True Move Not Renewing Asn Contract?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Here's the info on Happy Home Cable TV in BKK.... I've never dealt with them, so I have no idea how they are as a provider... But they do seem to have a wider range of channels and lower price than TrueVisions... but no ASN of course.

Installation and Monthly Fees

http://happyhomecabl...price-list.html

Channel Lineup

http://happyhomecabl...annel-list.html

Here's their sports lineup... Not much there...

45.. Sport 1 Good Sport from Dubai Arabian www.dubaitv.gov.ae/dubaisports/Schedule.asp

46.. Sport 2 Good Sport English http://www.ddinews.gov.in/

47.. Eurosport Sport from Europe English http://www.eurosport.com

48.. Good Sport Sport English www.golf.com/golf/

49.. Z Sport Wrestling Japanese http://www.zsport.com/

50.. SIAMSPORT Thai good sport Thai www.siamsport.co.th/home.html/

And their service areas:

We are serving the cable tv in these areas in Bangkok

1. Din daeng district
2. Suan luong district
3. Pra khanong district
4. Prawate district
5. Wattana district
6. Rajthevi district
7. Pyathai district
8. Bangna district
9. Klong toei district
10. Huoy kwang district

Edited October 4, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[chmod777]

I called the 1 Sky - Grammy number on Saturday, and received a call back yesterday evening from "Dynasat", apparently a company subcontracted to do installations. The Dynasat rep spoke English well, and said the 1 Sky receivers were not yet in hand, but should be around the 5th. She said details on pricing and channels were still not available, but ASN was certain to be available on October 8th.

Since I live upcountry, she said I could not expect installation before next week. They will have to find a local company to "sub-subcontract" to do the install at my house. I am going to give it a try, worst case I will cancel it too (True is history for me) and my wife will be satisfied with the free-to-air channels on the C band dish. I wish I could use NFL game pass, but only IPSTAR is available in my location.

Pricing I was quoted: Receiver only 1 Sky smart: 1,500 excluding delivery

5' Fixed dish and C-band LNBF with receiver 1 Sky smart without onsite service: 3,490

5' Fixed dish and C-band LNBF with receiver 1 Sky smart with one year onsite service: 4,290

Programming free through end of year, more info TBD.

FYI, here is my reply to True's first email advising I could respond with comments:

QUOTE:

-------------------------

Yes, I have a comment, in no possible way can you call this an "improvement", it is an insult. How can you be "happy" to remove the ability to watch NFL football in the middle of the season with no warning?

I am very upset, especially since your company has done exactly this same thing before, with the NFL on ESPN twelve years ago. I am amazed you have so little consideration for your viewers.

To call this an "improvement" and to be "happy" about it is infuriating! I am UNHAPPY, ANGRY, and INSULTED!

Please restore ASN channel 110 ASAP, and put "trace" in the garbage where it belongs.

----------------------------

END QUOTE

Of course, I received the same canned "apology" everyone else received. The only good part of this whole fiasco is that I will finally be done with IBC/UBC/True after almost two decades of frustration at their incompetence.

[redsox44]

System called SKYNINDO on Palapa D bird, 113 E carries 66 channels of which 6 are HD

HD channels:

ASN HD

NAT GEO HD

ESPN HD

HISTORY HD

OUTDOOR HD

FASHION ONE HD (GUESS FOR THE LADIES)

Also has couple of Fox channels, crime and entertainment. Not Fox news thank God. Really doesn't seem to carry much in the movie department either but if it's NFL, NHL, NASCAR. and UFC it's there and in HD.

There is a local supplier which will go un-named cause every time I mention it one member trashes the company. Guess the best way to find out is to Google it or whatever. If anyone finds it hard to find a supplier I will post the name of the one I know about and wait for the harsh comments!!!!!

Alsp will be looking for other ASN suppliers, please post what anyone finds cause I miss the NFL.

Believe install should run bout 6000 Baht and the same for a year of viewing but not too sure of that. Depends on the installer.

[ramrod711]

THere goes my platinum package. ASN was why I upgraded.

i'm with you, i pay 2592 baht per month for my platinum package because i have an extra reciever in the bedroom. i intend to downgrade immediately and perhaps find an alternative (such as a slingbox)

we had we tv when we lived in town, it wasn't great but at least it was cheap

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

BT-3 BN satellite-TV investment big move for GMM Grammy

By WATCHIRANONT THONGTEP

THE NATION

Published on August 16, 2011

GMM Grammy is forging ahead with a Bt3-billion investment in the satellite-television business, the "1-Sky" broadcasting platform and sports content to capitalise on technological developments and greater liberalisation of broadcasting.

