UK - Telewest - Motors TV

[Scawen]

To UK residents in Telewest Cable areas...

I'm writing this thread in the hope of increasing the chances of getting Motors TV included in Telewest's Cable TV package. I'm hoping that as many of you as possible will write to Telewest and ask for Motors TV to be added, or when they will add it, or whatever you want to say. The rest of this post is just me rambling on about it. :)

Motors TV has recently been added to NTL - so there is hope! But that's no help to us yet, because... wherever you are, you have either NTL or Telewest - you don't get a choice.

I've read various rumours on the internet, some people saying that Motors TV have wanted this for ages but Telewest wants to charge too much, others saying that Telewest thinks Motors TV is not popular - and loads of people frustrated that they can't get it, and needing to switch to Sky (which of course requires a satellite dish).

It seems really annoying to have to install a satellite dish, when there is a perfectly good cable running into my house already. Shouldn't the cable be the solution - the death of the dish? I think so... but it can only be, if the important channels are broadcasted on the cable network!

I wrote to Telewest already using an online form. They did reply but the information content was a bit low - except one thing - they claim that they do try to supply the most popular & requested channels!

Dear Mr Roberts

REFERENCE : ******

Thank you for your e-mail dated 21 September 2005.

Telewest continuously reviews the content that we provide within our TV
packages to best ensure that we are meeting our customer requirements.
We are unable to comment on specific channel launches, but we strive to
provide a channel line up which delivers the most popular & requested
channels across our customer base.

We value your feedback and will ensure that your comments are passed
onto the correct individuals.

If you have further queries regarding this matter or any other issue,
please use the link provided below:

www.telewest.co.uk/forms/servicefeedback

Please note if you reply directly to this e-mail your response will not
be received.

Yours sincerely


**** *********
E-Contact Team
Telewest Broadband

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Altogether Better
www.telewest.co.uk

[dUmAsS]

whats so bad about a dish? got too many channels to count ;) (plus interative stuff, you can even shop through it if your too lazy to go outside :) )

[edit]

filling out the form anyway :D

[edit]

no im not because it needs your telewest acount details :D

[Scawen]

whats so bad about a dish? got too many channels to count ;) ...Well it's just "wrong". There should be one dish down at Telewest and we should get the signals from the cable, no need for a dish on every house. It's like, if you and 3 friends are all driving somewhere for lunch, do you go in 4 cars? No, it's more sensible to go in one car. It just seems wrong, we have cable, that means we don't need dishes any more. A lot of other European countries aren't so backwards like this. It looks a bit like conflict of business interests are causing the obvious best practical solution not to be fully adopted.

[edit]

filling out the form anyway :D

[edit]

no im not because it needs your telewest acount details :DNo, it doesn't - i used a fake account number (8 digits) and a fake phone number (11 digits). Of course i used a real email address so they could reply. :)

[Scawen]

NTL and Telewest have been threatening a merger for about five years now, and word is they've been close to agreeing terms since July, with the only real sticking point being contrasting opinions on the value of Telewest's content-producing arm, Flextech. So if they do merge - and everybody seems to think they will before the end of the year (although we've had these rumous before) - you might get your Motors TV.Thanks - that's interesting. Don't know if it's good or bad news really, a monopoly instead of competing companies, though there wasn't full competition between them anyway seeing as we customers simply had to choose whichever one owns the cables in our area. :) I'll keep an eye open for news on this from now on.

[Fordman]

I keep checking as hope one of these major players brings Cable down to little old Norfolk. They got as far as Cambridge and either thought the technology world stopped there, or they ran out of cable.

[LawVS]

how can Cable run out of cable? There is more in the name isn't there? Surely they'd have enough to supply the likes of Ford with cabling luxuries and such oh no I've gone cross-eyed! ><

[Bob Smith]

I keep checking as hope one of these major players brings Cable down to little old Norfolk. They got as far as Cambridge and either thought the technology world stopped there, or they ran out of cable.

Getting off topic but: What JC thinks of Norfolk (http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/thefloatingwidget/files/Jeremy_Clarkson_-_Born_to_be_Riled_(part_1).mp3) :p

[Fordman]

:ices_rofl Again Bob, you have come up with a complete Classic


Me and Wife laughed lots at that.

Regards

Fordie
From Norfolk, Twinned with Norfolk :ices_rofl

[Scawen]

Yes, they have announced it now.

http://www.telewest.co.uk/business/customerservices/cs_announcements.html

[96 GTS]

*gasp* what is Scawen doing watching TV?!?!?!?!?! He should be hard at work programming LFS 24/7 (potty breaks are ok)
J/K of course, you deserve some R&R. :D:D

[sinbad]

From a purely TV standpoint, satelite dishes are far more sensible than laying masses of fibre-optic cable all over the country (imo), why receive something through a wire if it can be transmitted wirelessly.

It's only the high-speed internet/TV combination that makes cable the future (probably) though I wouldn't stake the farm on it, and SkyTV will have a fair say in that in the UK anyway.

[GP4Flo]

In my area we can get TV over DVB-T, which is the digital version of the old terrestrial transmission. So we don't need a cable nor a satellite dash and can still watch motorsport on Eurosport - for free :)

[BATOR]

Telewest and NTL are merging but will carry on being run as seperate companies so as to apease the monopolies commission

[Scawen]

From a purely TV standpoint, satelite dishes are far more sensible than laying masses of fibre-optic cable all over the country (imo), why receive something through a wire if it can be transmitted wirelessly.A few metres of wire per house seems to be much more efficient than the same amount of wire plus a satellite dish on every house. The cable method uses about the same amount of wire, but no externally mounted dish. And you can do away with the TV aerial as well.
It's only the high-speed internet/TV combination that makes cable the future (probably) though I wouldn't stake the farm on it, and SkyTV will have a fair say in that in the UK anyway.Yes, for sure. ADSL using the phone wires is a poor connection compared with cable (at least that's true with the ones i've seen). So everyone needs a cable really. And the TV should just be connected to that. In fact we could do without the phone line as well.

