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Does anyone have any insights as to why the television choices are always so bad?

CruisinShips

By CruisinShips,
in Celebrity Cruises

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lyndarra Holiday Sharing Rare

lyndarra

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I rarely watch a movie twice and US TV news seems very biased depending which way you lean. I don't mind ABC America or PBS Newshour but have never seen these on a cruise,

Mainly, the TV helps in sending me off to the land of nod. I sleep with the TV on most nights with the sound turned down 'till I can just hear it but not enough to know what is being said. Have never needed a sleeping pill ever.

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Z'Loth

Z'Loth

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It has to do with international television rights. As a cruise ship, they have to negotiate the rebroadcast rights for the channel as a commercial entity through a available satellite provider, and the monthly costs tend to be on the expected occupancy. I don't know about cruise ships, but for restaurants, especially for NFL Sunday Ticket, it is based upon the maximum occupancy of the establishment based upon fire codes. Obviously, some people consider live sporting events (e.g. football games) to be not-miss things, so priority is given to those and may be restricted to bars to control the cost. (The sports channels such as E$PN are expensive on a per-subscriber basis for both residential and commercial subscribers)

 

I did not watch any television on my cruises in 2017 or 2018. However, in 2005 when I cruised with Carnival in Mexico, they were utilizing DirecTV Latin America, and the linear television programing through some of the same-named network (e.g. Cartoon Network) was different from the US-version verses Latin America version. In this case, the primary audio was in Spanish, so they were using the English secondary audio even though the program was originally broadcast in English. The on-screen graphics were in Spanish instead of English, and in some cases, the foreign-language title was being used (e.g. Batman of the Future instead of Batman Beyond). There was even a soccer-based anime that was broadcast, but because no English dub was produced, it was broadcast in Spanish with no subtitles.

 

If you really need to view your favorite non-sports programs, you are better off investigating how to pre-download those programs to your phone or tablet from your favorite streaming service for offline viewing. 

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Team Stag

Team Stag

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21 hours ago, PTC DAWG said:

Bridge cam or the routing map channel for me…these may be one and the same.  The ocean depth on the info always fascinates me.  

Also my favorite channel on the tv.  This was one other area of the Virgin cruise I didn't like.  They didn't have the Routing Map for me to know where I was or how deep it was (Obviously I had an idea where I was). I only bring this up bc we discussed VV on a different thread.

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patty1955

patty1955

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20 hours ago, D. B. said:

This brings up that anyone Quarantined to a Stateroom during the worst of Covid must have gone buggy watching the few shows on TV?

 

We were quarantined on our May/June cruise and the TV truly sucked! Not just lack of programming but intermittent service, even in port.

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PTC DAWG Holiday Sharing Rare

PTC DAWG

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4 hours ago, Team Stag said:

Also my favorite channel on the tv.  This was one other area of the Virgin cruise I didn't like.  They didn't have the Routing Map for me to know where I was or how deep it was (Obviously I had an idea where I was). I only bring this up bc we discussed VV on a different thread.

I have noticed that every cruise does it a little different…VV would be the first one I have heard that does nothing re the map etc…

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Jim_Iain "Live from...." Rare

Jim_Iain

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On 10/16/2023 at 4:16 PM, Ex-Airbalancer said:

You write that as if that is a bad thing to watch BBC , I think of as a plus 😁

In 2019 there was a Canada Federal election, we were on a TA , it almost impossible to find the results 

Not at all I said BBC is wonderful especially if you have a British Husband but on both Sky and BBC there may be some U.S. news but nothing about California and especially Northern California which is were we live.   Also like all other National broadcasters there are regional bias e.g. watching the Olympics on either.  

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Jim_Iain "Live from...." Rare

Jim_Iain

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2 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

I'm on Equinox now, and we don't even turn on the TV all the choices are so bad.  Why can't they at least have some on demand movies and TV shows to watch?

They do have on demand movies.    It is kinda quirky when you search and you think you are pay per view but actually there is a pretty good library of free things.    When you choose them you go to a screen that shows zero charge.    Not sure if they have gotten rid of them since I was last on in April/May.

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Jim_Iain "Live from...." Rare

Jim_Iain

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3 hours ago, danceswithphones said:

I enjoyed the 30 year old reruns of Keeping Up Appearances on the Beyond. Hyacinth and Onslow. 

 

Onslow.jpg

 

Also love it.    The other one that would have me in hysterics was One Foot in the Grave with Victor Richard Wilson as Victor Meldrew and Annette Crosbie as Margaret Meldrew.

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patty1955

patty1955

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12 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

They do have on demand movies.    It is kinda quirky when you search and you think you are pay per view but actually there is a pretty good library of free things.    When you choose them you go to a screen that shows zero charge.    Not sure if they have gotten rid of them since I was last on in April/May.

Not all ships have on demand. We were on the Infinity and it hasn't been updated yet.

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kywildcatfanone

kywildcatfanone

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10 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

They do have on demand movies.    It is kinda quirky when you search and you think you are pay per view but actually there is a pretty good library of free things.    When you choose them you go to a screen that shows zero charge.    Not sure if they have gotten rid of them since I was last on in April/May.

There are maybe 6-7 movies.  That's all.  By contrast Princess has over 50 movies and a couple dozen TV shows with 8-10 episodes each 

 

They also have the TVs locked down so you can't connect your device. I tried all the tricks, but "function not available "

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DaKahuna Great Review Rare

DaKahuna

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31 minutes ago, gold1953 said:

We only turn the TV on at bedtime , when we want too see 'the ship' and when we wake but noticed that updated TVs are  attached flat to the wall so watching from bed is impossible. They no longer pivot to face the bed

 

Our last cruise the TV was flat on the wall and faced the bed.  It could only be seen from about 1/2 of the couch.   This was in a Sky Suite on Millennium. 

 

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mlparker

mlparker

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On 10/16/2023 at 5:56 PM, D. B. said:

This brings up that anyone Quarantined to a Stateroom during the worst of Covid must have gone buggy watching the few shows on TV?

 

Was recently on the Summit and my friend got COVID during the cruise. Celebrity was great and among other things, they gave her free access to on demand movies. 

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kywildcatfanone

kywildcatfanone

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1 hour ago, gold1953 said:

We only turn the TV on at bedtime , when we want too see 'the ship' and when we wake but noticed that updated TVs are  attached flat to the wall so watching from bed is impossible. They no longer pivot to face the bed

We are in an inside cabin.  Our tv does pivot, but it would still be difficult to watch from the bed if there was a reason to turn it on, which for us there isn't. 

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hcat "Live from...." Rare

hcat

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Hope they still show the itin map. We take a  tv screen shot each day..to sep photos for each day!  

 

There is/ was a nice large map on an easel near guest rel where folks can see and follow  the route as well...Older ships used to have great map/ atlas collections in the libraries..dusty but interesting!

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patty1955

patty1955

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3 hours ago, kywildcatfanone said:

 

They also have the TVs locked down so you can't connect your device. I tried all the tricks, but "function not available "

We've never had a problem connecting either a tablet or laptop to the TV. It works every time.

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