Comcast Drops Yankees (YES) Network

[Tampa8]

Sure they may climb, but they are less than YES charges, and I have to think increases have been less dramatic. For whatever the reason, going way back games on NESN were in HD virtually all the time even at a time when other RSN's had several games not in HD. (Now most all games on RSN's are in HD) Has nothing to do with their cost, maybe their clout? Yes is still I believe the most watched RSN, but NESN has historically had the highest percentage of available homes watching it.

 

[david_jr]

I agree, Fox is over charging. I wonder if that was Fox that wanted the increase or the Yankees. With that said, Will Comcast be reimbursing it's customers $4.00 going forward?

I doubt they will reimburse everyone, but I suspect that they will probably give some type of refund or compensation to those that complain.

 

[dfecarter]

Frontier TV service is an option in many areas effected by the above comcast move. Some very rural and remote areas may not have VRADS for the uverse now Frontier service. Where I live in No. Fairfield County Comcast is only in Danbury, Bethel and Ridgefield, many neighboring towns have Charter Cable.
Fortunately I have Directv! Switched from Dish to Directv in 2002 when dish dropped MSG and YES was born.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here in Connecticut I wouldn't recommend Frontier Tv or Internet to anyone. They have had so many issues since taking over from AT&T. Very very unreliable.

 

[Don in CT]

Here in Connecticut I wouldn't recommend Frontier Tv or Internet to anyone. They have had so many issues since taking over from AT&T. Very very unreliable.

How is AT&T dealing with the DirecTV bundle in CT. Do they just not offer it?

 

[JUCJ85]

I find it hard to believe that nobody in Connecticut or NY watches Yankee games. Either Yes inflated their numbers as the most watch RSN in the country or Comcast is full of crap.

I don't believe Comcast is available in NY, I live in the upstate area, and it's either DirecTV or Time Warner if you want YES Network.

I don't know for sure in NYC, but where I'm from, Albany area, there is no Comcast here, it's all Time Warner for Cable providers.

 

[Juan]

I don't believe Comcast is available in NY, I live in the upstate area, and it's either DirecTV or Time Warner if you want YES Network.

I don't know for sure in NYC, but where I'm from, Albany area, there is no Comcast here, it's all Time Warner for Cable providers.

New Jersey is part of ny DMA..Comcast owns the state

 

[Claude Greiner]

Who cares. Baseball season doesn't start for another 6 months

 

[Troch77]

I don't believe Comcast is available in NY, I live in the upstate area, and it's either DirecTV or Time Warner if you want YES Network.

I don't know for sure in NYC, but where I'm from, Albany area, there is no Comcast here, it's all Time Warner for Cable providers.

I think Cablevision, Or Optimum it's called now Is a big part of NY City.

 

[DishSubLA]

I believe YES when they say Comcast backed away because that is close to what DISH did long ago. I also believe (or close enough) Comcast when they say the channel is not watched enough to pay what is being asked and I bet they came to the same conclusion DISH did. Not enough customers will care and that Comcast will not lose much in the end if they don't carry it. If only they would stick with that decision (Not predicting that) making two providers not carrying it, maybe others will follow suit and RSN's or some of them would be forced to lower the cost or be in another package.

Or at least stop the trend of every team having its own channel. That is not a sustainable model for MVPD's nor consumers: the costs are enormous,and those channels are filled with JUNK when it is not airing a live game. Even the FCC called it a "poor model." Let's get back to at least the RSN's who have more relevant quality programming to justify some of the cost.

FWIW, Charlie has said more than once that he had considered and may be willing to go forward with Dish having NO RSN's at all! I do believe him. If it can still make (economic) sense to keep RSN's, he is willing to keep them, but at some point it will not be worth it to him, and Dish would be sans RSN's, and the numbers for them is pretty poor, but I think MVPD's consider them value added (like Dish's packs that require a step-up to get the local RSN) or a service MVPD's are willing to bear the some cost to make their TV-service just a bit more attractive to potential subscribers so they don't lose them to the competition. If we believe Charlie, very few people watch the RSN's, but do tune to ESPN, TNT, major broadcast nets for sports in very high numbers.

 

[Tampa8]

Yes, single teams on an RSN was never envisioned. Even a winning team like the Dodgers still are not carried everywhere in their market. And indeed the other problem is what - or more correctly what is not on those channels all day long. There are only so many good teams in a given year, and unless you are real fan there are only so many who will watch them more than a very few times during the season. It's well documented ratings for radio stations that carry team sports drop when the team is not doing good, I bet there are some RSN's with near negligible viewers a good portion of the time. If they cost what most regular cable channels cost it wouldn't matter so much, or if they were purchased separately from the core packages.

 

[Troch77]

New Jersey is part of ny DMA..Comcast owns the state

While Comcast may certainly have a large foot print, it certainly isn't owned by comcast.

