Channels & viewing

[Dpadre]

Agree. First they took away the option of only viewing favorites when changing the channel, then they moved it off the numbers to types of genres and now the numbers are gone completely . Geez... Maybe it's time to get an LG or Vizio... A non Roku TV!!

[Dpadre]

Email this guy everyone 

[missq32]

I just emailed him; thanks for sharing the address!

[missq32]

Everyone needs to email Preston Smalley and let him know whether you like this change or not. I emailed him last night and received a reply from him this morning. I will copy and paste what was said. 

Hello Susan,

I’m sorry to hear you and James are having difficulty navigating the channels in the new guide design we are testing. Understanding how potential changes impact users is exactly why we test, so I appreciate hearing your feedback and have shared with my team.

In the meantime, you might try “favoriting” your most-watched channels and use the menu on the left of the guide to browse your “Recents” or “Favorites” channels.

Thanks,

Preston

Preston Smalley

VP Viewer Product

His email address is PSmalley@roku.com

The more emails he gets, the more he knows customers are unsatisfied with this "test"!

[GGRocks]

Email to Preston Smalley - 

Another concerned view of Roku TV.  

I understand that these changes are a test at this stage.  I am curious as to what the thinking was behind the idea to remove channel numbers from the listing.  Also, how was it decided the order to list the channels?   

Also, why are not all channels listed in the 'all channels' lineup?  There are some sub-categories listed by genre in the listing.  Curious, again, as to why 'all channels' does not include all the channels available.  

Not sure about other customers but I like to scroll down the listing and see what program is on and decide what to watch.  

[GGRocks]

Reply from Preston Smalley - 

Hello Karole,

Thanks for reaching out with your feedback. Yes, the changes to the guide you’re seeing is part of a small test we’re running over the next few weeks. It’s important in making a decision to change the experience that we understand the impact at a broader scale with real customers. And we have heard from customers that the channel numbers are something they really relied on.

The intention around removing the channel numbers is so that we could personalize the sort order around what channels we think you’d most likely want to watch. As the number of channels offered has grown to over 400 providing ways to personalize the experience or look at sub-categories is more important.

As to your question around why all channels are not appearing in your “all channels” lineup, that surprised me. Could you share an example of a channel that isn’t appearing for you that you’d expect?

Thanks!

[GGRocks]

Follow-up email to Preston Smalley - 

Thank you for your response to my concerns.

First of all, I checked a few of the channels on the sub categories again to see if they are listed on the 'all channels' listing.  I finally found them.  With all the sub categories in the listing it took a while to find some of them.

Another question, how was it determined the order to list the channels in the all channels listing?  I can't seem to figure that out.  It goes from news to weather to sports to kids to movies to mysteries to food then to game shows to reality to comedy to DYI to hallmark.   And then music and Spanish stations mixed in.  To me that is very confusing.  

Your reasoning is that the idea of personalizing the experience and being able to look at sub-categories is more important than the ease of finding what we want to watch?   Just an idea - add sub categories like music stations, news and weather stations, Spanish language stations, game shows, kids, comedy and the like.  Then have at the end of those categories list all the rest of the channels.  

For the customers that stick with certain kinds of shows that would work for them.  Some of us know more what we don't want to watch and want to scroll down the rest of the channels and pick something out.  

I hope this makes some sense to you.  

[Kitkatz]

Roku didn't plan on people actually taking time to complain but now that they are, they're back-tracking. If it was important to them to "understand the impact at a broader scale with real customers" they would have asked the customers what they thought BEFORE making the changes.

[Leef3440]

I agree as well. I watch by using the numbers, not the logos. This wasn't an upgrade, we've been demoted. Roku fix this please. 

[irishkhan]

Its not your just individual device,  its all Roku.  They keep messing with the Live Tv Channel Guide & the changes are NOT for the better.  Theres another discussion on here with all of us angry about the same issue & finding it impossible to use now.