Basically the future should be : one cable for phone / tv / internet. I think this is very common in France and Holland (i don't know which other european countries). And gradually catching on in England, but cities first.

[Scawen]

In my area we can get TV over DVB-T, which is the digital version of the old terrestical transmission. So we don't need a cable nor a satellite dash and can still watch motorsport on Eurosport - for free :)That's interesting, we have digital terrestrial as well - it's set to become the new standard for TV. I've bought the box for that (so-called freeview because you don't pay a subscription - the price of the box contains a one-off payment). It's very useful at certain times but the only problem over here is they only have a few extra channels on it and most of them are crap. It's nothing like the selection available on cable or satellite.

[sinbad]

A few metres of wire per house seems to be much more efficient than the same amount of wire plus a satellite dish on every house. The cable method uses about the same amount of wire, but no externally mounted dish. And you can do away with the TV aerial as well.
Yes, for sure. ADSL using the phone wires is a poor connection compared with cable (at least that's true with the ones i've seen). So everyone needs a cable really. And the TV should just be connected to that. In fact we could do without the phone line as well.

Basically the future should be : one cable for phone / tv / internet. I think this is very common in France and Holland (i don't know which other european countries). And gradually catching on in England, but cities first.

Certainly, the more densely populated an area is the more cable makes sense. In comparison with a satelite installation there's probably not much in it but I don't think "a few metres" of cable would be enough to supply each house in the UK though. My (suburban "commuter village") area doesn't have cable yet, which I can only assume means they'd need to lay the cables from terminal x and along all the streets where I live, and then to individual houses. If I lived in one of the many much smaller villages not too far from here, some with no more than 8 or 9 houses, then I would think it's got to be closer to a thousand metres of cable, or more, layed per house, just to be added to the grid. For the out of the way places, I think the existing phone-line plus satelite TV is a good solution, and I think if it were just TV being supplied, the satelite system would be fine everywhere.

I must say that I'd switch tomorrow if I could, though, mainly because it's so much cheaper than phone-line ADSL + a Sky satelite subscription.

[colcob]

God, I hope that the NTL Telewest merger doesnt mean NTL service standards being adopted accross the Telewest regions.
NTL are the most incompetent, indifferent, lazy, worthless excuse for a service company that I ever had the misfortune to pay a monthly fee to. Telewest, so far at least, has been excellent.

[dUmAsS]

aparently motors tv *just* went live on channel 173

[nikimere]

sorry to bring a dead topic alive but i remember this topic from last year, and this is good news for you guys with NTL :) http://www.crash.net/news_view.asp?cid=26&id=136374

[Mc21]

Heh no more 173, infact, i'm watching Motors TV atm, Highlights from the 1000km Donnington :)

[Xaid0n]

ntl is probably the worst company to go with here, when we had sky the box did nothing but crash all the time, and ntl kept ****ing us around with the phone and internet, so my mum switched to sky in the hope that she wouldn't have any probs, which we don't, apart from the small fact the dish wasn't put up high enough, which is a pain when theres a storm, but it doesn't hardly ever crash or have faults, unfortunate thing is we still with ntl with the phone/internet, but that will soon change (i hope), you can get alot higher connection speed for cheaper prices than ntl, atm i think my mum pays £24 for a 1mb connection....

[Mc21]

ntl is probably the worst company to go with here, when we had sky the box did nothing but crash all the time, and ntl kept ****ing us around with the phone and internet, so my mum switched to sky in the hope that she wouldn't have any probs, which we don't, apart from the small fact the dish wasn't put up high enough, which is a pain when theres a storm, but it doesn't hardly ever crash or have faults, unfortunate thing is we still with ntl with the phone/internet, but that will soon change (i hope), you can get alot higher connection speed for cheaper prices than ntl, atm i think my mum pays £24 for a 1mb connection....


Why don't you try that "Free broadband" from Sky?

[Xaid0n]

nah i think my mum will be going to BT for the phone/internet, 8mb broadband :D

[Becky Rose]

you can get alot higher connection speed for cheaper prices than ntl, atm i think my mum pays £24 for a 1mb connection....
I'm paying the same firm the same amount of money for 10mbit. You need to threaten to cancel :).

[Jakg]

I'm paying the same firm the same amount of money for 10mbit. You need to threaten to cancel :).gah!

ahh, but i live in the country, so i doubt the exchanges would support it

out of interest, who sells it?

[SamH]

I'm sitting here on Telewest.. reading the Crash posting.. and confused.

Is this content coming to Telewest too? I can't find it, but if NTL gets it then surely Telewest does too?

[duke_toaster]

I dream of Motors TV on freeview. It's a great idea, it will fill the place of one of those quiz channels which AFAIK might be banned soon.

Or that QVC shite.

Maybe I'm only saying this because I've just got a new freeview box with a hard drive built in <g>

[Theafro]

I keep checking as hope one of these major players brings Cable down to little old Norfolk. They got as far as Cambridge and either thought the technology world stopped there, or they ran out of cable.


I live in Norwich, and we have NTL telly, I know most larger towns and villages are now cabled-up since the phone network relies on the same fibre optic network. It's usually just a case of switching the TV feed on, installing the box, and running a small cable from the end of your garden to your TV box.

you might not have been 'switched on' yet but most of Norfolk is now connected, with a few blackspots around the north walsham area. even my grandad outside old buckenham has NTL broadband. so there is hope for your viewing pleasure.

BTW with a trillion channels to choose from, I still only watch Motors TV :)