Comcast here just started carrying Gol TV (English version according to my little pamphlet). Trouble is, though it is supposed to be the English version, all the audio is in Spanish. Is this normal? Anybody else come across this? Please help.
JC, up here in Boston, apparently Comcast list Gol TV (English) channel 268 on its channel linup online. According to someone I know who has Comcast, there is no active channel. There is however the Spanish version, but I want the English version too.
Hi JCUnited. Unfortunately, you're in a trap that happens in many new Comcast launches. We offer GolTV with two audios, Spanish and English. It's up to each operator to choose which combination they want to deliver to their end customers. For example, some chose Eng + Spa, other Spa + Eng, other just Spa and others just Eng. (Eng + Spa meaning English as the default audio and Spanish available through SAP [secondary audio program]) In Comcast's sports tier case, they are launching it in Eng. But, although the agreement is to launch it in Eng, MANY TIMES :-((( , the technical department make the mistake of launching it with the other audio. (and believe it or not, sometimes with both audios mixed in one channel). It's not that it's rocket science to launch it, it's just a simple configurations process on the cable head-end side, but the head-end technicians just treat is as one more of the hundred or so channels they manage. And since this is kind of and innovative thing (a Hispanic perceived channel delivering also an English audio feed), they are surprised, confused, or who knows. But the worse part, is the call centers. Comcast seems to be a great company, but the call centers (in my opinion in many industries) usually suck. And they tell you whatever thing comes to their mind when you call them. In this case, that GolTV is not avail. in Spanish, that the problem is in GolTV's side, or who knows. You'll need to wait 3 or 4 days, I'll tell our Network Operators director to contact the Indiana headend technicians to make them realize their mistake, but it'll take some time. Many other Comcasts in US are currently offering GolTV in English. If you want to try though Comcast's call center, I suggest that you ask for an operator or somebody in the technical department, they may understand faster the problem. But I'm sure that in 2 o 3 days it'll be corrected. I'll shoot an email right now to the appropriate people. Cheers, Constantino GolTV, Inc.
The same thing happend in Philly when Comcast launched GolTV along with the rest of the sports tier. The first day GolTV was exclusively in Spanish. The second day English was being overlayed over the Spanish audio. Finally the third day Comcast got it right. I didn't bother calling Comcast because it is a nightmare talking to their customer service reps because you know more about the problem than they do.
constantino3, I love GOLTV but i'm troubled/concerned by some of the paid advertising that GOLTV airs. Most if not all are scams and are not legitimate products. While I understand that GOLTV makes money from paid advertising wouldn't it be appropriate to state some kinda of legal disclaimer?
I had issues with Gol TV as well when it arrived on Comcast in Baltimore last spring. The audio faded in and out, went from English to Spanish and back, and was generally poor for about 2 weeks. Since then, however, it's been perfectly fine.
Hi futbolrey: Although the purpose of GolTV is to make money, and ads are one of the more important revenue streams, that should not be (and it isn't) an excuse to let scams being advertised in our company. I don't think the solution would be to state a legal disclaimer, if the ad is a scam, we shouldn't allow it to air in GolTV. Some months ago, I personally banned all the dubious credit card ads that offered quick and easy ways to get credit, long before the FCC or the appropriate authorities finally intervened those businesses. Most of the ads can be categorized in 2 categories: General Market and Direct Response. General Market are the better quality ones, announcing cars, airlines, sodas, etc. The Direct Response ones are usually those "call now" and "1-800..." ads. We don't sell those ads directly, we receive almost all those orders through a specialized Direct Response agency. (that sells to many other networks, for example FSWE). Although we don't have the same control as in the General Market, we try to avoid very low quality ones. For example, we don't put ANY 30 secs, 1 min. or 2 mins. ads with sexual oriented content, to improve your sexual performance or dimension. (but I see those ads regularly in other networks) Please note that most of those are not scams, but just low cost products sold to the end public. Although I personally don't want a pack of 50 Mexican oldies movies, or a DVD of World Cup goals, they are products that apparently sell to the viewers, since the sellers keep advertising them in GolTV. There are several Direct Response of very good quality, for example Soccer5 and Chicago Store, that sell soccer gear. Fortunately, we are improving a lot and very fast in General Market, for example in the past weeks we secured Visa, Volkswagen and Toyota among others. This means better revenue for us, and also a "nicer" TV screen to the audience, with better produced ads of worlwide recognized brands. We should be able to "clean" our screen very fast in the next year. That said, I don't think you won't see Direct Response ads anymore; I see them in every single cable network with much more clout, name, history and money than us... If we receive ANY serious complain that any ad may be a scam, we'll take immediate action, first notifying the Direct Response agency via written notice. Please let me know if something is bothering you and I'll help as much as I can. Cheers, Constantino GolTV, Inc.