"This is the first move of GMM Grammy in almost three decades. We've gone a long way in the music and media business but now we'll shift our focus to satellite television with our own broadcasting platform," chairman Paiboon Damrongchaitham said yesterday.

The company will buy foreign programmes including sports, documentaries and movies, the 1-Sky platform system and set-top boxes.

The 1-Sky set-top boxes will go on sale next month to provide both free-to-air and exclusive content from GMM Grammy's satellite TV network including the ASTS, Bang, Fan TV, Green, Money, Play and Saranair, JSL and Japan Korean Network channels.

The set-tops will range from Bt600-Bt1,500. Customers must buy both a set-top box and a package to watch shows via the C and KU satellite bands.

About Bt1 billion will be used to add six more channels - All Sports Network, Eurosport TV, GMM Sports One, WarnerTV, KIX! and BBC World documentary.

Sports is a key pillar of the company's strategy in coming years especially after winning the exclusive media rights to Euro 2012 from the Union of European Football Associations.

The deal also includes media rights for the 2011 and 2013 European Under 21 Championships and Women's Euro 2013.

The creation of GMM Sports One will allow for the screening of those world-class soccer matches as well as the coming season of Germany's Bundesliga, for which the company has also acquired broadcasting rights.

GMM Grammy has prepared Bt300 million to launch a 24-hour news station focusing on economic news and current affairs in the second or third quarter next year, Paiboon said.

Edited October 4, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[chmod777]

Oh yeah, did everyone notice that True's "apology" is just a boilerplate canned email, the bold text is inserted to match whatever complaint is being made?

So it is actually not an apology at all, it is yet another insult. That is why the grammar makes no sense. If anyone feels better after reading True's apology, they are missing the joke.

QUOTE:

------------

Dear Mr. FuriousAtTrue:

Please accept this letter as our formal apology for what happened on the cancellation of ASN channel.

It was not our intention to cause any interruption or inconvenience. In retrospect, we believe the situation resulted from the commercial terms for a renewal were unfortunately unable to agree. This is by no means an excuse for what happened.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you may have experienced in our service.

We take pride in ensuring our customer's satisfaction. Unfortunately, we did not meet your—or our own—expectations.

Should you have any further inquiry, suggestion, or comment, please do not hesitate to contact us at 02-7252525 between 8:00 am - 22:00 pm or [email protected] between 9:00 am -18:00 pm

---------------------

END QUOTE

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Interestingly, as I look further, Happy Home Cable appears to include Fox News from the U.S. and BBC News, as well as NHK News from Japan (Japanese language version) in their basic channel lineup...

Unlike True, they don't have different programming packages... Just one package, one channel lineup...

Ooops...and I forgot to mention... Lao Star and E-San Discovery channels too... for the little ladies in your lives...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

I'm pretty clueless about satellite stuff... But here's JSAT's page and info on the Nindo package that includes ASN...

http://www.jsat.tv/skynindoHD.html

And here's their link on the Astro programming that someone mentioned above...

http://www.jsat.tv/astro.html

Edited October 4, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[richard10365]

Sad news for sure. This type of service is why I switched to a card sharing plan in the first place. Poor poor service. I guess when you're the only big player in town you can do this kind of thing.

[redsox44]

Lets close this post also. It's a done deal. 1-SKY GMM Grammy can't even broadcast 1 channel at this time. On October 8th 1-SKY will say, "we mean some time soon". In the mean time ASN could care less cause they are getting paid and at the end of the day thats all thats matters to them. This type of thing will continue till the government forbids monolopies to do business in Thailand.

Edited October 4, 2011 by redsox44

[bkkjames]

Time to move on. Not defending true here but obviously they did a caculation on the numbers who upgraded to platinum when asn was unveiled, versus the fees wanted to keep it and the math didn't add up. Yes I know I am giving a lot of credit in advance with that statement.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Time to move on. Not defending true here but obviously they did a caculation on the numbers who upgraded to platinum when asn was unveiled, versus the fees wanted to keep it and the math didn't add up. Yes I know I am giving a lot of credit in advance with that statement.

