Really confused about channel counts

[geddo]

I think I'm now at the point where I might have to say goodbye to Digital TV.

I'm reviewing the packages. Besides losing channels,  I'm confused about the number of channels. 

Rogers Flex 20 says 52 channels, with 31 basic, and 29 Flex included for a total of 60 channels. 

Premier says 95 channels, with 30 basic, and 83 Flex included for a total of 113 channels. 

Obviously, these totals are higher than advertised. If selected, are some of the "Flex Included" channels chopped off to get down to the 52 or 95 totals?  

***Edited Labels***

[-G-]

@geddo  I think the channel listings that you have are out of date; the number of Flex Channels in the Ignite packages changed last year.  For more up-to-date information, go to https://www.rogers.com/internet/ignite-bundle-packages

Also, when looking at the channel listings for each Ignite bundle, Flex Channel Included are the default Flex Channels that are included in an Ignite TV package... and if you do not like any of those channels, you can swap it out and replace it with another available Flex Channel.

The total number of channels in each package now consists of the base channels (shown in the listings with a check mark; currently 32?) + the number of included Flex Channels.

[geddo]

Thanks, but the listing is directly off the website, today, under the Channels tab. I have to accept what they are showing, unless their information is incorrect. And right now, the numbers are off. 

[-G-]

@geddo I'm not sure what you mean.  In Ontario:

Flex 20 Including Sports currently includes 52 channels, 20 of which are Flex Channels

Premier currently includes 95 channels, 63 of which are Flex Channels.

The number of base channels may change slightly from the 32 shown.  For example, the Real Estate Channel will soon be removed from the lineup.  Rogers also has two news channels on Ignite (CityNews 24/7 and CityNews 24/7 West) which are in Free Preview and it is not clear whether they will eventually be included in the base offering or whether they will only be available as Flex Channels.

When selecting the right Ignite bundle, you need to make a list of the channels that you watch and prioritize them, and figure out how many Flex Channels or Theme Packs that you will require.  Not all Flex Channels are available in all Ignite TV packages.

If you find that you don't have enough Flex Channels to get what you want, so you may also find it more cost effective to get the Corus channels through Stack TV and get the other channels that you want through Flex Channels.

Note that with Ignite TV, if you want to receive ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, PBS, etc., you will need to subscribe to the Prime Time Pack for an additional $3/month.

Also, if you currently subscribe to Hollywood Suite, all of those channels are available in Premier as Flex Channels.

[geddo]

Hi, what I mean is, on the Rogers site, rogers.com/bundles/channels, there is a chart showing what each package offers. I actually counted the number of checkmarks, Flex Channels, and Flex Included, and those were the numbers. The Premier Tier actually has 83 Channels that say "Flex Channel Included." My question is, do some of those 83 have to go? 

[-G-]

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@geddo wrote:

Hi, what I mean is, on the Rogers site, rogers.com/bundles/channels, there is a chart showing what each package offers. I actually counted the number of checkmarks, Flex Channels, and Flex Included, and those were the numbers. The Premier Tier actually has 83 Channels that say "Flex Channel Included." My question is, do some of those 83 have to go? 

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Ah, I see what you mean now!  Yeah, their listing under the Channels tab is messed up.  e.g. TSC shows up as "Flex Channel Included" under Premier, which it is not.  I don't know what else is wrong.  That part of their web site is excruciating painful to navigate.

@CommunityHelps Somebody needs to check EVERYTHING under the Channels tab, for every package.

To see which Flex Channels really are included by default and how many Flex Channels you really get, look under each package under the Bundles tab.  e.g. scroll across to Ignite Premier, where it lists the Internet Speed and package perks, then click "View more details >".  There, it should list Premier has having 95 Total Channels and 63 Flex Channels, and if you click on either one of those links, it will show what is included.

The 95 Total Channels listing is confusing because Flex Channels that contain multiple channels, e.g. TSN1, count as one channel of the 95 total channels but get expanded out (showing TSN1, TSN3, TSN4 and TSN5) when you look at the listing.  Similarly, channels with East/West feeds such as Comedy also count as only one channel but get broken out as separate channels in the Total Channels listing.

Clicking "63 Flex Channels" should correctly show the pre-selected Flex Channels.

[geddo]

Need to add to this again. I went to a Rogers store today to clear this up, and it didn't help. They printed up a list of the lineup of the Premier Ignite, and it was 65 standard channels, 106 Flex included, and 78 Flex. Barring miscounts, that is 171 channels that come with this, and 78 of them can be flexed. The staff couldn't figure this out, either. This will be fun once a changeover happens. 

[-G-]

@geddo  I still think that with Premier, you should expect to get 63 Flex Channels.

Another recent Ignite TV change is is that the conventional Stingray Music channels are now gone from the lineup.  They are now being made available through the Stingray Music app and should no longer be included in the total channel tally.

If you have any questions, concerns, or require clarification about any information that you have been provided or have seen online, I would encourage you to send a private message to @CommunityHelps .

[57]

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@geddo wrote:

Need to add to this again. I went to a Rogers store today to clear this up, and it didn't help. They printed up a list of the lineup of the Premier Ignite, and it was 65 standard channels, 106 Flex included, and 78 Flex. Barring miscounts, that is 171 channels that come with this, and 78 of them can be flexed. The staff couldn't figure this out, either. This will be fun once a changeover happens. 

