STAR World and cable tv

How do I go about getting STAR World ? Is it available in Taipei ( Tien-mu ) ?

If they put the schedule in the China Post for Taiwan, then surely the channel must be available ?

I already subscribe to cable and get the basic AXN, HBO, Star Movies etc but STAR World doesn’t seem to come as part of the “package”.

Our cable company in YungHo changes their lineup every six months after you pay. So we’ve had Star channel for two six-month periods in the past two years. And it was always moved around to another channel.

When we called to complain they told us just pay six more months and MAYBE next time they would bring it back.

So the moral of the story is that your cable company might dump it even if you had it. Welcome to Taiwan.

[quote]Our cable company in YungHo changes their lineup every six months after you pay.[/quote]What, you’re supposed to pay for cable?

There are no cable packages in Taiwan such as in the United States. That is, there are no “premium channels” for which you can pay separately. Its everything or nothing. The one exception is the porn channel, for whcih you do pay extra and must purchase a descrambler (the descrambler may be purchased legally through the cable company or illegally from various sources).

As the posters above noted, the cable companies frequently change some of the channels. Some are removed, new ones appear, and some switch their locations on the dial. This usually happens every six months. I have alternatively been told that it has has something to do with the earth’s rotation and its impact on satellite transmissions, or, more simply, contractual issues.

In addition, Taipei (and other parts of Taiwan) are divided into little cable feifdoms, and each company negotiates separately with distributors, and the distributors negotiate separately with the channels themselves. It’s all very typical Taiwan. This frequently leads to disputes over payments, and channels being removed. The press has reported frequently on these disputes in the last few years.

One of the reasons why these disputes arise is that the profits are so limited. HBO doesn’t get a premium fee b/c its part of the “one package fits all” model used in Taiwan, so when HBO tries to extract more money from its distributor, the distributor tries to pass this on to the operators, and the operators threaten to remove HBO. This causes outrage among the viewers, who call their legislators (either in the city legislator or the Legislative Yuan), who hold a press conference screaming about the evil foreign HBO (even though HBO isn’t at fault - its only trying to get fair compensation for its service), and then the GIO comes in and threatens to fine everyone in site, and things calm down for a while.

In my experience, the channels that alternatively seem to get kaboshed every six months are Star World and CNBC Asia. I am currently in a CNBC Asia is out, Star World is in phase, and around the first of the year I expect this to change again.

With Star World out, I’m really missing Buffy the Vampire Slayer!

I pay for cable because I live in a modern high-rise and the wires are buried. Plus, I see the cable people about once a month checking our boxes in the stairwell.

Yes, the situation is typical Taiwan. Sucks that i lost CNN though.

if you have a good connection to net then you can download buffy off kazaa :smiling_imp:
I do that for SouthPark got the complete collection now :wink:
you get the episodes about a hour later than they are screened.