Sportsnet Regional Channels? Increased bitrates for sports?...Any word on delivery?

[habsfan]

End of September, before I was even a customer, I asked about the availability of Sportsnet regional channels and was assured they were "launching soon and "in the next week or two". After becoming a customer was involved in the convo surrounding sports picture quality in which it was said vmedia had tested channels at a higher bitrate and were looking to roll it out 2-3 channels at a time after R***s CBB issues were dealt with; and in fairness the PVR "Upgrade" that broke the world happened very soon after this was announced. It doesn't have to be tomorrow, or even next week, but can someone from Vmedia give me a date I can actually put on the calendar to see one or both of these changes? "Soon" and "in the coming weeks" are no good to me; just a date (you can overshoot if you want to, that way everyone will be pleasantly surprised when you deliver early on a deadline ). I subscribe to TV for live sports, other live sports and live sports. Also, I occasionally watch live sports. With the NHL hockey deal in Canada largely depending on the Sportsnet channels they're a must for me, and better quality of all sports stations across the board would be welcome. Thanks in advance,

[GeorgeBurger]

Hi as one habsfan to another, I feel your pain. The fact is we have been ready in every respect to launch the channels, but the channel owner for some reason has be slow to authorize the launch. I was in touch with them as recently as today, and quite frankly the delay has nothing to do with us at this point, and hasn't for at least a month. I am sorry, but I hope you understand.

[habsfan]

I appreciate the response, particularly from the owner of the company (nice to see some hands on from the powers that be ), but unfortunately the response is of little help. If your hands are tied by the channel owner on the launch, then it is what is but if you have a contract in place are they not in breach of said contract? As for the second question, that has nothing to do with the channel owners and it's entirely on your end so it would be reasonable to believe that you at least have a ballpark date for providing content at a higher bitrate. With the exception of the fiasco that was the last couple of weeks after the upgrade I have been quite happy with the service overall, and the changes I'm asking about would make things just about perfect. As a small piece of advice, try to avoid premature announcements of service improvements, upgrades, channel and feature offerings. While I understand the need to create hype and buzz, and to get people excited about your business and make them want to sign up when announcements like "in the next few days" and "next week" turn into two or three months with no sign of arrival it looks far worse on the company IMO than simply not having that feature/channel/service right now. To say it's being worked on, that you are aiming to provide the service soon; all good, but to set deadlines you are unable to meet (whether it be Vmedia's fault or a channel owner or Broadband seller) is simply not good business practice. I appreciate all of the hard work being done by both you and your staff (I must specifically point out the long suffering but ever helpful leshka here as often going above and beyond for the customers and their complaints) but you will be far better off selling what you have, not what you may have at some point, some time, maybe in the future. Broken "promises" lead to frustrated and disenchanted customers, and given that word of mouth is almost assuredly your number one advertising strategy this is something to be avoided at all costs. I apologize if this has come across as a negative post; I truly am rooting for you and your company to succeed and hope to be a customer for a long time to come; but this will happen only with increased reliability and delivery on promises made. I hope that after the last two weeks the reliability issue has been resolved, and trust that that the promises become more reasonable in their time frame and delivery. Best of luck, here's hoping I am still here this time next year to request more features and services

[Hacksaw2085]

Leshka had mentioned that they would start to roll our higher bit rate channels once the peak bandwidth issues on rCable are resolved.

[habsfan]

Leshka had mentioned that they would start to roll our higher bit rate channels once the peak bandwidth issues on rCable are resolved.

absolutely; saw and noted the post especially the fact that it had been successfully tested Now just wondering about a ballpark date for the rollout. Thanks for the response though

[Hacksaw2085]

absolutely; saw and noted the post especially the fact that it had been successfully tested Now just wondering about a ballpark date for the rollout. Thanks for the response though

I wouldn't say the rCable issues are resolved yet if that is what you mean by successfully tested. My speeds are still dropping off to 5mbps at times during peak hours as are several others on the forums.

[habsfan]

no not referring to the rCable...see here forum.vmedia.ca/forum/tv-tech-support-questions/10341-hockey-picture-qualtiy/page2 for what I'm referring to re: successfully tested...so while i realize implementation not until the rCable issues solved (which they clearly aren't yet but getting better) just hoping for some form of timeline

[Hacksaw2085]

Ahh got ya

[goldstomp]

Any news on the Regional Sportsnet channels?