Greek Satellite TV in the USA

Information about Greek Satellite television in the United States

I was inspired to write this page as I was researching the possibility of watching Greek television in the United States. I was amazed to find out that information on the web (or any other easily accessible place) was hard to find, and never adequate.

I have been subscribing to Greek Satellite channels in the US since 2004 and here is some information that I hope can help you if you are searching for information on the subject.

Available Satellite Channels

While Greeks living in Europe can watch just about every Greek television channel through NOVA, Greek-Americans have to choose between the Dish Network or DirectTV.

TheDish Network offers the most Greek television channels that include:

• ERT SAT (since Nov. 2006 renamed ERTworld)
• ANT1 Satellite
• ANT1 Gold
• Alter Globe

Exclusive Gifts and apparel

Also Dish Network offers several Greek radio stations:

• ERA-5 (Foni tis Elladas)
• ERA-Sport
• Ant1 Music
• Ant1 Radio
• Rythmos
• SuperSpor FM

DirectTV offers MEGA Cosmos as of December 2006.

Subscribing to Greek Satellite TV

Receiving Greek television requires either a second dish from the Dish Network, or a "super dish". If you already are a subscriber of the Dish Network, you will need to buy a second dish just to receive the Greek channels. With the dual dish set-up you can receive all the television channels but not the Greek radio stations.

One of the things that makes subscribing to satellite television confusing is all the different packages, and promotional offers that are available - with the promotional offers changing often and from place to place. So you will have to take a look for yourself at what is available in your area. When I ordered mine, I was able to get more information from the local distributor than what the Dish Network web site had to offer.

I am not sure if you have to subscribe to the Greek Satellite channels without also subscribing to one of the regular Dish Network packages, but when I bought my subscription it was much cheaper (it gave me the second dish for free) to buy a special package that included one of the regular channel packages, the Greek satellite tv, and three receivers. Once again you might want to call your local distributor to ask about what specials are available.

All in all, besides the confusion with the channel line-ups, the promotional packages, and the extra dishes and switches, it was a quick process. The technician came at the time he said, he was open to my suggestions as to where the dishes should be installed and where he should be drilling to get cables inside the house. It took him about one hour to finish the installation, and after that I was one happy person watching Greek television in the USA!

Problems with Dish Network's Greek Satellite services

My joy did not last very long. Within a year I found out that I was not receiving all the channels I was paying for. In order to receive the Greek Radio channels that were part of my package I had to have a "Super Dish", something the Dish Network technician had failed to install. After many phone calls to Dish Network Customer Service, a technician showed up at my door and replaced the dish so I could finally get all the channels I was subscribing. I was joyous once again, but this was not about to last.

Upon returning from our Greek vacation in late August 2006, we found our answering machine filled with messages from Dish Network informing us that we needed to add another dish if we wanted to keep watching the Greek channels we subscribe to. We were assured that this change would be free of charge for us, and that our programming would not change.

Unfortunately, this was not to be. Once the new satellite antenna was on our roof, I noticed that "Radio Greece" was no longer available. I called technical support only to be told that this channel was no longer available, and that there would be no other channel in its place, nor would my bill be adjusted.

Within the same day I found that my entire channel line-up had changed without my consent and without advance notice. Instead of the "Greek Language Package" which I was paying for all this years, I was enrolled in the new "ANT1 plus 2" package, which did not include some of my old, and favorite channels, and cost even more than before. Thinking this was just an error, I called Dish Network once again to go back to my old package.

This was to be only one of several painful calls to Dish Network only to find out that my old package was no longer available, and that Dish Network has the right to change the package line-up at any time and without the subscriber's consent.

Overall, it is nice to be able to watch Greek television abroad, but Dish Network has managed to make the experience a difficult one by changing the lineup and the pricing way too often.

Programming

The Greek Satellite Television Channels

Before I subscribed to the Dish Network, the most frustrating part about researching the availability of Greek television was the fact that the available channels offer the most minimum of information about programming on their web site (Alter Globe offers absolutely no information). Furthermore, as I found out after I subscribed, just because the channel guide indicates one program, it does not mean that the channel is showing it! As an example, when live soccer games are broadcast, the channel guides never list them. Even as Greek channels play a program, the information on top often does not match the program shown at the time.

The biggest problem from my experience with Greek Satellite television is the fact that you cannot choose the channels you like one by one (a-la-carte). Instead, you are forced to choose from a number of packages, which can change at any time and without your consent (see above "Problems with Dish Network's Greek Satellite services"). The only a-la-carte channel available is Ant1 Satellite.

