MC vs DMX

[KlassikKountry]

I know this is a Music Choice and DMX question, but there is no other section on this site to ask this, so here goes: I have Comcast Cable in Philadelphia, PA, they offer MC, I noticed they do not carry all the channels listed on the MC website, for example: Indie Rock, Adult Top 40 and Taste of Italy, to name a few. The selection is loaded with Spanish channels, for some strange reason, they do carry a few DMX channels which are only Spanish. My question is why??? and why don't they carry other DMX channels, such as Beach Oldies, Rock and Roll Oldies, etc., Thanks..

 

[Spruceman]

The MC channels Comcast do not carry are those available only to MC's commercial subscribers. I doubt if any cable system wants to devote the bandwidth needed for all 100-plus DMX channels.

OTOH DMX will sell its product directly to consumers for about $200 a year if you're willing to shell out about $500 for the Ku-band FSS dish, LNBF, and receiver. Music Choice will not sell directly to non-commercial units; and commercial rates start around $500 a year. The DMX receiver is most interesting. Song info is beamed to the remote, dynamic range can be set via the remote (especially helpful in noisy environments), can program it to daypart the channels, among other features.

On the downside, the number of DMX specialty formats has been dwindling as more and more channels are changed to ultra-fine niches of rock/urban music (about 2/3 of their channels) -- losing such formats as 4 German channels, Flemish, folk, Dixieland, Cajun, polka, Norwegian, nature sounds, classical guitar, a true 1950s oldies, -- over the past 10 years. On the bright side, they still carry several easy listening type channels, 5 classical/opera channels, two Italian channels, three French, bluegrass, and new age music.

**********************************


> I know this is a Music Choice and DMX question, but there is
> no other section on this site to ask this, so here goes: I
> have Comcast Cable in Philadelphia, PA, they offer MC, I
> noticed they do not carry all the channels listed on the MC
> website, for example: Indie Rock, Adult Top 40 and Taste of
> Italy, to name a few. The selection is loaded with Spanish
> channels, for some strange reason, they do carry a few DMX
> channels which are only Spanish. My question is why??? and
> why don't they carry other DMX channels, such as Beach
> Oldies, Rock and Roll Oldies, etc., Thanks..
>

 

[KlassikKountry]

Thanks for the info, a few more quick questions if you don't mind, if Comcast is worried about their bandwidth, why do they carry all these extra Spanish channels, they even go out of their way to include JUST THE SPANISH channels with DMX, couldn't they add more music channels instead of Spanish language. Is is legal to have both MC and DMX on a Cable system, even though the DMX channels are Spanish, why don't they add DMX English music channels. Last but not least, on their website MC is listed as being in Horsham, PA, which is close to me. Is that where they do all their programming and beam the signal to all subscribers or is there a different place where they broadcast from??? Thanks again.

 

[jegrant]

> Thanks for the info, a few more quick questions if you don't
> mind, if Comcast is worried about their bandwidth, why do
> they carry all these extra Spanish channels, they even go
> out of their way to include JUST THE SPANISH channels with
> DMX...

Just IMO - but I think the reason they do this (my local Insight system which is 50%-Comcast-owned does it too) is to boost the channel count in the Spanish-language package, since the DMX Spanish channels cost them hardly any money at all; they are simply adding DMX Spanish because Music Choice doesn't necessarily have enough Spanish formats to cover everything, and it's a cheap filler.

(FWIW, I think there is no legal reason why a cable system couldn't carry all MC and all DMX channels, or any combination thereof, but they would have to pay for the rights to use both of them.)