Dish and Cable to get NFL Sunday Ticket???

[Tom Bombadil]

I'm almost certain that E* had a chance to bid this last time, but that D*'s bid blew everyone else away. This year is the first year of the new contract, so there are another 3 or 4 years left on it.

 

[Mike_H]

In general one would think that the market should be left to do what it will. The NFL took bids, and took the most it could get for the interest of it's shareholders. Anything else may have put them in a bad position.

But on the other hand, the NFL is a unique private/public quasi organization. Often arms of the NFL are coming to the public for money, and as such, the public is going to have a valid reason to secure their best interests. Certainly right now it's just noise, but the NFL better start listening. It's all fine and dandy for a corporation to feel all high and mighty, but all it takes is the Feds to change the law on you to knock you back down to size.

 

[dishcomm]

At least that's ESPN & Gregg Easterbrook's prediction:

"Today the Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on whether the DirecTV monopoly on Sunday Ticket is anti-consumer and constitutes restraint of trade. Finally, Congress has noticed this issue! TMQ's prediction: The NFL, which seriously does not want Congress rethinking the antitrust exemption granted to the league in 1961 over its television contracts, better move pronto to make Sunday Ticket available to all cable carriers. The 1961 agreement with Congress specifies that in exchange for an antitrust exemption, the NFL will make its broadcasts available to everyone. Instead, the Sunday Ticket broadcast operates under a monopoly structure. Congress is already in a foul mood about the NCAA's tax-exempt status for profitable D-I football. The new Congress will want to differentiate itself from the last by being pro-consumer. The NFL's television contracts are worth nearly $4 billion a year; the league would be foolish to run any risk with that sum. Roger Goodell, change your deal with DirecTV before Congress changes it for you."

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/061114

more populist puff....
Look, even if the ST package is "made available" that doesn't mean they will carry it...The bottom line is each cable co and E* will evaluate the cost vs the amount of subs willing to buy the package.....
Congress has many bigger fish to fry. And one ESPN analsyt's opinion does not reality make....
Ergen even isn't challenging this..He basically stated that Dish owuld bid on the contract if E*could make mopney from it..But at this time they weren't intersted because they weren't going to get into a bidding war...
I wouldn't hold my breath over this...If ya want the ticket, just get DTV..It's thta simple....

 

[dishcomm]

Yawn, this stuff is funny. NFL Sunday Ticket was open for cable and Dish Network to bid on, they did not. So D* bids and wins the rights again. I don't see Spector in a huff over people being shafted from watching their sports team on Comcast Sports Net in his own home state. Guess those big donations from Mr Roberts gives him a fuzzy memory. So much for the retard helping his own constituents and closing terrestrial loopholes. No, going after a sports package is a bigger issue then the terrestrial loopholes cable uses to shaft Satellite operators and its subs. !sadroll

Excellent post....notice in thwe last sentence of the original thread post where it says Specter would not introduce legislation to make changes..So that's why IO refered to this as populist puffery..

this is nothing but more entitlement mentality whining

 

[dishcomm]

They're not saying "give", they're saying "allow". NFL could say, "You can have ST now, but you must pay X for the permission, and Y cut off your fee that you charge".

The point is, NFL shouldn't be only on one product like that when it requires new hardware and redundant subscriptions. The same should go with NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, and NASCAR on XM and Sirrius. The government needs to understand that it isn't like CBS / NBC / ABC where one TV that you paid for let you get to all three. With D*, E*, Comcast, XM, Sirrius you have to pay for each, and only the extremely well-off can afford to pay $$$ for services 2 or 5 times so they can have all the exclusive ones.

incorrect...the sat co's charge additional outlet fees for each add'l receiver over the first one....Now sat radio has got deals where the second receiver is disocunted if it's on the same account..In any eevnt, this has noting to do with ST.....All outlets had an equal opportunity to bid ont he package..DTV had the winning bid...When the contract expires, they can all once again exercise that opportunity

 

[dishcomm]

Why are the blowhards getting involved in this?

Seriously, there aren't bigger fish to fry?

And No, Aqualung the Gov't doesn’t need to be involved in making sure that content is equally available to all content providers. Sirius paid 500 Mil for Stern. Sirius should be obligated to sell the Stern content to XM for any amount of money. Same thing for NFL ST.

Yes, another great American who believes in the free market economy.....I'm with ya all the way on that.

 

[dishcomm]

Did Dish really get to bid the last time? If memory serves, DirectTV locked that contract up with an extension before anyone else got a chance to bid.

Seemed to me at the time that DT's connection with Fox must have played a role as well.

At the end of the day, it seems really illogical to me that the NFL would deny everyone else a chance to bid because it would do nothing but allow them to capture a larger revenue stream. I can't see it having any real effect on attendence.

So, why just limit it to DT? Why not try to maximize the number of people who subscribe?

When D* extended, they had exclusive rights to the package..It was their perogative to extend the deal.....The NFL isn't denying anyone anything..The NFL is a business that is very successful..They made a business decision in their own interest...The franchise owners are happy, the fans are happy the players are well paid..Where's the problem...If one wants the ST then they know where and hw to get it...Case closed

 

[Greg Bimson]

At the end of the day, it seems really illogical to me that the NFL would deny everyone else a chance to bid because it would do nothing but allow them to capture a larger revenue stream. I can't see it having any real effect on attendence.

So, why just limit it to DT? Why not try to maximize the number of people who subscribe?

I am having this fight elsewhere.

