PacificClipper From United States of America, joined Aug 2009, 311 posts, RR: 0 Posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 8299 times:
Just got off of UA 74 and was disappointed to see that UA has replaced the XM channel lineup with Zune audio programming. I always travel with my iPod but I usually listen to the XM channels. IMO, XM produces great music channels by genre - 70s on 7, 80s on 8, The Blend and Watercolors are some of my favs. The Zune programming in contrast sucks. I listen to wide variety of music and tried various channels on board today but was not impressed. Not sure why UA would switch from a music programming leader to Microsoft's flailing counter to iTunes. Cost of carrying XM programming? Did the contract expire and it was time to change things up, like the Play branding that replaced United Entertainment Network a while back?
UA772IAD From Australia, joined Jul 2004, 1635 posts, RR: 3 Reply 1, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 8212 times:
I would have to do some research into this, but if the switch was to another corporate entity, in this case, Microsoft, it was probably the end of the XM contract. Reasons for the change? Cost could be one reason- UA provided XM radio programming before XM was purchased by Sirius (and in my opinion, went from being a great alternative to FM radio to overpriced, confused and generic FM-like radio once Sirius took over). Another vehicle for change, also likely, is customer feedback. It was a good but bizarre idea to advertise offering XM Satelite Radio when it wasn't truly satelite radio... just a pre-recorded playlist put on a continuous loop.
I'll have to look into it further, but these are my first two educated guesses for the change in audio programming.
LAXintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22053 posts, RR: 51 Reply 2, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 7966 times:
Yes I heard about it also. Airplanes are being reprogrammed this week. Could be the contract was up as they first started offering XM in Spring 2006.
But actually I think the move is good one, as the new line up will offer additional genres such as Latin Salsa/Dance and more World variety channels and artist which is something that has been overdue(and I have seen comments about) as United does not cater to solely American's. With XM there was no foreign offering at all.
LAXintl From United States of America, joined May 2000, 22053 posts, RR: 51 Reply 3, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 7417 times:
WA707atMSP From United States of America, joined Oct 2006, 2042 posts, RR: 13 Reply 4, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 7348 times:
Quoting LAXintl (Reply 3): 21 individual programs, and Ch9 remains.
As long as United doesn't **** with Channel 9, I couldn't care less what they do with the rest of their audio programming.
Whenever I board a UA flight, I always ask the pilots to "please make sure Channel 9 is on". Whenever I deplane, if they have made Channel 9 available for the whole flight, I always thank them for leaving it on.
Delimit From United States of America, joined Jan 2009, 1432 posts, RR: 1 Reply 5, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 7333 times:
I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
ag92 From India, joined Jul 2006, 1317 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 7256 times:
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
Exactly my first thought, i was really scared of them removing channel 9, but felt alot better, I am flying UA in December, and I damn hope they still have it by then,
PlaneAdmirer From United States of America, joined Jul 2009, 530 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 15 hours ago) and read 7256 times:
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
ElBandGeek From United States of America, joined Jun 2008, 735 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 7042 times:
Yay, us Zune fans finally get to win for once
Microsoft has been doing a lot lately to build up the Zune brand and recover from the less than stellar first gen (that most people still use as the basis for hating on it even though the newer models are comparable and in several ways better than their apple counterparts) and this is a great booster. Maybe this will lead to an even more significant tie up with IFE like on avod equipped planes actually being able to watch the stuff on my ZHD through the seatback screen, or maybe special content for zune pass subscribers. I'm just surpirsed UA would be the first, to be honest I thought AS would be a good airline for MS to work with since they have the local connection.
Actually, looking at the info page on UA's site, it looks like this will actually work in the same way as the Zune Channels work on the marketplace. Basically in each category, the marketplace automatically builds playlists based on popularity of certain songs etc. and then you basically subscribe to them the same way you would a podcast. Every week or so it refreshes and loads new stuff in the playlist. I think it actually works better than the live broadcast you'd get from XM since it automatically picks out the stuff that more people like as opposed to a more arbitrary "ok let's play this." Of course, everyone has different tastes so I won't say it's inherently better, but personally I like it better.
United1 From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 5337 posts, RR: 8 Reply 9, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 6995 times:
Quoting ElBandGeek (Reply 8): Maybe this will lead to an even more significant tie up with IFE like on avod equipped planes actually being able to watch the stuff on my ZHD through the seatback screen, or maybe special content for zune pass subscribers.
That would be an interesting addition you can already do that with your iPod in F/J on IPTE flights.
CMHfreqflyer From United States of America, joined Apr 2008, 61 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 6973 times:
Quoting PlaneAdmirer (Reply 7): Quoting Delimit (Reply 5):
I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
juicejones From United States of America, joined Jan 2010, 6 posts, RR: 0 Reply 11, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 6669 times:
UA777lover From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 136 posts, RR: 0 Reply 12, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 6306 times:
Whew. Channel 9 is still there, when the pilots make it available!
DeltAirlines From United States of America, joined exactly 14 years ago today! , 8771 posts, RR: 13 Reply 13, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 5384 times:
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
Same here. Channel 9 is the only thing worth listening to on the United audio programming. My iPod has better selection for those unfortunate times when there is no Ch. 9.
RB211TriStar From United States of America, joined May 2007, 185 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 10 hours ago) and read 5083 times:
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
ME! Although seems like more than 60% of the time CH9 is turned off.
