DirecTV on the verge of renewing Sunday Ticket

[Juan]

From one of the articles above:

"The new NFL-DirecTV deal will continue an exclusive relationship that spans 20 years. DirecTV launched Sunday Ticket in 1994 and has remained the package’s only distributor. The package has around 2 million subscribers and is widely seen as being crucial to DirecTV’s growth through the years."

Wishful thinking on your part but it will be exclusive.

Cept for uverse

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[harshness]

You sure come up with some strange ideas. My point, which you know is correct, is that all providers make their choice as to what to offer to its customers. Since Dish doesn't have any NYC rsns, they lose many customers there, the LARGEST market in the US. Would Directv lose customers if they didn't have exclusive rights to Sunday Ticket? Sure, some, but to say they would be decimated is FUD. No surprise you would make that claim, BTW. You bash Directv every chance you get. Why?

If RCN and TWC picked up NFL Sunday Ticket, how many do you suppose would jump to a real bundling situation (clinging to a $10 discount is not all that attractive)? The New York customers don't gain a lot but the number two market would likely get some defectors absent the Dodgers and PAC-12 offering that other providers have there.

I'm betting that many sports bars aren't going to think twice.

 

[harshness]

Because harshness thinks decimate means something other than what it currently means. http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/09/does-decimate-mean-destroy-one-tenth/

Ammon Shea is making the argument that decimation is actually tithing (or worse, parity) and that's just silly.

Here's someone who specializes in American Dictionaries citing 16th and 17th century Scottish dictionaries as proof of a different meaning entirely but still deeply rooted in the fraction of 10%.

 

[harshness]

Are you implying that Directv sans NFL ST is just another company with nothing going for it?

I'm implying that DIRECTV needs the AT&T merger to go forward. To do that, it would appear that they also need the NFLST exclusive.

I'm not big on satellite going forward. I remember the C-band people saying that their beloved could never forsake them because the programming had to be downlinked anyway.

 

[whitewolf8214]

TV networks going far down the financial field with the NFL http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-tv-networks-nfl-20140906-story.html DirecTV pays the NFL a little more than $1 billion for its "Sunday Ticket" package. This is the final year of that deal, but the satellite broadcaster is expected to reach an agreement to extend its rights for future years, according to a person close to the company.

 

[whitewolf8214]

DirecTV closes in on Sunday Ticket deal with NFL
DirecTV (DTV) CEO Mike White says he expects the company to finalize a renewal with the NFL for the rights to the Sunday Ticket package by the end of the year.
The Sunday ticket deal has been closely watched in the industry with the lurking threat that a tech heavyweight would sweep in to grab the highly-coveted content for an online TV service.
http://seekingalpha.com/news/1980365-directv-closes-in-on-sunday-ticket-deal-with-nfl#email_link

 

[harshness]

Seeking Alpha also cited a Reuters report that the DOJ investigation of the Comcast and Time Warner Cable get-together has been expanded to include the AT&T and DIRECTV merger. This is important because the investigation isn't just the DOJ; it includes two dozen state attorneys general.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/11/us-directv-att-antitrust-exclusive-idUSKBN0H61ZZ20140911

Mike White said today that he expects the deal to close by early April 2015 (about the time that I predict DIRECTV 14 will go live).

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/12/directtv-att-ma-idUSL1N0RD0WR20140912