Sitting on the fence...

[CanPanther]

Hi! I've just found out about this company. I have seen some of the other new entrants, including the one that will be debuting soon with my current ISP, ***********. In doing some comparative shopping, I am pleasantly surprised that your company has beat the prices offered by my current one (by $5.00 for 30/5 unlimited cable internet and $6 for phone). That got my immediate attention. And while I have been reading thru the forums here and have noticed some concerns on the quality of service, that is not a major issue for me. It's almost expected at this point in time. Growing pains.

However, my biggest concern is for the price of the TV service. While I love BOTH the basic and premium packages (the prices and selection for each are really good). I am a little hesitant about the pricing for individual channels above those packages. Even at $1.50 for 12+ channels, a group of 40 would be $60. For that price (and including the premium package), I can go back to Rogers/Bell and have access to 100s more. Again, I realize that as a start-up, your pricing will probably depend on the amount of customers you have, and I probably will not even go as high as 40 extra channels anyway. But, as a pensioner, I have to watch every single penny that goes out the door.

So I guess my question is this: do you see a drop in the price occurring in the future, as more competition comes online? It is the only thing holding me back.

BTW, you now have your very own subreddit. Someone created it about a month ago. You might want to engage it for promotional purposes. Rogers is already there, responding to any posts that mentions them in the /r/Canada subreddit (approx. 150k subscribers). The link is reddit.com/r/Vmedia/

[BladeZX]

I was on the fence for a while as well but I decided to give it a try. They are new and I am sure there are going to be some issues but they seem very responsive on the forum and I have faith they will things resolved. I am worried about the drop in speed I am seeing. I am hoping that I will not have the issue
I am not doing TV right away until I make sure the internet is stable and the speeds stay consistent. I can only see me going for the basic as I can get most other things on my Raspberry Pi. I would really like to be able to get just the channels you want on top of the basic package but I doubt that will happen.

[CanPanther]

I would really like to be able to get just the channels you want on top of the basic package but I doubt that will happen.

Personally, I'd be happy with just the premium package as it has AMC (for The Walking Dead). But my wife wants the Food Network and some others which are on the UChoose list. Happy wife, happy life.

[wearysky]

Well, don't forget about the theme packs as well - the "Style/Living Combo" theme pack gets you 12 channels for $1 apiece. You don't necessarily have to go with UChoose, depending on what channels you want.

[BladeZX]

My wife likes TLC but when I asked if she wanted to pay extra for it she said no. THANK GOD. TLC is mindless garbage. I would rather have NHL channel and she agreed. I am converting her slowly
My daughters say they need TLC. I tell them they can pay it and that quickly ends the conversation

[leshka]

)))) TLC will be added to Premium Basic as soon as we complete some channel rotations planned for this month.

[CanPanther]

Okay, since there was an admin here, I'm thinking maybe I'm being a little misunderstood. Or, maybe I'm just beating around the bush a little too much. So I'll just come right out with it...

People wanted to un-bundle some channels to get their savings, figuring if we're getting less, we pay less. A huge price increase is not what we are asking for. At Rogers/Bell, approx. $100 gets 100s of channels. With Vmedia, $100 will only get approx. 100 channels. People complained before about not being given a choice. But now, when a chance to address that issue comes up, we are being hit with a very substantial increase in cost. So much so, that to get anywhere near the level we had before, we would have to pay close to $1000.

So what kind of sense does this make? I can certainly understand a slight increase, but this? You'll have to explain to me, and many others, why this price structure is necessary before we will give you our support...or money. If this is the future of cable TV in Canada, then a lot of people are going to be very furious.

[Sarum]

Okay, since there was an admin here, I'm thinking maybe I'm being a little misunderstood. Or, maybe I'm just beating around the bush a little too much. So I'll just come right out with it...

People wanted to un-bundle some channels to get their savings, figuring if we're getting less, we pay less. A huge price increase is not what we are asking for. At Rogers/Bell, approx. $100 gets 100s of channels. With Vmedia, $100 will only get approx. 100 channels. People complained before about not being given a choice. But now, when a chance to address that issue comes up, we are being hit with a very substantial increase in cost. So much so, that to get anywhere near the level we had before, we would have to pay close to $1000.