UAL747DEN From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 2225 posts, RR: 13 Reply 15, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 4612 times:
Quoting UA772IAD (Reply 1): and in my opinion, went from being a great alternative to FM radio to overpriced, confused and generic FM-like radio once Sirius took over
I am a loyal Howard Stern supporter so I would have to disagree with you on that!
UA772IAD From Australia, joined Jul 2004, 1635 posts, RR: 3 Reply 16, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 4556 times:
Quoting UAL747DEN (Reply 15): I am a loyal Howard Stern supporter so I would have to disagree with you on that!
Stern and the sports channels aside, I don't care for Sirius's philosophy. I dont need or want to hear the DJs 15 minute segway into a playlist, nor do I want to hear about what the song reminds them of. Stop talking and start playing music. And stop putting syndicated radio hosts on music channels, in the middle of the day. And for the love of all things living, why is every music channel ________Nation? Could we come up wth something a bit more creative?
To keep this on topic... Zune is a good start, but I would really love to see an airline somehow incorporate Pandora (or LastFM) into the IFE systems. That would be something...
highflyer9790 From United States of America, joined Jul 2005, 1236 posts, RR: 0 Reply 17, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 4353 times:
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
guilty as charged
Professional people mover. A to B. CL-65 Type; CFI/CFII/MEI/AGI/IGI
mho From United States of America, joined Jun 2006, 209 posts, RR: 0 Reply 18, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 8 hours ago) and read 4124 times:
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
kgaiflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 3650 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 3664 times:
Quoting LAXintl (Reply 2): But actually I think the move is good one, as the new line up will offer additional genres such as Latin Salsa/Dance and more World variety channels and artist which is something that has been overdue(and I have seen comments about) as United does not cater to solely American's. With XM there was no foreign offering at all.
United must be trying to catch up with Air France (about 50 channels). I do notice 21 Zune channels which include things like "World Beat" and "Salsa".
Apparently others than hip-hoppers and teeny-boppers are now welcome on United planes.
kgaiflyer From United States of America, joined Jul 2008, 3650 posts, RR: 1 Reply 20, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 7 hours ago) and read 3552 times:
Quoting ElBandGeek (Reply 8): Yay, us Zune fans finally get to win for once
Microsoft has been doing a lot lately to build up the Zune brand and recover from the less than stellar first gen (that most people still use as the basis for hating on it even though the newer models are comparable and in several ways better than their apple counterparts) and this is a great booster. Maybe this will lead to an even more significant tie up with IFE like on avod equipped planes actually being able to watch the stuff on my ZHD through the seatback screen, or maybe special content for zune pass subscribers. I'm just surpirsed UA would be the first, to be honest I thought AS would be a good airline for MS to work with since they have the local connection.
Indeed! Even with 200 film clips, over 200 albums and 800 photos, my *Zune 120* is less than 1/5 full.
levg79 From United States of America, joined Sep 2003, 989 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 3422 times:
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
Quoting juicejones (Reply 11): I was nervous as well...channel 9 is one reason I fly UA whenever possible!
Quoting UA777lover (Reply 12): Whew. Channel 9 is still there, when the pilots make it available!
Quoting DeltAirlines (Reply 13): Same here. Channel 9 is the only thing worth listening to on the United audio programming. My iPod has better selection for those unfortunate times when there is no Ch. 9.
Quoting RB211TriStar (Reply 14): ME! Although seems like more than 60% of the time CH9 is turned off.
Quoting mho (Reply 18): Well, that would be me, for one
I join the list. I would also like to add that except for the original posted and a couple of other people nobody cares about what kind of music/radio stations they're playing. We just care about Ch 9. Heck I don't even care if there is a movie or not.
On the other unrelated note, does anyone know about the plans of getting Ch 9 on current CO fleet after the merger?
A mile of runway takes you to the world. A mile of highway takes you a mile.
Go3Team From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 3266 posts, RR: 22 Reply 22, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 6 hours ago) and read 3265 times:
Quoting UAL747DEN (Reply 15): I am a loyal Howard Stern supporter so I would have to disagree with you on that!
XM had kick ass programmers who hated what radio had become, but ever since the corporate suits at Sirius took over, its pretty much like regular radio now.
PacificClipper From United States of America, joined Aug 2009, 311 posts, RR: 0 Reply 23, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 2966 times:
I love Ch. 9 too and listen whenever the captain has activated it for the flight I'm on. However I like to listen to music at times and I enjoyed the XM programming, more so prior to the Sirius merger, but enjoyed it nonetheless. While there are more options now, the Zune programming selections within each category just aren't good in my opinion. Of course this was one flight so far but I had 4.5 hours from HNL to SFO to check it out, especially since Ch 9 was off.
764 From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 608 posts, RR: 0 Reply 24, posted (2 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 2966 times:
Quoting WA707atMSP (Reply 4): As long as United doesn't **** with Channel 9, I couldn't care less what they do with the rest of their audio programming.
Quoting Delimit (Reply 5): I wonder how many people (like myself) have read the thread just to make sure they haven't done anything to Channel 9?
Quoting ag92 (Reply 6): Exactly my first thought, i was really scared of them removing channel 9, but felt alot better, I am flying UA in December, and I damn hope they still have it by then,
Quoting juicejones (Reply 11): I was nervous as well...channel 9 is one reason I fly UA whenever possible!
Completely agree. I really hope that the looming CO/UA merger will not mean the end of Channel 9. I have switched airlines two years back for entirely different reasons and other than Economy Plus, Channel 9 is the only thing I miss a lot and potentially the only thing that'll make me switch back. But for the moment I'll just stick with DL and see what happens to the friendly skies......
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