Carnival In Room TV Options--NOT GOOD

[bfree32]

Our family cruises often and on various lines......RCCL/Norwegian/Carnival. Recently returned from the Breeze and I wanted to comment on the lack of stations to watch in staterooms. In the past few years, I have become used to having ESPN International and usually 2 news channels. I enjoy watching sports and have watched NCAA tournament games, football, NBA, Ryder Cup and baseball playoffs in the past. 
Unfortunately, on the Breeze we only had access to CBS News channel (I've heard of Fox News and MSNBC, but never CBS News Network). No ESPN. No Fox Sports. Nothing. The US Women's World Cup final was not shown anywhere on the ship. For some reason, Wimbledon matches on ESPN were shown in the casino, but not in staterooms. How can they have an ESPN feed to show in public places, but not in Staterooms?
The news channel issue was just as concerning....never heard of CBS cable news network. Why cant Carnival give us CNN or FOX or MSNBC?

My guess.....money. There obviously is a cost to providing those networks to staterooms and Carnival opts not to pay it.

I may upset some Carnival fans with this post and I would like to know if there is a history to which channels are offered or other explanations for the low number of channels. (but please don't say that a person should be on vacation and not want to watch news or sports) 

[Saint Greg]

This is nothing new around here. They removed the espn channels from the rooms a couple years ago. That one is pretty simple. They want you in the bars spending money while watching sports.

 

The other changes were last year. They seem to be moving in the direction of worse TV but better internet. On Vista I was able to stream my YouTube TV package. The ship cams were so good on vista I just left that on in the room.

 

 

 

 

Edited July 15, 2019 by Saint Greg

[Lottacruises]

We know this already, where have you been?

[PhillyFan33579]

As others have already stated, this is old news. There are multiple threads on this site discussing the cutbacks Carnival has made concerning TV channels over the past few years.  

[shof515]

The Sunrise has the new tv channel system. i also hated it too. It was nice they had the food channel, discovery and i think travel channel but all of the shows seem to be stuck in repeat

[StolidCruiser]

You hit on the reason midway through your lengthy post.... money.

 

The fees associated with broadcast in individual staterooms is significantly different than broadcast in limited public venues.

 

It’s a cost savings measure implemented after research yielded results on viewing habits of the guests.

 

Some hate it; others aren’t bothered at all.  

 

If broad TV channel lineup availability is important to you, Carnival isn’t the right choice for your cruising vacation.

[sparks1093]

I wasn't all that impressed with the channel line up on Royal in April. As mentioned it can cost serious money to have channels in the guest staterooms and since most people don't cruise to watch TV the decision was made not to spend that money. This is a move that I personally applaud because I don't want my fare to go up just so someone else can watch TV in their cabin. Maybe they are looking at providing a premium channel line up that the guest could opt to pay for.

[Joseph2017China]

9 hours ago, Lottacruises said:

We know this already, where have you been?

If you read the post, than you would know where they have been.......They have been on other cruise lines, including NCL and RCCL and just came back and noticed the cutback on programming.

[ProgRockCruiser]

So there are a few mildly inaccurate statements here, at least as far as I remember.  I can't find any links to the original stories, because they are quite old now, and my Google-Fu is not sharp today I guess.

 

Carnival, and all other cruise lines, have changed their channel line-up, dropping the major networks, because the major networks hiked the price to carry them via satellite a huge amount. 

 

Receiving these channels locally over the air is free, of course, and for years the cable networks carried them for free under the "must-carry" clause - this forced the cable companies to carry them, because in the early days of cable, they didn't always.  But eventually the TV stations realized the cable companies were raking in a lot of $$$, and the TV networks weren't benefiting.  So they dropped the "must-carry clause" switching to "retransmission consent", and bargained to actually get paid to provide a signal.  Which is why occasionally you see disputed between the cable or sat provider and a network/channel, with commercials saying "This is channel W123.  after such-and-such date Dish will not carry this station due to unfair negotiations by Dish.  Call Dish now and demand a resolution!" and "This is Dish.  Dish will no longer carry W123 due to unfair negotiations.  Call the channel and demand a resolution!"

