Could antitrust laws breakup D* exclusive NFL ST rights?

[CK SatGuy]

Apparently, a Juris Doctor Candidate at Indiana University's law school believes so and has written a 24-page pdf article about it in the federal communications law journal. Note that it's not as long as you think and that you can skip to page 15 to get to the details. The rest of the stuff in the first 14 pages just summarizes the NFL's broadcasting history.
http://www.law.indiana.edu/fclj/pubs/v64/no1/Vol.64-1_2011-Dec_Art.-07_Bublick.pdf

 

[JohnL]

I very much doubt any anti trust judgement would do anything to DirecTV's exclusive rights to the NFL O(out)O(f)M(arket) package. DirecTV paid Billions for the exclusive rights. If there was a future judgement against the NFL, there would be years of appeals. Its more likely any current contract between DirecTV and the NFL would expire before the legal process would come to any resolution. The NFL is the most powerful corporation in the United States with their hands in Federal government and local government of all of their independent franchises.

John

 

[Juan]

The idea of a satellite exclusive contracts a huge possible subscriber fan base that can't get a los. I think the NFL should consider those fans needs too

 

[mikew]

The idea of a satellite exclusive contracts a huge possible subscriber fan base that can't get a los. I think the NFL should consider those fans needs too

They did. They allowed the package to be purchased online with a PS3.

 

[Mr Tony]

Could antitrust laws breakup D* exclusive NFL ST rights?

nope
Directv had the highest bid and I guess other companies are crying. The NFL set the rules on how the bidding worked.

 

[Juan]

nope
Directv had the highest bid and I guess other companies are crying. The NFL set the rules on how the bidding worked.

true..but that doesn;t mean they cant be charged with antitrust violations..try charging someone 200% interes and see how far u get

 

[ProfStata]

I'm glad a law student has the smarts to see what others have missed. [/sarcasm]

 

[robjlevin]

I can't believe this keeps coming up. Sunday Ticket does not affect any in market team at all. No local fan has ever been hurt by the lack of Sunday Ticket.

Nobody involved in this wants Sunday Ticket set up any other way. DTV is happy with the exclusive, the NFL is happy with the money and the networks are happy to have limited distribution so the affiliates are happy. Comcast isn't happy? Tough! They should have bid higher when they had the chance.

 

[robjlevin]

Wow...I love this paragraph:

Furthermore, DirecTV is not a high-quality product. Besides
DirecTV’s well-known inability to transmit signals during bad weather,
the company has also recently received a “D+” grade from the Better
Business Bureau. A large portion of DirecTV users subscribe merely
because they are the only provider of Sunday Ticket; this disincentivizes
DirecTV from making any adjustments to its quality since it knows it will
always have a guaranteed subscriber base. By making Sunday Ticket
available to all carriers, each carrier would have to raise its quality of
product and service since each Sunday Ticket consumer would have a
greater choice, as opposed to being forced to cope with DirecTV’s
deficiencies.

This guy obviously has never tried DTV. Those statements may be been true 6 or 7 years ago, but I would have to argue that they are not true anymore.

 

[bobvick]

He obviously does not know very much about DBS. Since the get go, down time due to rain fade has been very minimal. This is going back 17 years ago. Doesn't sound like he did a lot of research. Most multichannel video providers do not have an excellent BBB rating. For instance Comcast has a C rating, which is certanly not the best. Further more, DirecTV is not even a BBB member, so evidently they do not put very much stock in the agency's rating.

 

[The Fat Man]

I think that NFL Red Zone fixed that problem. There is a somewhat equivalent to ST that people can choose between. DirecTV isn't the only place to see live out of market games. Just the only place to see them in their entirity. I don't agree with the NFL's reasoning but it's just.

 

[robjlevin]

The fact remains that if Sunday Ticket didn't exist things would be exactly the same for those who don't have it now.

IOW, nobody has been injured or deprived of something that they once had.

There is no basis to prove that this has caused any harm.