Also half of NJ is New York Market DMA, the other half is Philadelphia PA.

 

[zippyfrog]

FWIW, Charlie has said more than once that he had considered and may be willing to go forward with Dish having NO RSN's at all! I do believe him. If it can still make (economic) sense to keep RSN's, he is willing to keep them, but at some point it will not be worth it to him, and Dish would be sans RSN's.

If we believe Charlie, very few people watch the RSN's, but do tune to ESPN, TNT, major broadcast nets for sports in very high numbers.

I bet there are some RSN's with near negligible viewers a good portion of the time. If they cost what most regular cable channels cost it wouldn't matter so much, or if they were purchased separately from the core packages.

These are two great points. If we look at the past year and a half, Dish dropped CSN New England, but signed a long term deal for CSN Chicago, Bay Area, Mid-Atlantic, and California last December. There must be some economic sense with why dropping one but not the others. And it has been well-publicized that the Fox deal is ending at some point this year. We know from 2010 that the FOX owned OTA channels, RSN's, FX, and National Geographic channels were included in that deal. If Dish decides to go the route minus RSN's, this is really the next major chance to do that. If the FOX RSN's are dropped, that is a pretty loud signal that Dish is willing to go without RSN's. The thing that Fox might have on Dish is if they are all tied into the same deal. But since CSN is locked up in a long term deal and if Dish/FOX agree to a long term deal with RSN's, Dish will be in the RSN arena for the forseeable future.

I also would say that RSN's have negligible viewership most of the time compared to ESPN. (we can't compare national numbers, but it would be interesting to see how many are watching ESPN in a given market at a specific time compared to their RSN) Being from Chicago, I am looking at CSN Chicago's schedule - today (midnight to midnight) they had or will have a replay of the Blackhawks game, 6 hours of infomercials, 1 hour of outdoor programming, 2 hours of re-runs of yesterday's Sportsnet Central, 2 college football games, 1 high school football game, and 2 hours of new SportsNet Central/High School Lites in the evening. Sunday is even worst - everything is infomercials or repeats except for the Bears pregame, Bears postgame, and then 2 new Sportsnet Centrals - a total of 3 1/2 hours of new content. There is probably negligible viewership compared to any of the ESPN networks at a given time.

 

[Troch77]

If Dish doesn't carry any RSNs, you really think they would survive as a company?

I don't !

You can't broadcast every single sporting event on ESPN.
And if you could, you can bet your bottom dollar ESPN would cost way more then it already does.

ESPN is a far bigger rip off then any RSN. They repeat just as much as any single RSN, and Yet cost way more.

I already believe Dish's lack of Subscriber Numbers is Due to the fact they are lacking in their HD sports and don't serve a Market of over 8 Million homes of a single RSN.

Comcast will strike a deal come baseball season.
No doubt in my mind.

 

[Tampa8]

The NY RSN's mean nothing to DISH, you are just wrong on that. DISH knows how many potential subscribers they could have, it isn't even in the ballpark of 8 million. Millions live in apartments with cable pre wired, some include basic cable. You can't think DISH didn't look closely at how many subscribers they could reasonably have compared to the cost of about the most expensive, and numerous RSN's in a market. The impact has to be negligible to the number of subscribers. For the reasons given above, I'm not so certain not being in HD all day is a big impact. However when some pro games are not in HD, much more rare now, that will have an impact on those who do watch their teams. In fact though less viewers it doesn't help when college games are not in HD.

ESPN, yes they are expensive, but they are watched FAR more than a local RSN, they do have programming many times during the day, much more programming than just the games they broadcast. Comparing a regional RSN with virtually no breaking news, little to no probing investigations, actually almost no anything but a game or maybe two a day, a sports show and some college sports on weekends to ESPN doesn't add up. ESPN is a ratings leader.
ESPN is facing hard times however, and is likely to feel the reality that they can not keep signing huge costing contracts anymore and just pass the cost along to the consumer. Sneaking up on them is Fox Sports 1, unknown to me till recently they are close in daytime viewers now. The politics of ESPN may be playing a part in that.

Not carrying any RSN's would certainly be risky, unless they were considerably less expensive than anyone else no matter what package or equipment you have. What if they carried all channels in HD that are available in HD also. There are many who would pay considerablly less to get all HD and not have their RSN. In fact DISH could see an overall increase in viewers under that scenario. Risky yes, but not out of the question.
There are other alternatives to an RSN depending on the viewer. I would have no problem getting MLB online if there were no RSN and I would not miss too much of anything I watch on it now. Remember the times when the most people are watching are the times the RSN isn't carrying the games!
Directv has about 6,000 more US viewers, some good portion of that is for NFL Sunday ticket not so much because they carry a few more RSN's or even that they are in HD all the time.

 

[Troch77]

What ever you want to tell yourself Tampa.
I would never have expected a different response from you.