 

Cruise ships had been paying a relatively low fee, or no fee, to carry the channels up until a couple of years ago.  Then the networks decided they would hike the re-tran fees for cruise ships, and most of them balked.  You won't find the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) on the mass-market cruise lines, only select specialty channels like one of the ESPN channels, maybe CNBC, and Carnival doesn't even have them.  Well, Disney carries ABC, unsurprisingly.

 

xref for Must-carry and retrans consent:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Must-carry

 

Wish I could find specific details on the sat re-trans price hikes...

[Lottacruises]

2 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

If you read the post, than you would know where they have been.......They have been on other cruise lines, including NCL and RCCL and just came back and noticed the cutback on programming.

 

Welcome back!

[travelhound]

I was recently on the Sunrise and agree that the channel selection is substandard when compared to other lines. Cutbacks to save money...I get it.

What teed me off was that they blocked the HDMI input. I bring a connector that can connect my phone to the TV and have used it on ships and on hotels. It will play movies and shows I have loaded on my phone. It's especially useful for my daughter while we're in the cabin getting ready for dinner, do I really missed it.

There was also no replay of the movies that are shown by the pool. Usually those movies are shown a day later. Those were available pay per view...which I thought was a money grab.

Obviously we don't cruise to watch TV, but once in a while it's nice to have something to watch while stuck in the cabin.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

[HillBilly Bob]

Cruise line TV channels are the VERY channels that we do NOT watch at home.  It has never been an issue since we are on vacation.  Watching TV is something to do at home.  

[jocko4279]

I agree the TV is substandard, and it's another cost cutting move, they're getting way too greedy at the expense of little nuances for the customer. On another note and I still scratching my head at this one....the big screen on deck on my recent Sunrise cruise was only used for showing a couple movies at night. During the rest of the day it was used for meaningless ads, like....make sure your "insta" your vacation pics with their hashtags. Used to be able to see some pretty good music concert videos at off times on the screen. 

[BlerkOne]

 A person should be on vacation and not want to watch news or sports.

 

Above and beyond that, cruise lines buy packages from providers and the provider kept jacking rates so Carnival switched to a different provider. As simple as that.

 

As for blocking ports, I imagine Carnival has better things to do than trying to figure out why the TV in XYZ no longer works and have to keep resetting them between cruises.

 

I appreciate Carnival trying to control costs (costs never go down or are cut), and keeping the price of my cruise low. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the future passengers are allowed to rent TV packages or have pay per view. My guess is not many will be willing to pay extra to sit in their cabin to watch TV.

[coevan]

8 hours ago, StolidCruiser said:

If broad TV channel lineup availability is important to you, Carnival isn’t the right choice for your cruising vacation.

 

 

If they acceptable broadband speed, the TV channels would all be available

[RRLLAL]

The sunrise had a ton of free movies in the stateroom. I can never remember watching things like major sporting events in my room unless it was carried by espn international which little was. Now the sports bar is different and carnival spent millions on an espn contract which allows them to show channels in the Espn and Disney family. I can’t imagine what it would cost to have it in all the rooms. 

[ed01106]

TV line up is like the 4,678,432nd most important thing to me when choosing a cruiseline. Right after the color of toilet paper in my stateroom and right before if the waiters uniform is made of cotton or polyester.  🙂

[travelhound]

Thank you and Amen csj092809.

 

You guys may have missed where I said, "Obviously we don't cruise to watch TV..." but it would have been nice to have something for my young daughter to watch while I was getting ready for dinner....or when she's already sleeping and we're stuck in the room.

 

As for the comment about the port blocking...it's actually take more work on their part to block that HDMI port than to just leave it open for people to use. It's not a matter of it being broken, it's been intentionally turned off.

 

I don't comment on people gambling in the casino, being drunk and stupid by the pool, smoking, or wearing short shorts and flip flops in the dining room because they don't affect my cruise for the most part, but personally I wouldn't do any of those things and find them a waste of time. Some people find it necessary to judge other people's manner in which they vacation.