So what kind of sense does this make? I can certainly understand a slight increase, but this? You'll have to explain to me, and many others, why this price structure is necessary before we will give you our support...or money. If this is the future of cable TV in Canada, then a lot of people are going to be very furious.

i would like this answered too CanPanther..
i know the CRTC is tabling some rules now to do with getting rid of bundling etc.. BUT that certainly doesnt mean the prices should go up...
im old enough to remember the transition between gallons and litres.. when converted (0.82 cents an imp gallon), it should have been less than .20 cents per litre.. but instead it was 25+ cents ($1.13 per imp gallon) thus adding 20-25% profit overnight.. sometimes greedy corporations take advantage in these situations.. and i would like to see how they handle this new legislation.

[wearysky]

If you want hundreds of channels that you never watch, go with Bell. The reason they can offer such a good price is because they are *forcing* you to take a bunch of channels that you don't want (which lets them negotiate very good rates with channel providers). But if you want to be able to only choose a very small number of channels, yes, those channels are going to be more expensive *individually* than they are with the big boys, but it also means you can end up still paying less in the long run because you're not lumping in a whole crapload of channels that you don't want or need.

[CanPanther]

im old enough to remember the transition between gallons and litres.. when converted (0.82 cents an imp gallon), it should have been less than .20 cents per litre.. but instead it was 25+ cents ($1.13 per imp gallon) thus adding 20-25% profit overnight..

I was actually working at my first job as a gas jockey in Newmarket at that exact time. I couldn't believe it either. And a lot of people were convinced that filling up for a quarter a litre was a great bargain.

[synack]

Okay, since there was an admin here, I'm thinking maybe I'm being a little misunderstood. Or, maybe I'm just beating around the bush a little too much. So I'll just come right out with it...

People wanted to un-bundle some channels to get their savings, figuring if we're getting less, we pay less. A huge price increase is not what we are asking for. At Rogers/Bell, approx. $100 gets 100s of channels. With Vmedia, $100 will only get approx. 100 channels. People complained before about not being given a choice. But now, when a chance to address that issue comes up, we are being hit with a very substantial increase in cost. So much so, that to get anywhere near the level we had before, we would have to pay close to $1000.

So what kind of sense does this make? I can certainly understand a slight increase, but this? You'll have to explain to me, and many others, why this price structure is necessary before we will give you our support...or money. If this is the future of cable TV in Canada, then a lot of people are going to be very furious.

Not quite a fair comparison, count your Bell channels. they include the radio channels in that 100's of channels.
I get about 70 channels of actual TV for $39.95/mth.

Also they count standard and high definition of the same channel as 2 channels. So to compare apples to apples, the "good package" at 40.95/mth has less than 40% actual channels. Much less than the 70 vmedia offers for $1 less.
According to the Bell website the first page of 36 "channels" had only 13 channels of TV (combining SD and HD) Of those 13 channels, 3 were marked as "only available in certain areas" but did not state which or if I would get them despite having to enter in my area.

I came from Bell fibe TV and switched to vmedia to save $80/mth total in TV and Internet combined. I probably lost *maybe* 15 channels I didn't care all that much about.

[wearysky]

Of course, there are other factors like picture quality and 'rain fade' on satellite TV that might also be considered.

Well, to be fair, one should also point out that when we had that huge rainstorm about a week ago, it screwed up some of the American channels on VMedia.

[wearysky]

Huge rainstorm is one thing - but I can't count the number of times in the past 10+ years that I've had to go outside in the night with a brush on a long handle and pull snow off my satellite dish when there was no reception.

Fair enough - I think I only ever encountered rain fade once when I was with Bell for satellite TV, but I was only with them for 10 years (then I switched over to Fibe, because it was SO MUCH BETTER ). At any rate, just pointing out that it's not completely unheard of with VMedia either.

[wearysky]

Having said that, of course, I don't even really view satellite TV as any kind of viable option for most folks in well populated areas these days.

[dmbcanada]

Having said that, of course, I don't even really view satellite TV as any kind of viable option for most folks in well populated areas these days.

Disagree, I live in a well populated area and 3/4 of the homes have either Bell or **** Direct satellite TV.