Dream Satellite TV To Lose 13 Channels August 16th
I woke up this morning and checked this blog’s stats and was surprised to see unusual interest in an earlier entry about adding more channels to your Dream satellite TV subscription. It wasn’t until I turned on the TV later that I found out that several channels were off the air, namely Nickelodeon and ESPN, as well as NBN 4 and ABC 5.
Was it a technical glitch? I inspected the technical parameters of all four channels and everything was in order.
I then called Dream satellite TV’s customer service center and I was told that “technical problems” were affecting the first three channels while the last was relocated to channel 8, a position previously occupied by IBC 13. I was assured that service will be restored later in the day.
That said, there are plenty of unconfirmed reports that Philippine Multimedia Systems Inc. (PMSI), Dream’s parent company, may lose access to one of its Ku-band transponders on Agila 2, because of its financial difficulties combined with its ongoing dispute with the satellite’s owner, Mabuhay Philippines Satellite Corp, that forced the former to seek court-supervised corporate rehabilitation last March.
So, acting on a hunch, I called Dream satellite TV’s customer service center again and inquired if there will be any changes in their channel lineup, and I was informed of the bad news; by August 16, a whopping 13 channels will be removed:
- Disney Channel
- Adventure 1
- Eurosport
- Formosa TV
- Bloomberg
- Australia Network
- Net 25
- TV5 Asie
- NHK
- EWTN
- JCTV
- TBN
- Smile of a Child
The pay-per-view Dream Cinema 2 channel will also be removed.
I was told that increased operating costs forced PMSI management to remove what it described as “unpopular” channels rather than increase its present subscription rates.
I saw that Hallmark will also be discontinued as of August 16th
how could their costs be higher when they take in pesos and spend dollars.
just plain GREED
The Hallmark channel will be retained, Leah. See Dream’s updated channel lineup.
its good that Hallmark will be retained for now-but what about the time Tony boy cuts channels.
Dream is no longer a reasonable option for anyone in a cable area. and I don’t see how they can survive with subscribers only from areas where they have a monopoly.
and that is a tragedy, because they should be able to provide just as many channels as Sky or Destiny.
Why can we only buy the top price Subscription here in Angeles City, when we have lost 12 plus channels including Aust Broadcasting Corp (ABC). We can go back to ACCTN cable for more channels and P2oo less in price
sana ibalik ung disney channel
Yeah, Toni, I wish they did but I’m not hopeful.