As one of your faithful customers for the past five years, I thought I would take a few minutes and tell you how to run your business. I do watch a moderate amount of television, and therefore I feel qualified to give advice to a multi-billion dollar high-tech communications company.
First of all, you need to slowly move to an “a la carte” business model. I would love to purchase the History International channel, but it is only available with a package that is two tiers above where I am at right now (which is an extra $30 a month). It isn’t fair to me or the channels that I would really like to support financially. And those 7 ESPN channels– well you can keep those. I don’t have anything against sports programming, but I never watch them. Same goes for all of the Spanish Channels. No hablo Español. Please credit my account. I just want to be able to choose the channels I want and not be forced to pay for channels I never use. Is that asking too much? To start the conversion, you need to start rewarding quality programming by offering bonuses for the most recorded and viewed programming. Eventually allow customers to customize exactly which channels they want.
As a side note on the “a la carte” issue, you should have a dedicated channel that gives previews of other channels for a week at a time. Every now and then I hear about a “free Cinemax” weekend, but I forget to go into the channel selection, add Cinemax, and see if there is anything I want to watch. If there was a channel that offered a week of FX, and then a week of HBO, and so on, I would keep it on my list of channels and be more likely to preview these channels. A new channel to try out every week of the year!
I’ve got a kiddo on the way, and I would really like to see a better way to control what they watch. How about letting customers set up “playlists” online that everyone can see and add to their DVRs? Customers could then pick specific programs for their children, or supplement their choices for other people’s playlists that highlight age appropriate programming. Netflix has a somewhat similar system for sharing information. When the DVR is turned on a password would be required to see different playlists or live programming. I know, it sounds complicated, but you guys can do it. You got all those satellites into space– that couldn’t have been easy. And remember– if you don’t do it someone else will on the Internet and bypass your network all together.
Let’s see– what else has been bugging my lately? Oh yeah– I love my DVR and being able to record shows, but why not make it easier by taking note of what shows are being watched, and then just automatically start recording them in the future? Kind of what Tivo has done with their recommendations, but this would be recording the shows that are otherwise getting watched on live tv.
Finally, can you make an option for listing channels sorted by popularity? I watch about 5 channels 90% of the time– it would be nice to see all those on the top of the list followed by the less frequented channels. You shouldn’t have too much trouble with that request.
That’s it– so if you end up using my ideas feel free to compensate me with a gift fruit basket, a singing telegram, or, if you can’t think of anything else– free cable is always an option!
Most electronic devices that use a remote control are constantly wasting energy “listening” for signals from the remote control, even when they are turned off. The problem is magnified with home entertainment centers which use multiple devices, all of which are accessible with a remote control. I’ve applied for a patent for a remote control holster which physically disconnects power to an entertainment system when not in use. Picking up the remote restores power to the system. Another variation on this concept is to incorporate a holster into portable electronics devices, such as iPod speakers, such that if the remote is in the holster the device will stop listening for signals from the remote. I’m currently waiting for the patent to be approved, but more information on this idea can be found on my website at BlackRemote.com.
What are these numbers– winning lottery numbers? The numbers printed on the mysterious hatch on the television show “Lost”? The combination to my luggage?
No, these were the table numbers at our wedding. Instead of starting at 1 and ending at 8, we decided to make our table numbers have multiple purposes. In addition to telling people where to sit, each number represented an important milestone in our lives– measured in days.
Anyone who has been to a wedding with a buffet knows that you can’t just let everyone get up and start filling their plates all at once. So I went around to tables and asked them what their table number meant. It got a lot easier once the first table figured out to answer in the form of, “number of days since…”
Here are the answers:
12862: Number of days since Omar was born.
11561: Number of days since Katherine was born.
67: Number of days we were officially married
2465: Number of days Omar worked at UPS, or number of injury free days for Omar at UPS
762: Number of days since we adopted our dog Maury.
-178: Number of days until the baby is due. (This got quite a few people’s attention. Not everyone knew she is pregnant, so we figured this was as good of time as any to announce to everyone.)
938: Number of days of safe driving for Omar at UPS.
1292: Number of days since we met.
Some people were very fustrated by their numbers. My UPS supervisor ended up having a bit of trouble getting the number of days of safe driving number, but it was a lot of fun to make fun of him with a microphone in a room full of people, many of whom were fellow UPS drivers. His table ended up going to the buffet last, after giving him several big hints.
So when all was said and done, it was a fun activity to keep people occupied during the buffet down time.