Schedules Direct Announces Initial Pricing

[fender]

I have to say - I've seen some trepidation but no real grousing so jeez guys jump off the calling other people cheap bandwagon!

I do personally take offense to being called cheap for being reluctant to start paying that amount of money for an EPG. I'm not opposed to the idea nor am I complaining about the alternatives.

I'm simply commenting on being referred to as cheap and grousing when I haven't really said anything at all (save commenting that I don't waste money on beer, gambling, tobacco products, etc).

Our family does live on a very strict budget. This is an expensive city and we don't have six figure salaries. $60 a year isn't bad and it's probably what I will go with in the future but it is funny that this is almost 3x more expensive than a flickr pro account ($24/year). It's in-line with a gold Xbox Live account but I opted not to get that too because all of these little things add up.

So stop being so defensive - your calling people cheap and potentially just completely offending them to the idea is not a good form of evangalism. Let them take the time to weigh the alternatives. Every one of us has their own problems, considerations, and issues to take into account. The whole "walk a mile in my shoes" analogy seems fitting.

[sub]

It's more the cheap bastards than can afford it, but just dont want to. If you cant afford to pay for it, then I'm cool with that. It certainly doesnt put you in the "cheap bastards" category, which I reserve for those that choose to be reluctant to remove the rubber band from their wallet even though its bulging with cash.

In all honesty, I can understand that some people will not be able to go with Schedules Direct for whatever reason, but I want to encourage as many people as possible to use this service - and if they do that, hopefully we'll see it down around the $20 per year mark after this initial three months.

[zehd]

I have to say - I've seen some trepidation but no real grousing so jeez guys jump off the calling other people cheap bandwagon!

I would like to mention, if it is not already obvious, that although this is a English speaking forum *, our different cultural backgrounds may allow us to use terms like 'cheap' and 'bastard'. Those words may offend some of us who are not used to that language.

Of course I cannot speak for everyone, but it is my feeling that at no time was anyone being derogatory.

Indeed I would agree that as a group, if we embrace SchedulesDirect, the price would become lower, and we should all try to find the money from somewhere, (for at least the 3 month trial), whether that's one less coffee a month, or pick up and mail one of the bills that have fallen out of an over stuffed wallet...

[ram4x4nut]

Shhh! Don't tell anyone about my tuners.. :eek: They told me already what's going to happen analog will be dropped only digital service will be available.

That's odd, I have Cox (I think you do as well) and they stated to me that "Nothing will change for cable customers. No STB's will be needed and no digital tuners are required. The mandated change will only affect people who receive broadcasts from OTA antennas." I verified this with another call to their business office (not off-shore tech support) today and they say the same thing. I asked if that was system-wide or only for specific service locations (cities/states) and they said it was the same system wide.

[rtiangha]

Late to the party, but I just heard about this now and I'm glad someone is taking up the mantle.

I knew that something like this would happen; however, I really feared that it would have been spearheaded by TMS in order to bolster their bottom line and force people to pay for something they didn't want to give out for free anymore.

So, you don't know how relieved I am that the people spearheading this project are known people in the HTPC community, and that they are not-for-profit. This is the best possible outcome to any of this, next to being able to get that EPG data for free again.

I'll definitely pony up the $15 for the first 3 months; it's quite reasonable. I'm certain that price will drop afterwards. If not, I'm sure other people in the community will figure out another way to get EPG listings for less. Even then, $5 a month is not too bad. That's one less coffee a month. However, I'd much prefer the $1.67 a month they're aiming for.

I don't mind Paypal that much either. If you don't have a credit card, they allow you do do instant transfers from your bank account, which is almost like paying by a bank card. For some people, it's their only way to get into e-commerce so Paypal is actually a pretty smart way to allow people who can't pay by credit card a way to buy into this program.

I'm also Canadian, so I thought I'd be royally screwed come Sept 1.

I also can't blame them for not solidifying their pricing structure. They had to move pretty fast on this and didn't have much time to figure out the logistics of everything. They don't have enough time to do a proper cost/price analysis so they have to go with pre-orders to figure out what kind of demand is there. This is why it's important to buy into this program now so that they'll have concrete numbers to work with. This is because they know that people who buy in initially will probably be in it for the long haul and then they can plan their pricing based on those numbers.

If people hold off until after the 3 month trial to see what the final price will be, this will be bad for everyone since the numbers they'll get will be smaller and therefore, in order to be fiscally responsible, will have to plan higher pricing for the rest of the year to ensure they break even. This would hurt everyone who is counting on the pricing to drop.

So I would urge everyone and anyone who is remotely interested in this project to at least buy into the initial trial in order to give them a more accurate count of people who want this service. As soon as they start taking preorders, I know I'll be one of the first to sign up.

[Ted the Penguin]

ok, just caught up on the thread.

1. where the heck can you get a draft beer for $2.50? (ok I know you can in some places, but the average is probably $4)

2. where do you get fined for having an unlicensed TV? china?


finally, I am glad to say that I am going to sign up for schedules direct, and i think that it would be awesome if they could provide EPG data to other parts of the world... could that even work?

[wtg]

1. where the heck can you get a draft beer for $2.50? (ok I know you can in some places, but the average is probably $4)

No kidding. I was trying to be generous, but you're right... I actually more like one beer.

2. where do you get fined for having an unlicensed TV? china?

That wasn't my comment, but I think that's true for England and maybe some other parts of Europe. Sounds crazy, huh?

[sub]

2. where do you get fined for having an unlicensed TV? china?

That wasn't my comment, but I think that's true for England and maybe some other parts of Europe. Sounds crazy, huh?

That was the case in NZ up to very recently.

[Ted the Penguin]

how do you license a TV? did you have to call the government every time you bought one?

[pcostanza]

I'm not in the UK but have friends there and you can do it over the internet.
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/information/index.jsp