James, ASN had been available all along via True's less expensive Silver package, in addition to its most expensive Platinum package.... but not available somewhat inexplicably on their Gold package...

So True customers never had to upgrade to the costly Platinum package in order to view ASN... So I'm not sure about your theory.

Honestly, we don't know why True pulled the plug... It equally may have been that they were simply outbid by 1-Sky who needed some selling point to help launch their new network.... And it was an important deal to 1-Sky and they were willing to pay for it, whereas for True, ASN was just 1 of 60-70 channels in their roster.

And as noted above, True doesn't appear to know the difference between a "match" and a "game"... So they're probably figuring as long as it's "sports," no one much was going to care...

[kwestroc]

Guys, I have some concerns about GMM Grammy and their version of ASN. I was reading an article where is says that GMM Sport-ASN (which I believe they just mean ASN) will broadcast some Thai sporting events (races). Does ASN know this? Is ASN broadcasting these things to everyone or does Grammy jack the feed and put Thai sports on? Also, in the articles they make it seem like Grammy bought these NFL games and UFC fights themselves and are using ASN to broadcast them, when infact ASN buys these things ( I think) and broadcasts them. Grammy just bought the rights to ASN. Is something fishy going on? Is GMM Grammy putting on selective programming from ASN and showing some Thai sports as well when they feel like it? Just food for thought.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Can you link to the sources for that information you're citing???

If those reports are correct, that would be another bad result...

[kwestroc]

Having left TrueVisions for its new home, the NFL touches down for its first live broadcast on the Grammy Sport-ASN channel at 1am this Saturday night/Sunday morning, and gridiron fans in Thailand can watch the full regular season for free by simply switching to a 1-SKY Set Top Box (STB).

Kobkiat Sangwanich, managing director of Grammy Sport, announced that after signing a contract with ASN for live broadcast of the NFL, UFC-Ultimate Fighting, Nascar, NHL, NCAA and many other sports, Grammy Sport is now ready to broadcast to all American sports fans on the Grammy Sport-ASN channel through 1SKY-Smart STBs.

"This time, Grammy will beam their services through the C-Band [and KU-Band by January 2012]. Following huge feedback from Thai fans and foreigners interested in NFL, Grammy Sport is pleased to announce they can watch their favourite ASN channel for free during a 3-month trial starting October 8. However, in accordance with a contract that limits the broadcast territory to Thailand, viewers must use Grammy STBs. For more information, viewers can contact the 1SKY call centre at (02) 841 8888."

Kobkiat added that Grammy Sport will live broadcast all qualifying rounds, followed by reruns in the afternoon and evening so that NFL fans don't have to miss a single match. Then come live broadcasts of the play-offs in January followed by the Super Bowl on February 6.

"The NFL coverage is part of our ‘Grammy Sport, Anyone Can Watch' during the first six-month launch period of the channel. We guarantee that all fans will be able to watch their favourite sports non-stop and get their money's worth. Aside from NFL, Grammy Sport will also televise the popular mixed martial arts Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and famous Nascar auto racing. Stars of the future will also be on display in the top college-level sporting events."

Thailand-based highlights on GMM Sport-ASN in November and December include the country's biggest car racing events - the Bangsaen Speed Festival 2011 and Super Car Thailand. These will also be beamed to 11 other Asian countries.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it or getting confused by GMM Sport-ASN and regular ASN? Maybe they, themselves are confused as to what GMM Sport-ASN and ASN are. In a different article it calls GMM Sport-ASN (American sports network), maybe they mean all sports network=asn?

[dinger]

Called the 24hr service center over the week end and bitched at them. Response,Sir would like to cancel your service at this time. Told them no thank you I want to do it in person so will be in later in the week. Wife got a call yesterday from True and they told her if we didn't cancel service they would reduce our monthly rates. Told he to tell them to piss up a rope and climb it, that still doesn't bring back ASN. Will be dumping their equipment in local office on Friday. Screw them

Edited October 4, 2011 by dinger

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Dinger, can you get your wife to pass along the Thai translation for "piss up a rope and climb it"?

That might be a handy phrase to have for future use with TrueVisions...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Grammy Sport-ASN channel

Grammy Sport-ASN channel

'Grammy Sport, Anyone Can Watch'

Grammy Sport will also televise...