[jimbo5544]

2 hours ago, jocko4279 said:

I agree the TV is substandard, and it's another cost cutting move, they're getting way too greedy at the expense of little nuances for the customer. On another note and I still scratching my head at this one....the big screen on deck on my recent Sunrise cruise was only used for showing a couple movies at night. During the rest of the day it was used for meaningless ads, like....make sure your "insta" your vacation pics with their hashtags. Used to be able to see some pretty good music concert videos at off times on the screen. 

How many stations does there need to be to get to the “standard” level?

[PhillyFan33579]

2 hours ago, jocko4279 said:

I agree the TV is substandard, and it's another cost cutting move, they're getting way too greedy at the expense of little nuances for the customer. On another note and I still scratching my head at this one....the big screen on deck on my recent Sunrise cruise was only used for showing a couple movies at night. During the rest of the day it was used for meaningless ads, like....make sure your "insta" your vacation pics with their hashtags. Used to be able to see some pretty good music concert videos at off times on the screen. 

 

What you view as greed I view as another step Carnival has taken to keep their cruise fares extremely affordable. It was nice in the past when more major sporting events were shown onboard, but I haven’t lost any sleep over this issue. 

[jocko4279]

14 minutes ago, jimbo5544 said:

How many stations does there need to be to get to the “standard” level?

I just call it like I see it. if something isn't as good as it used to be I say so, likewise if something improves. I've seen a lot of nice changes over the years, and also a lot of little things disappearing that made cruising a unique vacation with it's own vibe. 

[jimbo5544]

42 minutes ago, jocko4279 said:

I just call it like I see it. if something isn't as good as it used to be I say so, likewise if something improves. I've seen a lot of nice changes over the years, and also a lot of little things disappearing that made cruising a unique vacation with it's own vibe. 

So, knowing that the industry that supplies it has changed the rules in terms of supplying content and the cost for it, and we know what they (Carnival) is now offering, what would be acceptable to you?

[BlerkOne]

1 hour ago, travelhound said:

 

As for the comment about the port blocking...it's actually take more work on their part to block that HDMI port than to just leave it open for people to use. It's not a matter of it being broken, it's been intentionally turned off.

 

 

I doubt Carnival does anything. The TVs are standard commercial, not consumer models and likely come pre-configured that way. It would be work, and rework for Carnival to do otherwise. When you deal with 1000s of TVs, keep it simple.

[ed01106]

1 minute ago, StolidCruiser said:

 

What about those guests for whom  US college football, NBA and world series events aren’t “their culture”?  How do you deal with the sports viewing desires of “their culture”?

If I can’t watch curling and darts on TV, I am not cruising!!!!!!

 

🙂

[dbrucern]

19 hours ago, bfree32 said:

Our family cruises often and on various lines......RCCL/Norwegian/Carnival. Recently returned from the Breeze and I wanted to comment on the lack of stations to watch in staterooms. In the past few years, I have become used to having ESPN International and usually 2 news channels. I enjoy watching sports and have watched NCAA tournament games, football, NBA, Ryder Cup and baseball playoffs in the past. 
Unfortunately, on the Breeze we only had access to CBS News channel (I've heard of Fox News and MSNBC, but never CBS News Network). No ESPN. No Fox Sports. Nothing. The US Women's World Cup final was not shown anywhere on the ship. For some reason, Wimbledon matches on ESPN were shown in the casino, but not in staterooms. How can they have an ESPN feed to show in public places, but not in Staterooms?
The news channel issue was just as concerning....never heard of CBS cable news network. Why cant Carnival give us CNN or FOX or MSNBC?

My guess.....money. There obviously is a cost to providing those networks to staterooms and Carnival opts not to pay it.

I may upset some Carnival fans with this post and I would like to know if there is a history to which channels are offered or other explanations for the low number of channels. (but please don't say that a person should be on vacation and not want to watch news or sports) 

Who goes on a vacation to watch TV.  Except for the Super Bowl that was on the big screen, I don't think we have ever turned the TV on