm old and don't have the energy to get my knickers in a twist over what I consider a minor issue. 

 

I've hidden the channels I don't have or don't want.  Done and done.

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