Thailand-based highlights on GMM Sport-ASN in November and December include the country's biggest car racing events - the Bangsaen Speed Festival 2011 and Super Car Thailand. These will also be beamed to 11 other Asian countries.

Thanks for posting that. ASN as far as I can recall had absolutely zero Thailand content in its network previously... So, based on the multiple naming references above and the excerpt you've posted, it does indeed appear that Grammy is planning to add some of their own local content to the channel....

Dunno how much that will be .... 95% ASN and 5% Thai local.... 75-25.... 50-50??? It's certainly "true" that ASN had a hard time filling its 24 hour broadcast schedule with quality programming, and of course resorted to many re-reuns and some so-so content... I'll be interested to hear what ensues with this...

But... I am taking some offense at the way they're describing this transition:

watch the full regular season for free by simply switching to a 1-SKY Set Top Box (STB).

It's not quite as easy as just switching to their set-top box... unless they're just automatically assuming that everyone already has satellite dishes in their homes... A lot of us don't, and many of us can't.... They seem to be glossing over that fact.

[kwestroc]

Well, it seems that GMM Sports will be airing those Thai sports but I translated an article that was in Thai (bad idea maybe) and it said that the guy in charge of GM Sport had a meeting with some hi-up from ASN and they were promoting the Thai sport races being broadcast on ASN, it also mentioned the races would be broadcasted to other countries (Maybe the countries that get ASN?) So it may not be a Thai thing, it might be since it's all sports, they paid a crap load of money to show their sport. Again, this is from google translate so who knows, but if you connect the dots it sort of makes sense. If I find the article I'd post it but its all in Thai.

[bkkjames]

John I think most subscribers are on gold-meaning an upgrade to plat to get asn or a downgrade to silver which is less likely. Anyways, its over, done, dusted, put a fork in it unless you plan to hire a bunch of freelance redshirts to go protest in front of true lol

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Actually, James, I was thinking of organizing a mob to take over the Ratchaprasong district and have a mass True cable box burning... Seems to be in style lately...

[IAMSOBAD]

ASN SCREWED US...TRUE FUMBLED...GRAMMY SCREWED US

That is the Headline. Boycott GRAMMY for their mafia style of business.

Dump Platinum from TRUE.

Screw ASN for selling us out.

Use google and find NFL and UFC Streaming.

Its FREE and doesnt pay Asian mafiosos.

[IAMSOBAD]

Workers at TRUE will be selling fruit from a cart next week.

They could care less about us!

They think a football is a brown watermellon.

Corruption at the corporate level...and NO WARNING to US!

[dinger]

Will work on that translation as yes it might prove handy in the future

Dinger, can you get your wife to pass along the Thai translation for "piss up a rope and climb it"?

That might be a handy phrase to have for future use with TrueVisions...

[Maejo Man]

WOW, that is such bad news. I will certainly be downgrading my service when this happens.

I downgraded my service just now.

I just simply cancelled my subscription, and dumped the decoder and cad on their desk. I got a Bangkok call from Messers Turd Visions the next day offering to upgrage my gold package to platinum for free if I remained a subscriber. They must be hurting with all the free to air material available on the net, which can easily be seen on your 52" in the lounge room. The days of having a monopoly are over!!

[Old Man River]

John I think most subscribers are on gold-meaning an upgrade to plat to get asn or a downgrade to silver which is less likely. Anyways, its over, done, dusted, put a fork in it unless you plan to hire a bunch of freelance redshirts to go protest in front of true lol

You may well be right about it being over and done, but I keep hoping. This is a Thai market. While foreigners make up some % of True's customers the reason for all of their Thai produced programs and move to almost all of their print and internet media being in Thai is because they cater to the local market. We would do the same. Now with Grammy launching their new cable network which clearly is aimed at the local market, they have made ASN their flagship international station. The Thai market wants ASN. Grammy needed ASN and was not going to be outbid.

Understandably, there has been a lot of complaints to True about this and from what I am told, not just from us farangs. I can only expect that they are seeking alternatives from another source. It is good business. They have to be looking, but I have no clue whether there is another alternative. I guess we will find out.

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

As I've already mentioned, long before ASN died on TrueVisions, I'd already made alternate arrangements for my NFL football... But nonetheless, the latest episode with TrueVisions reminded me how little they have to offer in any of their plans that I care to watch...

