Discovery wings gets it wrong!

I also sacked discovery wings, it wasnt worth the volume of air the sound filled…..

That classic Documentary 1974 series The World at War was also not without its mistakes. During the episode on the Battle for Stalingrad a two-three second shot of a Me109 was being chased by a Spitfire. But, wait…

…was the Red Air Force given a few Spits???

There’s a HUGE difference in showing a few frames of the wrong aircraft in a program and mixing up the facts. I saw very few programs on Wings, where I didn’t notice an error or two…some minor, some large.

That classic Documentary 1974 series The World at War was also not without its mistakes. During the episode on the Battle for Stalingrad a two-three second shot of a Me109 was being chased by a Spitfire. But, wait…

…was the Red Air Force given a few Spits???

Discovery Wings is better than nowt!

I’m with you on that in spite of my earlier rant

The fact
that you only have a little comment box instead of a
real email address listed anywhere on your site

Can’t agree with your sentiments on this particular issue – posting an email address on a website is a bad idea – it merely gets reaped in by the spammers. A feedback/comments system, or even a full blown forum, like this one, is better than nothing and quite viable.

I don’t have my email address posted on my business/personal websites either – and use a feedback system. Doesn’t stop genuine enquiries – does stop rot.

Contact telephone and address details are, however, a good idea – because no spammer is willing to pay for phone calls or stamps!!

YAY SOMEONE FINALLY TOLD THE DW CHANNEL OFF ONLY GUESS IT’S A LITTLE LATE NOW THOUGH SORRY ABOUT ALL THIS YELLING I APPEAR TO BE DOING BUT CANT SEEM TO GET CAP LOCKS OFF

It’s funny you guys are talking about this, heres an email I sent when I found out Wings was changing to the Military Channel.

————————-
TO: Discovery Wings Channel (comments@discovery.ca)
RE: The change from the Discovery Wings Channel to the
Military Channel on Jan 10, 2005

1/ Lets start off with the fact that your webpage and
its lack of direct email contact is out of whack with
the rest of the world wide web. One shouldn’t have to
go through what seems to be hundreds of pull down
menus JUST to send a letter to a TV network! The fact
that you only have a little comment box instead of a
real email address listed anywhere on your site
suggests to me that your really not interested in what
your viewers think. That one is forced to contact you
in this matter is embarrassing and amateurish on your
part.

2/ It was long my contention that the Discovery Wings
channel was poorly supported by its corporate masters.
The number of re-runs per day of the same show and the
lack of material that was re-run through out the year
was obscene from my viewpoint, (the paying customer).
I actually pay to see your channel through a digital
channel charge through _ _ _ _ _ Cable Ltd. I SELECTED
your channel – it is not part of a package. So
therefore I have a real stake in what you show both
financially and emotionally as an enthusiast of
aviation. Your lack of up to date quality aviation
content is the reason for your lack of success and
your sudden decision to see if you can go trolling
after the Military market.

3/ You never really understood the market you were
targeting did you? Most aviation enthusiasts who would
take the trouble to sign up for Discovery Wings are
not of the type who like the odd plane so to speak. We
shop in aviation stores dedicated to the love of
aviation. Let me let you in on a little secret: Most
of what you show on your channel can be found in
well-stocked aviation stores. The videos and DVDs that
you show have for the most part, already been seen by
the market you have targeted. If I wanted to watch the
content you have shown to date, I would have reached
above my TV and put it into my VCR / DVD to watch it!
Do you not understand this? What we the aviation fan
wanted, was content that is not normally available.
Here is a new concept – ORIGNAL PROGRAMING! Gee we
wouldn’t want to bust our butts and spend any money
commissioning an original work huh…

4/ Your corporate masters have made the decision to
put as little ($) into this channel as possible and as
a result I feel personally cheated. What could have
been a wonderful channel has turned into just another
digital channel that most likely has the resources of
a staff of 5 or 6 and a few little closet like offices
with a wall of rehashed videos. No phone in programs
with expert guests, no live broadcasts of events such
as the Reno air races or EAA air adventures, no movies
nights, no program following the start to finish of a
war bird restoration etc. etc. You just didnt get it
did you?

5/ No, what we got were five year old shows repeated
hundreds of times through out the year. What did you
pay for the BBC series on how to build a homebuilt
aircraft and learn to fly? A few thousand dollars?
Well we the viewer are paying for it now arent we –
Ive seen this series repeated twice this year alone
and the program is many years old. (Hint: some people
can and do read the production notes at the end of
programming where they show year of production).

