Is Spirit Dead?

[mattb]

I will be meeting with SkyAngel on Friday and will try my best to ask them whats going on.

Good luck getting info out of them, Kathy Johnson emailed me a generic responce saying "A few of Sky Angel's channels are currently experiencing technical difficulties"

Unforutally its not the CHANNELS that are down, its Skyangel's (dish network) ablitity to uplink them to E3 that is not happening right now.

Spirit is still "up" (its uplinked on the same C-Band Transponder at 85 W that TVU is!

E*/Skyangel is just not uplinking to SA* right now... Same with the other channels affected. (For whatever reason -- E3 slowly dying etc or what not)

 

[MikeCTM2]

Maybe Why Sky Angel is Kicking Off Christian Programming

Hello,
The first annual 10 commandments day is coming this May 7, and it is projected to be a really big deal with political ramifications in Washington D.C., USA. Therefore, is this the reason that Dish finds it convenient to start kicking off Christian stations now? Check out www.10commandmentsday.com

The blackout of these stations sounds too convenient to me.

 

[Pepper]

Maybe this is how they determine how popular channels are; drop a few and count how many people complain.

 

[jegrant]

I doubt Echostar would remove any station due to its religious content - after all, SA* is an independent service. E* would just be asking for trouble with the FCC.

I also doubt the problem is on the uplink side, as E* has just moved many, many, many locals *off* 61.5. So there should be plenty of both uplink and downlink capacity.

 

[mwgiii]

Good news:

JohnH just reported that:

Sky Angel back in the EPG, but listed as Off Air.

9706 SPRT ADDED TO Tp 32 ConUS beam on EchoStar 3 at 61.5w

9710 3ABN ADDED TO Tp 32 ConUS beam on EchoStar 3 at 61.5w

9715 EAGLE ADDED TO Tp 32 ConUS beam on EchoStar 3 at 61.5w

That means that Sky Angel & Dish are making progress on correcting the problem.

 

[MellowYBird]

Oh, yeah! My program guide lists "off the air" now. Maybe soon! Let's hope!

 

[dstrouth]

I found this at www.skyangel.com/outage

We here at Sky Angel do our best to provide you, our valued subscribers, the quality service you deserve, and we want to thank you for your continued patience during this difficult time.

We continue to work with EchoStar to restore the channels that are still experiencing technical difficulties. Though we believe it may be technically feasible to restore these channels, there remain other issues that must be worked out with EchoStar before restoration is possible. We are working as quickly as possible to resolve these issues. Regrettably there is no assurance at this time that we will be able to do so.

Please understand our call center representatives have no further information to give you at this time. Sky Angel asks our subscribers, and programmers for their prayers and support as we try to deal with this unfortunate situation.

We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.

It is interesting though that the above comment says it may never be able to be fixed, but spirit says they've been assured it will be fixed. Read the following:

Bulletin: No, the problem is not with your TV. SPIRIT Television is alive and well.
Echostar has reported that a problem with a transponder aboard one of their satellites (beyond our control) is preventing you from being able to watch SPIRIT at this time.
We've been assured that this problem will be resolved by Echostar shortly. Thank you for your continued patience.

The channels being back in the EPG gives me hope though that they will be restored. Spirit is the ONLY channel I ever use on skyangel.

 

[MellowYBird]

That does seem very odd seeing that SPIRIT is suppose to be seen exclusively on Sky Angel, or so I thought.

 

[obermi]

Are the Sky Angel Channels worth having? Thinking about adding them.

 

[MellowYBird]

I think Sky Angel Channels are worth having. But that's all I have. We have never watched so much TV as we we have since Sky Angel. I won't watch any other channels or TV. But that's just my opinion.

 

[mattb]

That does seem very odd seeing that SPIRIT is suppose to be seen exclusively on Sky Angel, or so I thought.

Spirit actually is not "exclusive" to skyangel but Spirit is mainly viewable via Skyangel. I beleive Spirit Communcations, the owners of TVU and RadioU and Spirit Television do market the channels to cable providers etc.

I suspect what is posted on Spirit's website is WHAT skyangel has "TOLD" Spirit Communcations... Spirit is at Mercy of Skyangel as skyangel is the contact to echostar which uplinks the channels to the skyangel service. Spirit and the rest of the relgious and non relgious programming are "downlinked" (received) at Echostar's uplink and then "re uplinked" to E-3 (61.5) for transmission on skyangel's service. So Spirit and 3ABN and others have to go on what Skyangel's telling them, their getting probally as much info as us "end users" who subscribe to skyangel.

