Fxcanada, what gives??

[J-hop]

Does anyone know who offers this channel? They've been advertising it everywhere for the past while and it was supposed to premiere October 31 in canada.

My gf really wants this channel for a few shows, but we have called shaw 3 times (before the premiere, on the premiere date and after) and the shaw reps have absolutely no clue what it is.

All the research my gf has done suggests telus and shaw haven't picked it up. Why the hell would they spend all this money advertising in calgary (I see ads inside almost every bus) if the two major providers aren't going to carry it???

[superflychief]

I just dealt with this too. I wanted the chanel for American Horror Story. I called shaw and they don't have it yet. Rogers is the only provider at the moment.

[Cos]

It is wholly owned by Rogers so I wonder if it is only on RogersTV.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FX_Canada

[J-hop]

Originally posted by Cos
It is wholly owned by Rogers so I wonder if it is only on RogersTV.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FX_Canada

Yea I was wondering that too. Although even on the beyond ad it says "contact your local tv provider" which I assumed meant that providers other than Rogers would carry it. Sucks because most of the shows we were interested in have already started.

[beecue]

I have it on Eastlink and the other carrier is Rogers so far. It mostly airs repeats and TMN has rights to Justified.

[ercchry]

just like when sportsnet came out, rogers owns it and will eventually give the others rights to it. with sports net it took a month so keep your panties on

[Nufy]

I can download most of the FX shows I watch the day after they air in the US.

If they (FX canada) will only show repeats / previous seasons then I'll pass.

FX in the US has some awesome shows imo...

[J-hop]

Originally posted by ercchry
just like when sportsnet came out, rogers owns it and will eventually give the others rights to it. with sports net it took a month so keep your panties on

Yea figured as much. Just seemed odd that there was so much hype yet no one in Calgary has it but Rogers (I don't think the eastlink Beecue mentioned is available in western Canada, hence the east in the name haha).

I could be wrong but I think Rogers makes up a very small portion of the Calgary TV market so I just don't get why they would hype up the October 31st premiere like they did. But from the sounds of it, its going to be a waste of money until we get similar programming to the US anyways so it's back to downloading for me :thumbsdow

[98type_r]

Nobody in the Calgary TV market has Rogers Cable, they don't serve Western Canada. I wish they would though, give us an alternative to Shaw and Telus

[J-hop]

Originally posted by 98type_r
Nobody in the Calgary TV market has Rogers Cable, they don't serve Western Canada. I wish they would though, give us an alternative to Shaw and Telus

Haha wow, I didn't realize Rogers tv didn't exist in western Canada, I just figured it was a small number of customers not that they didnt exist!

Guess it is a good indication that shaw and telus will pick it up pretty soon. Just kind of lame that you see ads for it everywhere yet it doesn't exist in western Canada haha.

[anarchy]

Shaw doesn't carry this channel yet and currently no further information to share on whether this will happen.

Just a bit of insight into the channels we carry, it isn't as simple as simply picking up the channel. A negotiation process takes place with the network obviously trying to get as much as possible and carriers looking to pay the least.

And of course, other factors are taken into consideration such as the audience appeal and the ability to fit it into the line-up given capacity limitations.

There's a game being played here - by mass advertising and saying the channel is available in Canada and encouraging viewers to call their local providers, it puts more pressure on the providers to add the channel to their line-up, giving Rogers (in this case) more leverage in the negotiation process.

I'll try to post here if I get more info about any further developments.

[J-hop]

Yea I was thinking about that angle today, definitely makes sense and gives Rogers an upperhand at the negotiating table.

Anarchy, just wondering but when a customer calls and asks for a channel shaw doesn't offer is that noted somewhere, like on a CS rep's call ticket or something? I ask only because all three times we called the reps didn't even know what FX was, so I'm interested as to how shaw is gauging interest or if they even are, I'm sure it's at least on their radar.

[anarchy]

Originally posted by J-hop
Yea I was thinking about that angle today, definitely makes sense and gives Rogers an upperhand at the negotiating table.

Anarchy, just wondering but when a customer calls and asks for a channel shaw doesn't offer is that noted somewhere, like on a CS rep's call ticket or something? I ask only because all three times we called the reps didn't even know what FX was, so I'm interested as to how shaw is gauging interest or if they even are, I'm sure it's at least on their radar.
There's a channel request form that we can send to customers to fill out and is shared with the programming team. But to be honest, we're pretty aware of which channels are in demand - FXCanada, Setanta HD, etc. so not sure how much difference filling out that form will do.

At the end of the day, it comes down to the negotiations and capacity to add the channel to our line-up.