Contributor
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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.
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Official Solution
skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
9 years ago
You can hide channels that you do not watch.
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.
Don't mess with old people. The older we get, the less "Life in Prison" is a deterrent.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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beatfan4
Scholar
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73 Messages
9 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.
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
9 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!"
Don't mess with old people. The older we get, the less "Life in Prison" is a deterrent.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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MicCheck
ACE - Expert
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605 Messages
9 years ago
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.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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baseballisback
ACE - Professor
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8.2K Messages
9 years ago
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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pLamps
Tutor
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4 Messages
9 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.
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
9 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.
Don't mess with old people. The older we get, the less "Life in Prison" is a deterrent.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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MicCheck
ACE - Expert
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605 Messages
9 years ago
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.
What providers are these?
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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pLamps
Tutor
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4 Messages
9 years ago
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:
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Taylarie
Oct 15, 2013 5:39:27 AM
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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!!
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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.
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skeeterintexas
ACE - Expert
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28.3K Messages
9 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.
Don't mess with old people. The older we get, the less "Life in Prison" is a deterrent.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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pLamps
Tutor
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4 Messages
9 years ago
I guess you're right - I'm beating a dead horse. It use to be when dealing with a big name company like AT&T you'd pay big bucks but you could also count on top quality service. I'm just disappointed that the individuals that program this stuff don't have enough pride to do the job "right". I suppose the company can't afford the extra cost these days. I guess I'll go start working on that list...
Have a great day.
pLamps
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JefferMC
ACE - Expert
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36.9K Messages
9 years ago
AFAIK, all video providers list all the channels by default in their guides. I know every cable company I've subscribed to did.
It's a sales technique... let me show you what you're missing so you'll want to buy it.
*I am not a DIRECTV employee, and the views and opinions expressed on this forum are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote, or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party.
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okcbob
Teacher
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5 Messages
8 years ago
I agree with 'pLamps' and have asked tech support off and on since about 2008 with no success. It would be soooo nice to have a 'Customize Favorites' option to add 'all the channels I currently pay for in my current package'; rather than all I could get, which is what the button does now. My only solution (not the best) is to try to keep an Excel sheet with all the channels sorted by channel number rather than alphabetically. You've all probably noticed that the only DirecTV Channel lineup guide is a pdf file so you can't sort it; and it comes sorted alphabetically. If this were offered as a sortable spreadsheet with the various package options designated as they are on that sheet, I could then sort it any way I'd like to see what channels I could get if I upgraded to the next package, but I can't do that.
I'd also be able to sort by channel numbers in my selected plan so that I could more easily set up a Favorites list with only my channel since that list is offered in numerical order, not alphabetical. Lacking this, it would be better if DTV would offer the Channel Lineup guide in an alternate pdf sorted by channel number to be aligned with the Favorites.
If one of the DTV programmers is reading, how about in the Edit Favorites window showing all the channel numbers, how about placing a color-coded box next to each designating to indicate whether that channel is included in any particular package (Choice, Choice Xtra, etc) and this would be easy to start with a blank Custom List and run through checking the boxes shown as in my package, and skipping over the ones not in the package.
A 2nd feature I'd like to see is on the OnScreen Channel guide. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to deselect a line item while in the guide with the press of one button so it would no longer display?
And a 3rd feature would be to toggle the display of the guide between showing all the channels and back to the ones I have in my Favorites list. That way, I could occasionally see what I might be missing in channels around me. And this would show me a channel I might have inadvertently hidden. With this in mind, there'd also be a key I could togge to add that to my Favorites list while in the guide.
Bob
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edbandar
Contributor
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2 Messages
6 years ago
"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."
This would be exactly what I'm looking for. Bulk block/hide channels:
1. All "not Subscribed to:" channels
2. All "Spanish Language" channels and other non-English channels. (no offense, I just don't speak those languages)
3. All "Stuff for sale " ie.QVC, HSN, Infomercial et.al. channels
From here I would address specific channels to make my GUIDE contain MY channel surfing list.
FWIW.
edb
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pLamps
Tutor
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4 Messages
6 years ago
It's good to see that at least one other person finds this AT&T tactic
annoying, if not unethical. Surely it is not beyond the capability of a
high-tech company like AT&T to implement the more selective / relevant
channel listings that we are asking for. Rather I suspect it is their
Marketing team that is running the show. It seems that there are two things
Marketing thought would be a good idea: One, they are trying to impress us
with how much better AT&T is than the competition by demonstrating how many
hundreds of channels they have available by making us scroll through them
all every time to get to the few that we are interested in. Two, in the
process they make us wade through all the "premium" channel offerings that
we don't want or can't afford, as an advertising tactic hoping that in a
moment of weakness we'll cave in and order an upgrade so you can get those
too. It's very disappointing to see that after a good bit of time has
passed they still have not addressed this common-sense request. I hope you
have better luck getting their attention than I did.
For me, I have solved the problem of my dissatisfaction with AT&T by
changing service providers. I have now separated my Internet service from
my TV service by getting Internet-only from Comcast and TV from one of the
many streaming TV services available. I happen to be using YouTube TV
because my interest is primarily in local channels and not so much in
movies. But of course there are many sources from which you can rent movies
on demand for streaming on-line when you feel the urge to watch a movie.
This approach is particularly appealing these days where essentially all
TV's are now "Smart TVs" that you can connect directly to the Internet just
as you would your home computer, laptop or cell phone. The streaming TV
services are implemented through apps that are installed on the Smart TV.
The app presents you with the channel line up in much the same way that
traditional TV services do / did. HD quality is the norm also, without
having to pay extra as is often case with traditional TV service providers.
Smart TV's also include a web browser as one of the apps you can select.
That in itself opens up a whole lot of free content for viewing on the big
screen. Some TV channels that may not be provided directly through the
streaming TV service you sign up for, often also "broadcast" their shows on
YouTube where they are available for free simply by finding them through the
web browser. As an example, religious channels are often not included in
your channel line-up, but they often also post their shows in High
Definition on YouTube.
In fairness, the big TV service providers like Comcast and (I suspect) AT&T
are now also offering "streaming" TV as an add-on in an effort to recapture
those of us who have split our service providers between Internet only and
TV only. If you are considering "unbundling" the functions, you should
probably include AT&T when pricing out streaming TV service provider, just
to be fair. Bear in mind that you don't need any additional hardware or DVR
boxes with the streaming TV approach; those TV service providers always
provide virtual recording capabilities where you can specify your favorite
shows for "recording" and you can watch them later whenever you like
(complete with fast-forward through the commercials!). All you need is an
Internet connection. Be careful there too - the ISP (Internet Service
Provider) will always try to sell you the fastest internet speed they think
they can talk you into. My advice is to start with a slower less costly
speed and if you find the video playback is hesitating, you can always call
up the ISP and ask for the next speed level up. They can change that (and
your billing!) at the press of a button from their end.
So, good luck. Hopefully, one way to get them to improve their service is
to deny them our $$$ until they start taking us seriously.
Also, FWIW.
Pete
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