DirecTV pays the NFL $700 million a year for this exclusive. There are about 2.5 million subscribers to Sunday Ticket, and that may be a bit generous.

If the package is no longer exclusive to DirecTV, then the NFL will not receive $700 million a year from DirecTV. As a matter of fact, the NFL would most likely not receive anywhere near that amount from DirecTV.

The Sunday Ticket package is available because of "containment". The NFL does not want to risk the CBS and FOX packages by all of a sudden doubling the subscriber rate to Sunday Ticket. Remember, the more people that have Sunday Ticket, the less people will watch the games available on their local channels only.

Remember that Dish Network and Comcast, as well as practically every other cable company, do not wish to pay the NFL for this exclusive. They would rather have Sunday Ticket on the same terms that those companies receive NHL Center Ice, NBA League Pass and MLB Extra Innings.

The leagues for the latter three packages are the ones that set the price. There is no bidding war between Comcast and Dish Network for Center Ice, because the NHL sets the price for the package to the end user. In that scenario, the NHL receives half of the revenue for each package sold.

So, with my examples so far, let's do the math if Sunday Ticket were available to everyone, and the subscriber base doubles:

5 million subscribers
$249 per subscriber

equals $1.245 billion

Split that between the NFL and the other carriers, and the NFL receives $622 million. And that if there are 5 million subscribers, as there might not be.

However, if there are 5 million subscribers, realize a subscription base of that size impacts the CBS and FOX contracts, especially the regional coverage. When some of the Sunday afternoon games are only pulling between 15 to 19 million subscribers, an increase of 2.5 million Sunday Ticket subscriptions can pull those numbers down. Even more so on the regional coverage, because I guarantee you the Redskins will not be on my television in the near future.

 

[Greg Bimson]

Did Dish really get to bid the last time? If memory serves, DirectTV locked that contract up with an extension before anyone else got a chance to bid.

Well, that was because the old contract gave the NFL the right to shop the package to cable after the third year of the contract. So the contract was renegotiated to leave out cable. That increased the payment from $400 million to $700 million a year.

 

[dishcomm]

I am having this fight elsewhere.

DirecTV pays the NFL $700 million a year for this exclusive. There are about 2.5 million subscribers to Sunday Ticket, and that may be a bit generous.

If the package is no longer exclusive to DirecTV, then the NFL will not receive $700 million a year from DirecTV. As a matter of fact, the NFL would most likely not receive anywhere near that amount from DirecTV.

The Sunday Ticket package is available because of "containment". The NFL does not want to risk the CBS and FOX packages by all of a sudden doubling the subscriber rate to Sunday Ticket. Remember, the more people that have Sunday Ticket, the less people will watch the games available on their local channels only.

Remember that Dish Network and Comcast, as well as practically every other cable company, do not wish to pay the NFL for this exclusive. They would rather have Sunday Ticket on the same terms that those companies receive NHL Center Ice, NBA League Pass and MLB Extra Innings.

The leagues for the latter three packages are the ones that set the price. There is no bidding war between Comcast and Dish Network for Center Ice, because the NHL sets the price for the package to the end user. In that scenario, the NHL receives half of the revenue for each package sold.

So, with my examples so far, let's do the math if Sunday Ticket were available to everyone, and the subscriber base doubles:

5 million subscribers
$249 per subscriber

equals $1.245 billion

Split that between the NFL and the other carriers, and the NFL receives $622 million. And that if there are 5 million subscribers, as there might not be.

However, if there are 5 million subscribers, realize a subscription base of that size impacts the CBS and FOX contracts, especially the regional coverage. When some of the Sunday afternoon games are only pulling between 15 to 19 million subscribers, an increase of 2.5 million Sunday Ticket subscriptions can pull those numbers down. Even more so on the regional coverage, because I guarantee you the Redskins will not be on my television in the near future.

"Remember that Dish Network and Comcast, as well as practically every
other cable company, do not wish to pay the NFL for this exclusive. They
would rather have Sunday Ticket on the same terms that those companies
receive NHL Center Ice, NBA League Pass and MLB Extra Innings.

The leagues for the latter three packages are the ones that set the
price. There is no bidding war between Comcast and Dish Network for
Center Ice, because the NHL sets the price for the package to the end user.
In that scenario, the NHL receives half of the revenue for each package
sold."...
Ok here's the difference....The price is in the value of the product..very few people want the other sports packs....The cable and sat co's tell MLB,NHL and NBA that if those sports entities want to put their stuff on, they wil have to pay THEM......The NFL on the other hand is THE product....The cable and sat co wiht the winning bid pays the NFL ....It comes as no surprise the other outlets don't want to pony up..
Don't be so sure the price would go down if the NFL ST was spread around....Remember, theNFL has absolut authority over the audio and video of every game....The NFL will not cheapen the product by lowering the price..Why should they.....
For example..Take Titleist golf balls...up to a few years ago the only polace thye would be sold was in golf course pro shops..The balls were sold at prices demanded by the mfg....If a pro shop got caught discounting the price ,they were no longer selling the brqand..America's most popular..No proshop woul dget caught dead not having titleists on their shelves..Now Titleists are sold in mamy retail outlets...The older models are sold at discounted prices..But the newer ones(such a sthe ProV1) are sold at the SAME PRICE whether they are in a golf discount store or at the pro shop.....The mfgr gets to make that call because of the value of and demand for the product....Point is the NFL does not care how many outlets there are ..They will still get their $249 per subscriber because that is the price they set..The NFL says pay that or you don't get the product....I admire that thinking...It's great business....