The folks at Spirit, their good people. (in fact the Spirit/TVU/RadioU studios are a 10 minute drive from me here in Columbus Ohio) -- Ive have actually had the liberty to stand on the set where they do the VJ shots for spirit =) when I visited them last year. Anyways, I am sure they are just passing along what bit of info that Skyangel is telling them.

I suspect skyangel has given very little info because E* is giving them very little info. Hopefully E* will resolve whatever techincal problem is keeping these 3 channels from being uplinked.

Matt

 

[MellowYBird]

Ooops! I thought Spirit television could be seen only on Sky Angel. I did not know the owners of Spirit were the owners of TVU and RadioU also.
That's pretty neat your so close to the studios and have actually had the liberty to stand on the set.
I was just in Columbus a couple weeks ago. I didn't know Spirit/TVU/RadioU studio was right in Columbus, but I was wondering how close we were to Bananas Comedy studio. We really love that show!

 

[MikeCTM2]

Sky Angel Censorship?

3ABN announced that the "technical difficulty" on Sky Angel satellite has been resolved but that Sky Angel has decided not to carry 3ABN. It appears that the 10 commandment day coming this May 7 is too hot to handle for Sky Angel and that Sky Angel decided to censor thought/opinions. Also, the 3ABN strand on this forum has been closed. Are we subject to censorship on this forum also via Sky Angel monitors? So much for freedom and liberty via Sky Angel. Didn't Russian ways collapse?

 

[Mr Tony]

Mike
I posted the reasoning behind closing the thread in the other post. If we have too many threads with the same issue (the 3 channels missing) it is too hard to follow along.

 

[greggor48]

Some of the channel Sky have on 61.5 can be well replace because they are showing garbage. I only watch 3ABN, Safe TV, Fox and Guardian TV. I told them to get the Hope Channel and replace some of the channels in their line up. It is my opinion unless Sky Angel get another TP and add some worthwile channel I guess that they will fall by the way side.

 

[Mr Tony]

greggor
I agree. Sky Angel does need another transponder. Right now the capacity they are running on those 2 TP's, if one goes down there is no backup. If they had a 3rd TP, aleviate some of the pressure by putting fewer channels on the TP

 

[MikeCTM2]

Eliminate 3ABN thread?

If Spirit gets its own title thread, 3ABN can have one too. Closing the 3ABN thread does not direct people to go to the Spirit thread for discussion. If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is censorship.

 

[Mr Tony]

If Spirit gets its own title thread, 3ABN can have one too. Closing the 3ABN thread does not direct people to go to the Spirit thread for discussion.

Mike, Did you bother to read my responces in the two threads I closed? I posted a link at 11:04 CDT to the two threads that did answer questions. The reason we have 2 threads open now is because we had 2 pages of responces at the time staff noticed it. Plus the one that says "TP 32 down" has been renamed "no more 3ABN on Sky Angel?" As I mention before, we don't need numerous topics with the same issue. It makes it too hard to follow along and leads to multiple posts with the same wording.

If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is censorship.

Dude, give it a rest. "Censorship" (as you call it) is if I nuked the thread so nobody could read it.....did I nuke it? NO. Threads are there to read (plus the info was copied intot he other threads)..I merely closed the thread and DIRECTED people to the 2 current topics we have currently going about the subjects. The TP32 now renamed thread had good info on how to get 3ABN via free to air so that is why I renamed it.

 

[WayneG]

Mike,

I submit the following comment respectfully...CHILL! There is no conspiracy with DISH or Sky Angel regarding censoring 3ABN. Just accept that there is a "technical problem" until we know otherwise. Also Satelliteguys is not censoring threads unless for the reasons Iceberg has given (on the other thread). I wish all the threads on this topic were merged because you have to read them all to find out the latest on the situation.

Iceberg,

Thanks for all of your informative posts and the cool manner you explain things. You really live up to your name.

Wayne

 

[Mr Tony]

Wayne
I'd love to merge the two threads, but with both at 4 pages+ a piece, it would look really ugly after merging. I am tempted to close both threads and create a new thread for all "updates" to go there

Thanks for all of your informative posts and the cool manner you explain things. You really live up to your name

Thanks Even though I do not have Sky Angel right now, I try to help out as best I can.