Oh my God, you killed Mega Cosmos! You bastards!

December 2, 2006 2:34 PM

Greeks and Greek-Americans: what happened with Mega Cosmos on Dish? Are they moving to cable or to a different satellite company, or are they simply not going to be available in the US any more? This sucks.
posted by evariste to media & arts (18 comments total)

Is Mega Cosmos a channel? Dish just got legislated against having to do with not broadcasting local stations outside their native areas... or something like that. Dish, and not DirecTV only at this point. It was on my local news because for some werid reason we don't have an ABC affiliate, so people missed Deperate Housewives with no notice. And that made the news. Bah.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 2:47 PM on December 2, 2006

Ambrosia Voyeur: Mega Cosmos is a channel, yes. But it's a foreign channel, and the other Greek channels they carry are unaffected, so it's a different situation than the ABC thing.
posted by evariste at 2:55 PM on December 2, 2006

I can't answer your question directly, but have you seen this PR Blurb from EchoStar: GLOBESTAR REFUSES TO PROVIDE PROGRAMMING TO ECHOSTAR�S DISH NETWORK [hellenicnews.com]

EchoStar's saying that Mega Cosmos "stopped delivering programming" for reasons beyond EchoStar's control, and characterizes this as an unfair action. I've seen enough programming/distributor spats to say this sounds like two companies arguing over money.

They give a number for Mega Cosmos: 866-780-5367 during Greek business hours - maybe they can fill you in on their plans if the lines aren't totally flooded with calls from angry ellenes.
posted by Opposite George at 3:23 PM on December 2, 2006

And here's a thread suggesting Mega Cosmos, and a bunch of other Greek channels, are moving/have moved to DirecTV. Scroll down - the thread is huge.
posted by Opposite George at 3:30 PM on December 2, 2006

Opposite George-thanks! I didn't see that press release when I searched.
posted by evariste at 3:32 PM on December 2, 2006

Yup, it looks like Mega Cosmos is on DirecTV now.
posted by Opposite George at 3:33 PM on December 2, 2006

Oh wow, OK...
posted by evariste at 3:33 PM on December 2, 2006

So people have known about this since mid-November, and DISH and Mega Cosmos give absolutely no warning before going off-air. Classy.
posted by evariste at 3:35 PM on December 2, 2006

So, how hard is it to switch satellite providers? Is it going to involve buying a new satellite dish or can the existing one be used?
posted by evariste at 3:38 PM on December 2, 2006

I dunno for sure but I'm guessing you'll need a new dish. That sports thread suggests DishTV's going to basically have only ANT-ena related Greek channels if that makes the decision easier.

Try checking out the satellite resellers that cater to ethnic subscribers - I wouldn't be surprised if they're offering deals for folks switching over after such a major programming change. If you're in the NY/NE area, you might grab a copy of the National Herald/Ethnikos Kyrix or similar paper/magazine and look for satellite resellers specializing in the Greek-American market.
posted by Opposite George at 4:36 PM on December 2, 2006

Just switched to DirecTV. Opposite George, thank you! All your information was super-helpful!

For any Mega Cosmos fan who chances upon this:

You can get DirecTV installed for free, with a free satellite dish, and they require a one-year commitment. It'll cost $10/month for the basic package if you don't care about the standard US TV fare, and $15/mo to add Mega Cosmos. They'll give you $10 off for the first ten months of service, too. It's $5 a month extra for each additional room that you want to wire up. Contract cancellation fee is $12.50 x N x M, where N is the number of receivers you have, and M is the number of months remaining on your contract. If you get a DVR, you have to sign up to the contract for an extra year. If they drop Mega Cosmos, you can just suspend the contract and not pay any penalties. If they get more Greek channels (they say they're working on it) and create a package out of it, you will be able to switch to the package mid-contract with no penalties.
posted by evariste at 4:43 PM on December 2, 2006

2 hours and 9 minutes elapsed from when the original question was posted to when the OP had switched services and reported here. I love it!

Hopefully the install goes well ...
posted by intermod at 7:10 PM on December 2, 2006

intermod-I know, isn't this place amazing?

Installation appointment is for Wednesday AM.
posted by evariste at 7:31 PM on December 2, 2006

GR: Opa!
USA: Woo hoo!

Kalh tyxh/Good luck!
posted by Opposite George at 10:33 PM on December 2, 2006

Opposite George, evharisto. My grandmother has both Dish (upstairs, for her Greek tv) and DirecTv (downstairs, for everything else). I can assure you she knows nothing about this. I'll give her a call today.
posted by wildeepdotorg at 8:23 AM on December 3, 2006

My Hellenic kitten, for whose benefit I posted this, says: "ena megalo efharisto gia tis plirofories, ki apo mena!"
posted by evariste at 12:40 PM on December 3, 2006

Success! They brought the wrong kind of dish yesterday, so they had to come back today, but now, Mega Cosmos is back and with it, Sto Para Pente.
posted by evariste at 1:32 PM on December 7, 2006

Alpha is now on DirecTV as well.

What is it with only showing the shows a week after they've aired on Greece? It was bad enough with Mega showing episodes of Sto Para Pente ten days after they'd aired. But that's a sitcom. Alpha shows Al Tsantiri News a week later, too! Imagine if the Daily Show was a Weekly Show, and you had to watch it a week after it had aired and all the news it was making fun of was that much staler. Sheesh. You're better off torrenting it than paying, since you get it much faster that way.
posted by evariste at 12:43 AM on June 14, 2007