DISH Cries Foul Over DIRECTV/MLB Deal
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Nobody should have exclusives to anything.Everybody should have the right to view anything and everything.I don't think this should pass just like they should put the NFL Sunday Ticket open to everybody.What's next like a few people have said HBO, or anything else going to one or the other provider.Everything should be available to everybody not to just satellite but also cable to where everybody would have the right to choose where they go.Baseballs antitrust laws should be pulled.I have wrote Mr.Bowman and am writing the congressman on MLB and the NFL on this.This is wrong and should not be approved and the NFL Sunday Ticket should be null and voided and opened to every provider.Now what's going to stop anybody else from doing this.MLB went for an exclusive just like the NFL did and it should not go thru.In my opinion MLB sat on the side and waited to see how the NFL did with there Sunday Ticket and decided to do the same thing.Now what's next the NHL,NBA or NASCAR to do the same thing.Not just baseball but football or any other sport is starting to show they don't care about there fans. I e-mailed and called and they say they have no comment at this time and no deal has been struck but told the gentlemen my view on this and he took my comment and listened.Everybody should call or write and express your feelings on this.Let them know this is wrong.Don't just think of yourself but every person who can't get satellite because of there housing situation or there dma and whether or not your a sports fan or not.Let's everybody get together on this and fight it.Let's help each other out.Just remember 1st it was the NFL now it's MLB what's next another sport,premium channel or any channel for that matter.
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Its not about the cable companies not bidding enough. MLB went for an "exclusive" contract. There is no way a cable company like Mediacom or Insight could have the resources, or the customers, to bid on an exclusive contract.
MLB said "hey lets get an exclusive deal" and DirecTV took the bait.
MLB said "hey lets get an exclusive deal" and DirecTV took the bait.
Baseball is a joke anyway. they have an unmanagable economic disparity which precludes most teams have having a legit chance. When the Yankees spend what $200 million and my Brewers spend about $60million why in the hell should I spend 1 dollar on a product I KNOW will not win. The players union wields way to much power, steroids went on too long with no one caring, economics suck, no chance for most teams, they play no playoff games during a time kids can watch as they are mostly all at night(they used to be day playoff BB remember?) furthering the generation gap they are obviously blind too or do not carfe about, and we the fan are suppose to care about Baseball? Not this fan anymore. I personally hope baseball does the way of the NHL and becomes a minor league event with OLN caring their games for about 25 million dollar rights package over 20 years.
They can do as they see fit I guess. If BB wants to limit the competition of who can disburse their product, though the outcome would hurt fan accessibility, it is thier product to do as they see fit. Kinda like the forrest and the trees story.
They can do as they see fit I guess. If BB wants to limit the competition of who can disburse their product, though the outcome would hurt fan accessibility, it is thier product to do as they see fit. Kinda like the forrest and the trees story.
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not even close.
NFL ST wnt to Directv before Dish was even a company. Little hard to bid when youre not even a company yet (yes I know Echostar was a company. Im talking Dish Network)
When the contract comes up, Directv gets first dibs to keep it and they have. If they didnt then it would go out to all bidders
I have to add an edit...the last contract was available to all but DirecTV outbid them all. But the 3 times before that it wasn't
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Way to go iceberg and right on the money about direct tv and dish network.The contract should be opened to everyone not just Direct TV,But there should not be any exclusiveness to anyone company whether satellite or cable.Everybody should be able to get it.
agreed.
Pretty sad that the FCC allows this stuff (exclusive stuff) yet in Canada where its more strict pretty much everyone there has NFL ST (cable and both satellite providers)
Also the difference between this and NFL ST is right now if you had cable or Dish you could get it. Now you can't
Pretty sad that the FCC allows this stuff (exclusive stuff) yet in Canada where its more strict pretty much everyone there has NFL ST (cable and both satellite providers)
Also the difference between this and NFL ST is right now if you had cable or Dish you could get it. Now you can't
not if you don't have a LOS. Also, there are apartment complexes (at least where I live) that have 2 dishes on the roof for Dish Network (where I use to live, they had 2 4' dishes..one for 119 and one for 110) so you didn't need to put a dish on the deck.
So - who BELIEVES that Echostar cares about competition? When they pulled the plug on Court TV or when they did it to Lifetime - and left the viewers of those channels high and dry (in order to leverage themselves with the content providers) - for WHOSE benefit was that. Certainly NOT for their viewers.
What's that got to do with anything?...The issue here is the MLB and DTV enetering into an agreement that essentially relieves 90% of the total pay tv market the services of Pro Baseball..
I believe no pay tv service should be afforded that exclusivity. Yes, the NFL and it's very powerful lobby has been able to operate carte' blanche in this area. The NFL is another matter for another day.
Back to baseball. If the feds get involved I view that as an unwanted intrusion into free enterprise. However the marketplace should get the chance to work. Let MLB and DTV do their thing. If it fails so be it..Even though I oppose the idea of MLB EI going away, the marketplace must be given a chance to work.