6/ I predict right now that your decision to create a
military channel will end up going down the same road
as your Wings channel does – milk the military
enthusiast market of every dollar you can with as
little content as you can get away with until its
empty – then move on. Whats next after the Military
channel – the Tractor and Combine Channel? One night a
week of so-called aircraft programs within this
military channel is not enough for this viewer. It
most likely will show F16s blowing up stuff anyway…
Thats not aviation – its war making.

7/ One supposes you feel that there must be a market
for rehashed reruns of military tapes on the market.
Well all the best to you I guess, but you’ll soon
disappoint this market as well. It must be sad to work
for such a poorly supported organisation. I don’t hold
it against your group – it’s your corporate masters I
have an issue with.

In conclusion: Consider yourselves fired as of Jan 9th
2005 as far as my viewership goes. You have your
papers gentleman.

——————————————————-

I had a bad day at work that day I guess and a bit of time on my hands. (grin)

I have been watching the “Military Channel” since the inception a little over a month ago and basically it is still showing much of the same old stuff from Discovery Wings alongside alot of shows on more modern military concerns (kind of along the lines of what they do on Discovery Times) and some of those horrible overview shows where the history of a piece of military hardware is condensed into an hour – “The Tank in Combat”, etc.

All in all it’s not that much of a change, qualitywise and where aviation is concerned there’s just fewer airings of the same old shows from the past, and many of those shows have been around on other networks (A&E, History Channel, etc.) for decades.

In my home it remains on only as familiar background noise when there’s nothing on anywhere else.

i would think alot of these programmes have very little repeat fees.

TV presenters who foul up and get shown on “TV’s Naughtiest Blunders” and such like get £250 EVERY time its shown … No justice, eh? 😀

But I bet the repeat fees make up for it!! 😀

JC

We had a clip shown on “you’ve been framed” and you have to sign a declaration stating that there are no repeat fees,to my knowledge it has been shown twice but may have been on more,i would think alot of these programmes have very little repeat fees.

Let’s all remember that it is not Discovery Wings that actually make the programmes but a variety of production companies, some better than others. Discovery Wings are just the outlet and have little input into the programmes.

But they might do better if they were more picky about the kind of programmes they transmit. What is it doing for their reputation when the only times it gets mentioned here is for silly mistakes or glaring inaccuracies? – Nermal

Don’t worry you will not have to endure it much longer if what I heard is correct: the channel has been axed in the USA and replaced with a Discovery ‘Military History’ (or similar) type of channel, part of the programing material being aviation stuff. If its going there it will not last long here I suspect.

But I bet the repeat fees make up for it!! 😀

JC

They are surprisingly low. I considered doing a documentary on the history of the guitar which is well overdue to be done properly and it simply was not worth the time, even on one of the major channels.

I also know that Phil Harding from the Time Team gets no repeat fees and that is on a couple of times a night.

MH

Discovery Wings is better than nowt!

You do not earn huge amounts getting your programmes onto DW!

But I bet the repeat fees make up for it!! 😀

JC

Let’s all remember that it is not Discovery Wings that actually make the programmes but a variety of production companies, some better than others. Discovery Wings are just the outlet and have little input into the programmes.

I agree that some are cringeworthy but you cannot blame Discovery. I get sick of seeing one so-called expert get things wrong and some of the documentaries are a bit weak but that is the nature of the beast, there is probably not enough money to make them any better. You do not earn huge amounts getting your programmes onto DW!

MH

I’m always disappointed with the quality of Discovery Wings material – there are gems there but there’s too much low quality stuff and far too many repeats.

JC

Yes, I’ve got it on now. The synchronisation between narration and footage was way out, but almost logically; you see an aircraft 30sec-1min before hearing about it, although they missed some out entirely. The screen was full of Spits when they were talking about the Hurricanes! It gets back on track after the point you switched off with the Mossie funnily enough.

Even after they sorted the sync there were still some glaring discrepancies in the naration. It is also high time they got some new programmes together instead of reshowing the same ones ad nauseam

They’re getting good at showing inacurate material lately, I turned over the other week during a programme about the Harrier. It was so full of mistakes a 12 year old schoolkid with no interest in aviation could have done better.

Yes, I’ve got it on now. The synchronisation between narration and footage was way out, but almost logically; you see an aircraft 30sec-1min before hearing about it, although they missed some out entirely. The screen was full of Spits when they were talking about the Hurricanes! It gets back on track after the point you switched off with the Mossie funnily enough.