Constantino, Any chance you could give an update regarding if and when we will see goltv on time warner cable systems??thanks -howie
Constantino, just want to say you guys are awesome!!! I am so much happier in life now that I have Gol TV.
Word. Thanx Constantino. I hope to have GolTV up to my retirement home years. If they are gonna put in front of a TV, make it GolTV. BTW, everytime I go pay my car insurance, the clerk always ax us about which channel and program we watch. My answer....GolTV and SuperEstadio. El Chapulin Colorado
I'm in the chicago area and have goltv but only in spanish I will call comcast to see if I can get it in english and let you know what happens.
constantino I called comcast talked to a technical person and they said they are only sending it out in spanish.Maybe in the future that will change. If you can do anything I would appreciate it.
Constantino, I'm afraid I may need to solicit your help on a similar matter. Recently, Comcast completed major upgrades in my area. I'm in: Foster City, California They mailed the new channel lineup for my area 3 weeks ago. (It was effective as of then). The printed channel lineup (as well as online lineup) show GolTV to be a newly available channel - no. 618, either in the Digital Sports package or the Selecto Total tier. When I called them to get it added, they tell me that I can only get this channel as part of the Spanish tier. It costs a whooping $14.95 a month, and contains lots of other Spanish channels I don't care about. When I insisted that I want to get it from the Sports tier instead, they all seem to be confused and tell me that it is not available that way. This contradicts their own printed lineup. I must have spent 2 hours haggling/arguing with their 5 different callcenter reps over a period of 1 week, but no luck. The general impression I get is that they're very clueless/incompetent, and Comcast didn't bother educating them about all the channel lineup changes. Would you be able to talk to Comcast and straighten them out? If you need contact info for me, let me know, and I can send you a PM. Thanks very much! Chandu P.S. Does GolTV have an agreement with Comcast to be able to offer it as an a-la-carte channel, and not part of any specific package?
Chandu: I'll get into it on Monday and let you know of any news. (It may take a bit of more time than usual since I'm out of the country [Uruguay !! ] but tomorrow morning someone will be calling them. Cheers, Constantino
Hi Constantino, Happy Holidays! Are you back from Uruguay yet? I sent you a PM before Christmas, but haven't heard back. Also, Comcast continues to be as clusess as ever. Have you or anyone else at GolTV gotten an explanation from Comcast? Thanks, Chandu
Just an update. GolTV started on my Comcast on 12/8/04, the supposed Englilsh version. As I posted in the first post, it came in Spanish. Now, on 1/5/05, it is still in Spanish. I've come to accept that I would be able to learn the language sooner then Comcast will fix this problem.
But the question is, does it come with the "Sports tier" or the "Selecto Total" Latino tier? Over here, despite all the channel lineups Comcast printed, which indicate that it is part of a mythical "Sports tier", the callcenter dopeheads tell me that no such thing exists. I've never before seen an organization so disorganized. They don't have visibility into the channel lineups they themselves printed. They even refuse to look at the online channel lineups, which I can look at myself here from comcast.com. Either that, or they're idiot trained monkeys who don't even know how to use their own online website. Also, I didn't hear any update from Constantino to the PMs I sent, or posted above. So, I finally gave up banging my head against the wall with the Comcast incompetence, and subscribed to the Selecto Total tier. True, it costs a bit more. But I had to keep Comcast due to another broadband internet deal, and some other (not Association Football related) channels which aren't available from Dish/DirecTV. Of course, there is no English SAP for GolTV available through this route. Also, I'm getting FoxSports-en-Espan~ol with Selecto Total. Although it is mostly a copy of FoxSportsWorld, there are some exclusive programs they have (e.g. Interliga, their version of nightly report). And now, my Spanish is getting better and better. And oh yeah, Comcast sucks. GolTV rules.
is there any way i can get goltv on my local cox service in fayettville and springdale arkansas? there just adding a new spanish package that include several channels that seem to reair gol tvs content specially the news
Regarding Cox, Time Warner and Charter, we are talking or started talking with all of them, but these distribution deals usually take time. Now that the DirecTV agreement is a reality, perhaps the process will acellerate a bit. As usualy, the best thing to do is call to the cables' call centers and ask for GolTV (or any other particular channel you may want). It takes some time, but once the top management realize that a network is being asked, they start moving forward with the distribution agreements. Constantino GolTV, Inc.
January 11, 2005 Gol TV will be available to DirecTV and DirecTV Para Todos subscribers on February 22. DirecTV and DirecTV Para Todos subscribers can get Gol TV in English on channel 614 by subscribing to the premium DirecTV Sports Pack for an extra $12 each month. DirecTV Para Todos subscribers can get Gol TV in Spanish on channel 426 by upgrading to the Opcion Ultra Especial package for $37.99 each month ($39.99 each month with local channels). http://soccertv.com/