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I'm not sure how you got those numbers, but that's a lot different from the website (which is usually pretty close), vs. Rogers database of channels which is searchable by Rogers employees and often contains errors if they send you a pdf. (The pdfs that I received from Rogers employees always contained errors and I made them aware of those errors)

Yes, this can be very confusing and the numbers are rarely "exact" because the channels are always changing and the Rogers database is often incorrect.  I recently switched to the "new Premier" package from my "old Premier" package and all I cared about was that I was able to get all the channels that I watched (or wanted) after I had changed out my "included" flex channels for the flex channels that were not included.  Let me see if I can explain.

The current premier package contains about 95 channels (The former premier package had more).  A subset of those 95 channels are the 63 included flex channels.  So, you basically have a total of 95 channels, of which only about 32 are "included" standard channels.  Now, any of the 63 included flex channels can be swapped out for any of the not included flex channels and there may be 100 of them (or more depending).

Once I was on the new premier package and once the Flex switching option came up in MyRogers (which can take a day or two), I swapped out roughly 15 of my included Flex channels that I did not want, for 15 (not included) Flex channels that I did want.

Also be aware that in some lists channels are duplicated. For example TSN4 may be shown as Channel 30 and channel 519.  SportsNet Ontario as 22/501, TCM as 48/250, etc. This makes counting extremely difficult. The "tabs" for the various packages are much better for "counting" than any pdf since the pdfs appear to be out of date.

[geddo]

It came from a printout, and the staff and I counted the number of checkmarks, the number of Flex Included, and the number of Flex. It came out to those numbers, and the staff could not understand why.

[57]

1. If you go to the following website, click "check availability" if necessary and key in your address in the popup.

https://www.rogers.com/internet/ignite-bundle-packages

2. You are then presented with the various bundles:  Sample Premier link below:

Prem1

3. If you then click on the 94 Total Channels, you are presented with the list of those channels.

Prem All

4. If instead of clicking on "94 Total Channels", you click on 63 Flex, you are presented with the 63 Flex Channels that are included in the "Premier" package and these form 63 of the 94 channels previously presented - sample below:

Flex Incl

5. Once you are on that page, if you select to filter all genres, you are then presented with the list of Flex channels that you can access by swapping out 1 for 1 your included flex channels.  Note that the description is very confusing, because is says these are the preselected channels, when they are not - they are the "available" flex channels that are not included that you can swap your included channels for.  I counted about 75.

Flex Avail

[geddo]

I went to the store to see what the mandatory channels are, because the site isn't clear on them. Even more confusing is the listing shown on rogers.com/bundles/channels. The Flex Count is different there, too. It comes out to more than 95 there. 

[-G-]

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@geddo wrote:

I went to the store to see what the mandatory channels are, because the site isn't clear on them. Even more confusing is the listing shown on rogers.com/bundles/channels. The Flex Count is different there, too. It comes out to more than 95 there. 

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I am an Ignite TV Premier subscriber.  I can say with confidence that the information that I provided you was correct.

[geddo]

I don't doubt you. I just want a clear list from Rogers, defining Standard, Flex Included, and Flex. The website gives confusing lists, and the stores aren't much help, either. I will show you the printout they gave. 

[geddo]

[-G-]

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@geddo wrote:

I don't doubt you. I just want a clear list from Rogers, defining Standard, Flex Included, and Flex. The website gives confusing lists, and the stores aren't much help, either. I will show you the printout they gave. 

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I know that this is complicated and overwhelming but I will try to simplify this.  With Premier, what you will get are the 30 or so channels that make up the Starter package plus 63 Flex Channels of your choosing.

If there are any particular channels that are important to you, let us know and we will double-check whether they are available in the Premier bundle.

[geddo]

I wouldn't call it overwhelming, just a whole bunch of Rogers sources not giving consistent information and causing confusion, as you can see. Website says one thing, another part of their own website says another thing, and the Rogers store has their own list different from the other two. I trust what you are saying, but Rogers really needs to get their act together. 

[57]

There are lots of problems with the "paper" documents that you posted.

1. There are lots of duplicate channels - CP24, TCM, etc. So if you count them each time, your count will be out.

2. There are errors in those paper documents. For example, they show the timeshifting channels as included (the channels around 150-160). Those channels are not included and are priced separately in a theme.

As discussed previously, the only listings that are close to what you'll actually get are the channels listed in the bundles tab that I included in my previous post with the screenshots.

[-G-]

As far as I can tell, the channel counts are off by a bit because Rogers has not quite figured out what to do with the CityNews 24/7 channels.  They are still in Free Preview and active but at the moment, they are neither included in the base channels of any package nor have they been officially designated as Flex Channels, and this seems to be throwing off code that counts channels or dynamically generates channel listings.

Right now, Premier consists of the 30 Channels that are included in Starter plus 67 Flex Channels.  We are currently getting CityNews 24/7 as a free preview, and their official status is yet to be determined.  The total channel count will also vary depending on whether you count channels such as Comedy as one channel (it IS a single Flex Channel) or two channels, Comedy East and Comedy West.

In the end, with the Ignite TV packages, the only thing that you have control over are the Flex Channels that you choose and whatever Theme Packs you decide to add.

[geddo]

So, in a PM, Rogers Community sent me a pdf list of the Premier channels offered. It came out to 66 non-flexible channels, and 106 "Flex Included" channels, and flex channels. That comes out to 172, and I have asked them how the math works out to 95 channels. You have given me great info, but it still doesn't match with what Rogers is telling me. 

[57]

The pdfs make no sense, as you know.  Can you post screenshots of what they sent?  As I mentioned earlier, the pdfs I got also were incorrect. I have no idea why they keep sending incorrect information.  Even the information on the website is confusing/incorrect.