Here are some of my general impressions regarding the actual programming from having watched most Greek channels for a few years now:

There are five available Greek satellite channels broadcast exclusively by DishNetwork in the USA:

• Alter Globe
  Alter Globe has the dubious distinction of not offering any information on the web. This way no one can tell what the channel is offering before they can purchase it. Alter Globe offers variety programming, and seemingly the most commercials of Greek-American businesses. If you like talk shows (mostly celbrity gossip), Terens Quick, and "Mitsi Hosta", this is the channel for you.
  
• ANT1 Gold
  This is a real head-scratcher of a channel. It is a channel the exclusively broadcasts old ANT1 programs. If you missed watching some of the old ANT1 talk shows or soap operas (Proinos Kafes, Lampsi, Big Brother etc), this is a good Greek channel to get.
• ANT1 Satellite
  This is the main ANT1satellite channel. It offers variety programming and news. This is also the only Greek television channel you can currently get a-la-carte from Dish Network.
• ERT Sat
  ERTsat offers programming chosen from the various greek ERT channels.
  
• Mega Cosmos
  Mega Cosmos has the most popular Greek soap operas. In December 2006 Mega Cosmos left Dish Network and now is beamed exclusively through DirecTV.
  
• Blue
  This is a Greek music channel that plays music videos targeted almost exclusively towards teenage-age Greeks. If you are looking for traditional Greek music don't look at this channel. If you like to see a Paparizou dance video every five minutes and "Eurovision-style" music, this is the channel to get.

All three major channels (ERTcosmos, seem to offer much of the same programming. It seems like each television channel competes only on style points and are reluctant to offer different programs than the competitors. They seem to offer the same sort of programs at the same time as all the other stations. All three channels keep alive the great Greek tradition of never meeting the scheduled times with many programs starting way later than their announced time.

The satellite program guide is vastly different than the program that's offered in Greece. Antenna Satellite, Mega Cosmos, and ERT sat are different channels than Antenna, Mega, and ERT. The program is usually tailored to fit the Greeks abroad and to accommodate the time difference between Greece and the other parts of the world.

Besides news and opinions you can catch several Greek soap operas mainly on Mega, the obligatory traditional (dimotika) songs and dances on ERT Sat, and the unbearable reality shows and tabloid TV talk shows on Mega and ANT1.

All in all, ERT Sat seems to offer more of the quality programming that I would prefer: A bit of tradition (although it seems too much at times), a bit of news, a bit of good reporting, and a little bit of music. Not to forget the rich sports offerings.

The Mega Cosmos programming is dominated by old Greek movies, soap operas, reality shows, and news, while ANT1 Satellite mirrors that of Mega.

Sports Programming in Greek Satellite Television

If sports is the reason you are interested in Greek satellite television, then here is what the channels have to offer (this is my experience since 2004):

Each season the channels negotiate the rights to their games with the TV channels in Greece, and hold separate negotiations for the rights abroad.

ERT Sat and Ant1 Satellite broadcasts live games from the Greek competitions and they change their line-up from year to year. In 2004-05 ERT Sat carried Panathinaikos and AEK home games, while Ant1 showed Olympiakos games. In 2005-06 ERT Sat broadcasts Panathinaikos and Olympiakos games, while Ant1 carries AEK. ERT SAT also shows other team home games, a great deal of Basketball games and sports shows like the Athlitiki Kyriaki ("Sports Sunday" for those of us who grew up in Greece catching all the sports highlights presented by Yannis Diakogiannis).

None of the Greek channels broadcast the UEFA Champions League or UEFA cup games except in special cases (usually when Greek teams play weak European teams and the game does not get picked-up by any other major channel in the US.).

Other ways to Watch Greek Television Abroad

ERT SAT makes its program available via the internet, but no other channel can be available with any consistency online. The Live Greek Television online links are available here, and at times more channels broadcast online, but they never stay around in a way that one can count on them. Watching ERT SAT television online can be an exercise in frustration, especially when soccer games are on since it becomes impossible to connect or to maintain connection.

Supersport Live offers on-demand video streaming of Greek football (soccer) games through the internet. This is a subscription service, with each game costing 5 euro. You need to have an updated Windows system, and a fast internet connection (no mac support.)

Very often several web sites appear on the internet that offer Greek Television broadcasts either for a subscription fee. The rule is that these sites don't own the rights to re-broadcast Greek television and they dissapear very fast after a few subscribers have paid for them, so beware. Other free sopcasts appear and dissapear at random on the WWW, and the quality is usually not very good.