Thus the ASN debacle caused me to rethink the question, why should I be paying TrueVisions close to 1,000 baht per month for two service points of their Knowledge Package, when I basically watch none of it, and my wife watches only the over the air Thai channels and some music video cable channels. And the answer was... no reason at all.

So this afternoon, we headed out to the Happy Home Cable office on Soi On Nut, a bit past Soi 30 in the Baan On Nut Condo complex. For more general info about Happy Home Cable, see my post #121 earlier in this thread... Turns out they do service my soi and the broader Klong Toey area of lower Sukhumvit... So we have scheduled an installation appointment with them, and if all goes well, will bail out of TrueVisions in the next couple weeks.

To be clear, at 250 baht or a bit more per month, HHC isn't necessarily a better alternative for western programming or sports than TrueVisions... But they are a much less expensive option that should keep a Thai wife or GF satisfied, and provide enough spread among about 80 channels for a farang like myself who now finds himself getting most of his TV content viewing from online sources.

Bottom line, they're offering free installation and 6 months of service for two service points for a total price of 1,700 baht. That's less than the price for two months of two TrueVisions service points with their Knowledge package, and about the same price, after adding in remote and decoder box fees, of one month of one service point with True's Gold Package.

As far as I can tell, they only offer one channel lineup and package, so there's no scrambled channels, and thus no need for decoder boxes... and no rental fees for decoder boxes like TrueVisions. You do the tuning on your own TV with your own remote. They also don't mail bills, so it's either pay at their office, have them send a messenger to pick up your payment or do a Thai bank funds transfer.

In checking with the staff at their office, and this being consistent with what I'd heard previously, their channel lineup changes from time to time... So the staff there informed us that the channel list on their web site, and even on the promo flyers in their office, wasn't entirely up to date. They did though give me a printed sheet, which I'll attach below, that does have their current, accurate channel lineup.

From a farang perspective, the current channel lineup they handed me includes all the over-the-air Thai channels, various Thai cable channels such as The Nation Channel and Channel News Asia, TV Pool, Channel V music videos, plus a selection of decent western ones, including Fox News (though I'd argue how "decent" that is), Universal, Sony, Animax, National Geographic Wild and even international choices such as NHK News in Japanese, the Australia Network, France 24, the Korean Arirang network and others. Their website and printed brochures list BBC World, but that wasn't listed on the updated lineup they gave me today.

So if everything goes well, I'll feel good for showing my displeasure with TrueVisions over the ASN debacle, I'll be saving close to 700 baht per month, I won't be missing anything that I want to watch on TV, and my wife will remain happy and even get some new channels she'll like that she doesn't have now... I'll post again after the installation appointment. See their promo brochure and updated channel list below.

Edited October 5, 2011 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[kartman]

Will work on that translation as yes it might prove handy in the future

Dinger, can you get your wife to pass along the Thai translation for "piss up a rope and climb it"?

That might be a handy phrase to have for future use with TrueVisions...

And' Monkey Brains' as i beleive that is the one that gets them "going' .

[ALFREDO]

I am in the country side and live streaming with my current Internet connection via D-TAC Mobile not possible.

Is there a fast Internet solution in the Pampa of Isaan, a telefone line?

I went to a TRUE MOVE Pay center in Chayaphum city and told them my problem, wanted my money back for two Platinum packeges who are now useless.

Want a downgrading to Gold until I find something better.

I had to call the customer support from there and the respond was friendly and I got my downgrade and the money on theire account parked.

In the mail same story same everybody, read on, regards.

Dear Mr. Hold:

Please accept this letter as our formal apology for what happened on the cancellation of ASN channel.

It was not our intention to cause any interruption or inconvenience. In retrospect, we believe the situation resulted from the commercial terms for a renewal were unfortunately unable to agree. This is by no means an excuse for what happened.

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you may have experienced in our service.

We take pride in ensuring our customer's satisfaction. Unfortunately, we did not meet your—or our own—expectations.

Should you have any further inquiry, suggestion, or comment, please do not hesitate to contact us at 02-7252525 between 8:00 am - 22:00 pm or[email protected] between 9:00 am -18:00 pm

Thank you for your kindness and continued support.

Yours sincerely,

Mr. Wichian Chompoonog Correspondence Support

Tel+66(0) 2725-2525

Fax+66(0) 2725-2500

Email:[email protected]

[gtjacko]

THere goes my platinum package. ASN was why I upgraded.

I had it on the silver package...gutted to see it go!