And Directv has about 10,000,000 more viewers then Dish. Not sure where you get 6,000 from.
And if you count Latin America, it's a total of 30 mill around 16 million more then Dish.
And again you are speaking for yourself.

Dish may not see the Value in the NY market because Charlie is all about the west coast. Always has been.
As long as Profits are on the rise ,he doesn't give a crap about anything else.

So what am I wrong about?
That Charlie doesn't care about NY sports?
I never said he did in the first place.

And you can't say if NY RSN didn't have an impact on dish, because anyone whom had an intrest switched or over looked DISH all together and went where they could get what they want.

13.8 million customer and dropping.
What do you think the problem is?
Why did Dish Peak at 14.2 Million, and fall backwards.
Obviously price isn't sending them flocks of subscribers.

You think Comcast dropping YES isn't going to make an impact come spring?

YES will be back!

 

[Don in CT]

At the moment Yes is still available through Cox, so I don't care. If Comcast doesn't renew Yes by April at the summer residence I will tell them I'm dumping them for DirecTV. Comcast will either say screw it and not bring it back, or if enough fans complain and threaten to leave it will be back in a heartbeat. I still dispute their numbers of viewers not watching Yankee games in CT. The state is split 50/50. I would be shocked if they don't drop SNY, not many Mets fans in this area. And the only reason the cable companies around here signed on was because they got the UConn contract. Comcast should just of said, look they were asking too much to carry, not well nobody was watching.

 

[dishcomm]

Back when YES was wholly owned by the Yankees, George Steinbrenner negotiated the channel's position on the respective providers as a 'basic' channel. That in spite of the fact that Steinbrenner thought very highly of his Yankees and thought their games were worth $2 or $3 per month per subscriber. Since YES was the only channel by which Yankees games could be viewed, cable systems management apparently felt like they were being held over a barrel.
The idea that YES should be a basic channel and not on the higher sports tier was because the previous Yankees outlet, Madison Square Garden Network, had the same deal. The channel was on a basic tier on all cable systems in the NY Metro area.....Looks like Comcast is looking at the numbers and decided that $4 per month is just too much to charge subs who don't watch the Yankees.....
This is just the beginning. The cost of sports programming is out of control.

 

[dishcomm]

What ever you want to tell yourself Tampa.
I would never have expected a different response from you.

And Directv has about 10,000,000 more viewers then Dish. Not sure where you get 6,000 from.
And if you count Latin America, it's a total of 30 mill around 16 million more then Dish.
And again you are speaking for yourself.

Dish may not see the Value in the NY market because Charlie is all about the west coast. Always has been.
As long as Profits are on the rise ,he doesn't give a crap about anything else.

So what am I wrong about?
That Charlie doesn't care about NY sports?
I never said he did in the first place.

And you can't say if NY RSN didn't have an impact on dish, because anyone whom had an intrest switched or over looked DISH all together and went where they could get what they want.

13.8 million customer and dropping.
What do you think the problem is?
Why did Dish Peak at 14.2 Million, and fall backwards.
Obviously price isn't sending them flocks of subscribers.

You think Comcast dropping YES isn't going to make an impact come spring?

YES will be back!

Not so sure. Dish dropped YES, SNY and MSG. That means if a viewer in the NY Metro area wants to watch any NY market pro sports team, they must go to a company other than Dish.
Look, companies are in the business of making money. In decisions such as this issue, the management will weigh the pros and cons of a certain decision then make the decision.
In this case it boiled down to how many subs would be upset enough to drop Dish and move on. Apparently not enough to make Dish move in another direction.
I think Comcast will similarly weigh the pros and cons. And with the number given out by the cable MSO, at 10% of total NY Metro subs watching more than 25% of the games, the answer is NO...Comcast will not be bringing back YES.....

 

[Tampa8]

And Directv has about 10,000,000 more viewers then Dish. Not sure where you get 6,000 from.

If you make up figures, it's hard to respond to you. In fact, in 2007 Directv had about 3 million more subscribers than DISH, since 2007 Directv in U.S. has added less than 3 million more subscribers than DISH has. Their total, as I correctly posted in the U.S. is 6+ million more.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/195783/us-subscribers-of-directv-and-dish-network-since-2007/

"Overall, DirecTV grew to 20.4 million subscribers in the U.S"
http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/05/05/directv-adds-subscribers-but-misses-on-q1-earnings/

13.8 million customer and dropping.
What do you think the problem is?

Oh, lets see, maybe the industry is bleeding subs?

http://variety.com/2015/digital/new...ctor-drops-566000-customers-in-q2-1201559878/

http://www.ibtimes.com/comcast-time...bers-pay-tvs-worst-third-quarter-ever-1723870

http://bgr.com/2015/08/15/cord-cutting-pay-tv-subscribers/