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Very sad what baseball is trying to do. I really think MLB is taking a big step backwards in this area.
Just wait until they have another trike and really screw them selves over.
Cant help wondering why no public announcement yet after all what is MLB waiting for. If people are gonna rush and switch to DirecTV from Dish Network or Cable the installers are going to need time to get it done.
Something tells me that there is some thing wrong in the deal between the two that's holding up the official announcement but have no idea what it is.
Just wait until they have another trike and really screw them selves over.
Cant help wondering why no public announcement yet after all what is MLB waiting for. If people are gonna rush and switch to DirecTV from Dish Network or Cable the installers are going to need time to get it done.
Something tells me that there is some thing wrong in the deal between the two that's holding up the official announcement but have no idea what it is.
Then you need to realize that even last year, the price charged to the end user was dictated by Major League Baseball. Even with many multichannel providers out there, not DirecTV nor Dish Network nor a cable company have set the price for Extra Innings. It was only Major League Baseball.gernskin said:
And according to reports, last year MLB made $60 million off of the package. So if someone offers you $100 million for the package in exchange for exclusivity, what would you do?
Not the services of Pro Baseball, but only the out-of-market package; the one which less than one percent of all households buy yearly.dishcomm said:
Perhaps this was the case because it was open to different providers. But if D* is dishing out $100M for exclusivity rights, do you really think they are not going to be allowed to charge what they want to?
I think it is ignorant and stupid for MLB to take $100M for an exclusive deal, which will in my opinion lower its fan base.
I for one, have not been interested in MLB for sometime. They lost me years ago. Out of the 4 major sports, I believe they have done the worst job, and have had too many problems. Well, OK.. close tie with the NHL.
I wouldn't purchase MLBEI, but I don't think this is in anyone's best interest. I'm all for an Open Market. Exclusive Deals cost everyone $ in the end.
I don't believe for a second the fan base will be lowered. This deal is only for the out-of-market package, not for any normal ESPN or FOX or Regional Sports Network games. This is an add-on package, just like Sunday Ticket. And Sunday Ticket has not cause the NFL to lose some of its fan base.Jeffro34tx said:
No disagreement from me. DirecTV will probably be able to set the price. And it will more likely be higher than it has been. However, just like Sunday Ticket, I believe over the next two years the package will have many more features, such as HD games and a "stats" show, like the RedZone channel.Jeffro34tx said:
If you want free enterprise, then revoke MLB antitrust exemption. Let them face some competition, so they can improve that crappy product they put out.
Does free enterprise apply to the citizens of the community that have to finance these hugh stadiums and clubs, they never seen the return.
There is no such thing as "free enterprise"
BY JIM LITKE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
It's a funny business that shuts the doors when customers eager to hand over $179 are still lined up around the block.
But that's baseball for you.
Every time people try to make nice, it pokes a stick in their eye.
Remember contraction? Well, it's back. Only this time, it's fans instead of franchises that baseball is thinking about whacking.
Last season, a half-million of the game's most loyal followers paid $179 to their satellite or cable providers for Major League Baseball's "Extra Innings" package, which entitled subscribers to 60 out-of-market games every week of the season.
Some were New Yorkers retired to condos in Florida who still followed the Mets, others were die-hard Dodger fans resettled in Las Vegas and one, apparently, was a very powerful, very angry Massachusetts resident who works part of the year in Washington, D.C.
Come next season, almost half of them probably won't be back.
In a deal that could be announced soon, Major League Baseball is proposing to put "Extra Innings" exclusively on DirecTV, where a majority of its subscribers, about 270,000, already reside. That leaves the 180,000 customers who bought "Extra Innings" on cable and the 50,000 on satellite rival Dish Network with only a few options:
Switch to DirecTV.
Buy "Extra Inning" from baseball's Web site, mlb.com, for $79 and try to follow games featuring players the size of matchsticks.
Watch reruns.
Or make a federal case out of it, something Sen. John Kerry is threatening to do.
"A Red Sox fan," the Massachusetts Democrat said recently, "ought to be able to watch his team without having to switch to DirecTV."
Or not.
Bloggers have started a brushfire of complaints across the Internet and Kerry has asked Federal Communications Commissioner Chairman Kevin Martin to investigate the proposed deal, which neither party has discussed in public thus far. But neither the grass-roots campaign backed by petitions with a few thousand signatures, nor Kerry, even with support from plenty of people in Congress, is likely to stop the deal.
At this point you might ask yourself why MLB would go to so much trouble to kiss off almost a quarter-million fans, especially since the seven-year, $700-million deal with DirecTV is anywhere between $250 million to $300 million less than it might have secured had "Extra Innings" stayed put.
And you might answer that baseball is always making bad decisions, something that was apparent when it sacrificed half the 1994 season and the entire postseason to a labor dispute, or shifted the World Series games to night so kids wouldn't see them, or even when the late Edward Bennett Williams welcomed former commissioner Peter Ueberroth to his first owners meeting with the greeting, "Welcome to the den of the village idiots."
