Fox News Channel Disappears from Golden

[Uncle Sugar]

My wife and I are currently on the Australia based Golden Princess. While on board yesterday afternoon, watching the Fox News feed on Channel 33, the video display suddenly switched to programming labeled "BBC HD." Fox News just abruptly disappeared and hasn't come back. We made an inquiry today with the ship's Passenger Relations Desk and were informed that per a "decision made by Corporate in California," the Fox News satellite feed has been permanently discontinued and will no longer be available to passengers. It should be noted that the news feeds from MSNBC, BBC, and Australia Channel have not been similarly affected and are still available. We're not pleased by this, as we desire to continue receiving our U.S. news from the Fox News Channel while on the ship. Does anyone know if this "corporate decision" regarding discontinuance of Fox News Channel only applies to a few ships (e.g., those based in Australia), or is it fleet-wide?

[easyboy]

If true that it is a corporate decision, I guess it could be fleetwide.

 

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[shastatroy]

Does anyone have a email address for corporate? The website doesn't offer one.

[JimmyVWine]

Onboard viewership can be measured as can the cost incurred to carry the station. I suspect that the decision was based on one or the other and not for ideological reasons. There are a number of cable companies that have been feuding with Fox over money lately.

[skynight]

Onboard viewership can be measured as can the cost incurred to carry the station. I suspect that the decision was based on one or the other and not for ideological reasons. There are a number of cable companies that have been feuding with Fox over money lately.

Agree - probably a financial decision. Fox probably wants too much for the rights.

[victory2020]

This isn't good. I hope it's not for political reasons.

[toescat]

We never turn our tv on the entire cruise so I have no clue as to why Fox News went away

[Mom33]

When one news channel disappears, another will take its place. If your preferred news channel isn't available, you can always stream it on the Internet or try the alternative channel provided by the cruise ship.

 

 

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[hillslife]

This is disappointing....even on vacation we prefer to get our news from Fox....and watch while dressing for dinner to keep up on the world. We will be in on the protest if this is true:mad:

[floridalover5623]

What ever they do it's still nice to have different views of the reported news. :cool:

[mthomp5]

It's probably a financial decision. There are lots of channels, Princess could carry but don't.

[Loonbeam]

Ok, how purchasing works..

 

The ship purchases packages from satellite providers. The content will vary by region as the the provider may, although lines will look to work with providers who cover the most of their operating area.

 

The provider will offer the carrier packages for best value, much like cable companies do at home. And like those at home, packages change based on what the channel wants to charge the provider. They can also purchase a la carte at a much higher rate.

 

The most likely scenarios here are either the provider switched the package contents or offered Princess a different package at a lower price that did not have Fox News. For Princess to add it back in would not be an insignificant sum , it is unlikely they would do it. (It's been a while, but when I last looked at this, adding ESPN as an a-la carte option was around $5 per cabin per month, but in a package it was around $1 to give you an idea of the premium factor)

 

They can also purchase venue only licensing for use in bars etc but not cabins. This is typically done for events like Nascar, etc.

[catwoman6226]

I'd love to see Princess pick up CNN in place of Fox News. CNN is the venue from which I prefer to get my news. Obviously others feel differently. It would be ideal if we could have both, but I recognize that Princess has to make the decision that is right for its business.

[CCFC]

This first happened on P&O and is becoming fleet wide:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2492388

 

From the Princess Facebook page, read Fox news instead of Sky for Princess:

 

Hi Stephen, for clarification we do not have any plans to drop Sky News from the TV channel list. We are in the process of extending the range of Satellite TV channels available to guests and during the transition period some ships have access to the new channels whilst we are awaiting upgrades to TV distribution networks. This means that for now, on these ships, a choice has to be made which channels are offered and which not. It appears that a guest on board Azura decided to swap Sky News for BBC HD part way through the cruise and was then given incorrect information regarding this, for which we can only apologise. We do hope this helps to clarify