 

[Claude Greiner]

If you want the Sunday Ticket, Subscribe to Directv. No point in crying over it because it will never be on Dish as long as Charlie owns DISH Network

 

[rapidturtle]

The NFL is an evil empire. They do the same thing in the video game industry with EA and the Madden series of games. With only one company making an NFL game, it has become the same game year after year, with a few tweaks here and there.

Wouldn't the NFL make a lot more money on the Sunday ticket by letting all of the providers have it? D* has something like 20 million subs, but how many people are with cable, fios, uverse, and E*, that might consider paying $300 for it?

 

[Mr Tony]

it wouldn't be that high.
In Canada all providers have it. Bell, Shaw, Rogers, Telus, MTS, etc...and it ranges between 150-170 bucks. I know a couple years ago Shaw Direct has it for $100 but the only HD games you got were the ones on Detroit & Seattle nets and whatever cable station carried it (SNET or TSN)

 

[duckydan]

Actually the NFL doesn't make anything from Sunday ticket other than what DirecTV pays them. D* Is paying 800 million a year (number from the fact that D* paid 4 billion in 2009 for the extension to last until 2014). That basically means that 1/7th of all D* customers must signup for the package just to break even (using the $335 rate of 2011)... also not taking into consideration the number of customers getting it for free for signing up or for promotional rates.

Not many companies would be willing to even match D*s current price per year so it's nothing more than a battle to stop them from having it more than a battle to get it on other providers.

 

[gigahurtz]

They did. They allowed the package to be purchased online with a PS3.

That doesn't address everyone else.

It makes sense for the NFL to market this package with other providers. I just don't get it. So much money is left on the table.

 

[cave1376]

The NFL chose to provide Sunday Ticket to one provider. They could of easily allowed more providers the rights to ST, but for whatever reason they decided to go with one provider. When the contract between the NFL and D* ends, the NFL can choose to keep their ST contract with D* or choose to go to a different or more provider(s). And D* is not forcing its subscribers to purchase ST.

 

[JohnL]

DirecTV chose to pay a huge premium to the NFL to have exclusive rights to the NFL Out of Market package. The NFL was only willing to take the money. It was in the Billions of dollars for DirecTV to maintain exclusive rights. The NFL is not stupid, I would guess the NFL determined it was a better deal to take the exclusive deal with DirecTV instead of offering other providers to be able to sell the Sunday Ticket. The buy in rate is not really that high, and its likely any other third providers customers buy in rate would be even lower.

John

 

[Bodo Fenrirsson]

Wow...I love this paragraph:


Furthermore, DirecTV is not a high-quality product. Besides
DirecTV’s well-known inability to transmit signals during bad weather,
the company has also recently received a “D+” grade from the Better
Business Bureau. A large portion of DirecTV users subscribe merely
because they are the only provider of Sunday Ticket; this disincentivizes
DirecTV from making any adjustments to its quality since it knows it will
always have a guaranteed subscriber base. By making Sunday Ticket
available to all carriers, each carrier would have to raise its quality of
product and service since each Sunday Ticket consumer would have a
greater choice, as opposed to being forced to cope with DirecTV’s
deficiencies.


This guy obviously has never tried DTV. Those statements may be been true 6 or 7 years ago, but I would have to argue that they are not true anymore.

He obviously does not know very much about DBS. Since the get go, down time due to rain fade has been very minimal. This is going back 17 years ago. Doesn't sound like he did a lot of research. Most multichannel video providers do not have an excellent BBB rating. For instance Comcast has a C rating, which is certanly not the best. Further more, DirecTV is not even a BBB member, so evidently they do not put very much stock in the agency's rating.

In my experience with rain fade,if it affects DTV in my area,the rain also always seems to knock out our cable & broadband internet(even DSL gets interrupted),& the electricity goes off in our neighborhood. Even if I had a power generator to watch TV in such conditions,I doubt picking up OTA would be any more successful. No,I don't live in some third world country,just the Augusta,GA/CSRA metro area.