But this time, commissioner Bud Selig & Co. think they're onto something. Though a consortium of cable companies offered similar money, DirecTV sealed the deal by promising to save a spot in its basic programming tier for a 24/7 channel MLB plans to launch by 2009. The cable companies were willing to offer the baseball network as a premium on the sports tier, meaning people who wanted it would have to pay extra.
Nobody knows whether baseball has outsmarted itself yet again, but there's more than the 230,000 fans at stake. Assume the deal with to DirecTV gets done, the MLB channel launches in 2009 and the demand for baseball, including out-of-market games, ramps up. Then what?
Instead of the 75 million homes that could have ordered "Extra Innings" through cable, Dish Network and DirecTV, only the 15 million on DirecTV will even have the option. So we'll spare the people at MLB headquarters the usual headaches coming up with a slogan for the rollout on the new ad campaign.
"Baseball: Love it and leave it."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
It's a funny business that shuts the doors when customers eager to hand over $179 are still lined up around the block.
But that's baseball for you.
Every time people try to make nice, it pokes a stick in their eye.
Remember contraction? Well, it's back. Only this time, it's fans instead of franchises that baseball is thinking about whacking.
Last season, a half-million of the game's most loyal followers paid $179 to their satellite or cable providers for Major League Baseball's "Extra Innings" package, which entitled subscribers to 60 out-of-market games every week of the season.
Some were New Yorkers retired to condos in Florida who still followed the Mets, others were die-hard Dodger fans resettled in Las Vegas and one, apparently, was a very powerful, very angry Massachusetts resident who works part of the year in Washington, D.C.
Come next season, almost half of them probably won't be back.
In a deal that could be announced soon, Major League Baseball is proposing to put "Extra Innings" exclusively on DirecTV, where a majority of its subscribers, about 270,000, already reside. That leaves the 180,000 customers who bought "Extra Innings" on cable and the 50,000 on satellite rival Dish Network with only a few options:
Switch to DirecTV.
Buy "Extra Inning" from baseball's Web site, mlb.com, for $79 and try to follow games featuring players the size of matchsticks.
Watch reruns.
Or make a federal case out of it, something Sen. John Kerry is threatening to do.
"A Red Sox fan," the Massachusetts Democrat said recently, "ought to be able to watch his team without having to switch to DirecTV."
Or not.
Bloggers have started a brushfire of complaints across the Internet and Kerry has asked Federal Communications Commissioner Chairman Kevin Martin to investigate the proposed deal, which neither party has discussed in public thus far. But neither the grass-roots campaign backed by petitions with a few thousand signatures, nor Kerry, even with support from plenty of people in Congress, is likely to stop the deal.
At this point you might ask yourself why MLB would go to so much trouble to kiss off almost a quarter-million fans, especially since the seven-year, $700-million deal with DirecTV is anywhere between $250 million to $300 million less than it might have secured had "Extra Innings" stayed put.
And you might answer that baseball is always making bad decisions, something that was apparent when it sacrificed half the 1994 season and the entire postseason to a labor dispute, or shifted the World Series games to night so kids wouldn't see them, or even when the late Edward Bennett Williams welcomed former commissioner Peter Ueberroth to his first owners meeting with the greeting, "Welcome to the den of the village idiots."
But this time, commissioner Bud Selig & Co. think they're onto something. Though a consortium of cable companies offered similar money, DirecTV sealed the deal by promising to save a spot in its basic programming tier for a 24/7 channel MLB plans to launch by 2009. The cable companies were willing to offer the baseball network as a premium on the sports tier, meaning people who wanted it would have to pay extra.
Nobody knows whether baseball has outsmarted itself yet again, but there's more than the 230,000 fans at stake. Assume the deal with to DirecTV gets done, the MLB channel launches in 2009 and the demand for baseball, including out-of-market games, ramps up. Then what?
Instead of the 75 million homes that could have ordered "Extra Innings" through cable, Dish Network and DirecTV, only the 15 million on DirecTV will even have the option. So we'll spare the people at MLB headquarters the usual headaches coming up with a slogan for the rollout on the new ad campaign.
"Baseball: Love it and leave it."
Another good article,
Major League Baseball Strikes Out
http://www.marketingshift.com/2007/2/mlb-strikes-out-with-marketing.cfm
Major League Baseball Strikes Out
http://www.marketingshift.com/2007/2/mlb-strikes-out-with-marketing.cfm
I am curious... were the various anti-trust exemptions created more or less for the broadcast networks, with one of the considerations in favor of it being that they were free to watch? Also, do all networks have an opportunity to make bids when contracts expire and is that a requirement under the exemption laws? I assume the various expensive lawyers looked into all this and decided that it was legal.
For the most part I dont watch baseball except for the playoffs and those are on the networks anyway. But it will be interesting to see... if this goes through... how quickly the 700M would be recovered. How much would such a package cost?
For the most part I dont watch baseball except for the playoffs and those are on the networks anyway. But it will be interesting to see... if this goes through... how quickly the 700M would be recovered. How much would such a package cost?
