NHL CI

[eriksat1]

I saw today NHL CI 4 payments of $42.95 = $171.80 I'm in, I need to watch my Blackhawks, and I think a lot of games will be in HD. I can't believe it will be hockey season soon.

 

[yaz96]

Congratulations!!

:clap

 

[DodgerKing]

I saw today NHL CI 4 payments of $42.95 = $171.80 I'm in, I need to watch my Blackhawks, and I think a lot of games will be in HD. I can't believe it will be hockey season soon.

Congratulations on getting CI
:clap

 

[Mr Tony]

broke posts off of an old thread that other than having the words "NHL CI" in it had nothing to do with the renewal notice being sent out

 

[HanoverPretzel]

One thing to watch out for with Dish's Center Ice: They are in disputes with a lot of local RSNs, and the games those RSNs do won't be in the package. Having said that, if the local Chicago RSN that covers the Blackhawks is on good terms with Dish, and you mainly just want to watch Blackhawks games, you should be fine (Same for anyone who's favorite team has an RSN carried by Dish).

I'm with you on looking forward to hockey season, though. I can't afford Center Ice, but my favorite team is on my local RSN, so I'm good to go (Except for the national games they play exclusively on Versus, which Dish refuses to put in an affordable package, thus locking me out of them). Let's go Caps!

 

[whitewolf8214]

i cant wait for hockey season and im debating on geting ci or not

 

[dwarren2]

At least you guys can watch your hometown hockey teams. We are SOL here in upstate NY. All Sabres games are blocked out when they are broadcast on MSG.

 

[AntiMoz]

At least you guys can watch your hometown hockey teams. We are SOL here in upstate NY. All Sabres games are blocked out when they are broadcast on MSG.

Let's hope that Mr. Pegula ponies up some bucks to buy out the broadcast contract with MSG and fire up their own network like EMPIRE. Golisano did the TV contract on the cheap (in some ways I dont blame him) but it would be nice to see more local content and a real, no kidding pre-game and post-game show again. Ted Black ran FSN-Pittsburgh when he was down there. One would think that they've at least got to be talking about it.

In the mean time......CHARLIE, give us something up here in WNY PLEASE! We're tired of watching Cleveland sports and we want our Sabres!

 

[ronfelder]

Be thankful you have access to an rsni live outside of Philly and we don't have any rsn.I live in south jersey and Dish used to give me msg which didn't do me any good.

 

[RichManitoba]

Even though I'm a seasoned veteran receiving Center Ice, it pisses me off that so many games are not in HD. Other than the NHL Net, there weren't a whole lot of Canadian originated games in HD. (There's NOTHING more difficult to watch than an SD hockey game on a 55 incher.)

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Let's hope that Mr. Pegula ponies up some bucks to buy out the broadcast contract with MSG and fire up their own network like EMPIRE. Golisano did the TV contract on the cheap (in some ways I dont blame him) but it would be nice to see more local content and a real, no kidding pre-game and post-game show again. .

They don't have pre and post game shows for a major sports franchise in the biggest television market in the country? Both MLB teams and the NBA and NHL franchises in Baltimore-Washington all have pre and post game shows, every game, every time (Aside from national telecasts, of course). NFL is a bit of a different story because it's always national. The Ravens and Redskins both used to have post game shows anyhow, but the Ravens lost their's due to a rift between the team and Peter Angelos (the owner of the Orioles, who's run the team into the ground and owns one of the RSNs here).

In the mean time......CHARLIE, give us something up here in WNY PLEASE! We're tired of watching Cleveland sports and we want our Sabres!

I think this stuff with not carrying the RSNs is kind of ridiculous. Unless I felt really boxed in due to price differences between providers or being in a place where I only had access to one provider, to me them dropping an RSN would be a reason to immediately switch providers. That's (all the local RSNs) a basic bread and butter thing that has to be there IMO. Otherwise, I ain't paying.

Of course, being under contract complicates things and might force me, or people like me, to stick around longer than we'd want to in such a situation, but eventually contracts run out. I try to avoid contracts for exactly that reason -- somehow the big corporation has leeway to change a bunch of stuff (Including, say, dropping the very channel(s) that made you sign up in the 1st place) and yet if something changes on your end financially or in some other way, they still expect you to pay, no matter what. Lost your job? Pay up. Hospitalized? Pay up. Moved to some place you can't access the service? Pay up. Heck, if you have a situation where due to changing circumstances you've got to choose between food or their service, even if you're all paid up and just want to cancel future month's services, they expect you to pick their service (Granted, you would buy the food and tell them to screw themselves -- but they'll seriously nick your credit score over it and it'll cause you problems later -- and sooner than later in the form of attempts to collect on unpaid EFTs). It's almost like involuntary servitude.

These contracts are very one sided -- you guarantee you'll pay every month for a set period of time, but they don't offer any minimum guarantee in terms of the channels you get in your package or even a fixed price for the term of your contract. Like, I signed up and then two months later they raised the price $5 a month -- you'd think, since I have a contract that I'd be immune to a price increase until the contract expires, but it doesn't work that way. All these contracts are very one sided in favor of the company, not just with Dish but with almost anyone you deal with. The government really ought to step in and regulate, because the average consumer doesn't have enough leverage to bargain for a fair deal.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Even though I'm a seasoned veteran receiving Center Ice, it pisses me off that so many games are not in HD. Other than the NHL Net, there weren't a whole lot of Canadian originated games in HD. (There's NOTHING more difficult to watch than an SD hockey game on a 55 incher.)

Be thankful that the Dish Network gods decided you worthy of a free HD install when you signed up. I have SD everything.

I'm not serious when I say you should be thankful you're not in my shoes (Though they did give you a better deal). I think we should all get all the games in HD.

 

[eriksat1]

I shouldn't have to worry about CSN Chicago being blacked out since I live 400 miles away. I hope, plus most CSN Chicago games are in HD.

 

[RichManitoba]

Be thankful that the Dish Network gods decided you worthy of a free HD install when you signed up. I have SD everything.

I'm not serious when I say you should be thankful you're not in my shoes (Though they did give you a better deal). I think we should all get all the games in HD.

Free install? Actually I don't remember! I've had C.I. for quite a few years, but I'm pretty sure there was no extra fee added.

 

[chuckster_dude]

Let's hope that Mr. Pegula ponies up some bucks to buy out the broadcast contract with MSG and fire up their own network like EMPIRE. Golisano did the TV contract on the cheap (in some ways I dont blame him) but it would be nice to see more local content and a real, no kidding pre-game and post-game show again. Ted Black ran FSN-Pittsburgh when he was down there. One would think that they've at least got to be talking about it.

In the mean time......CHARLIE, give us something up here in WNY PLEASE! We're tired of watching Cleveland sports and we want our Sabres!

+1. This has gone on way too long. I know Ted Black is aware of the situation because he talked about it last year on the radio. Here's hoping they can apply some leverage to solve it.

 

[ahorton]

CI - Leafs

Will I get to see all my Toronto Maple leaf games with center ice??? I live in Detroit. I hope so!

 

[Islandguy43]

At least you guys can watch your hometown hockey teams. We are SOL here in upstate NY. All Sabres games are blocked out when they are broadcast on MSG.

I left Dish for TWC two years ago over not having the Buffalo Games in HD. Now you can't get them at all. You either need to need to switch providers or check the sabres schedule and move to an out of division u.s. based team they only play once or twice and "move", so if you buy NHLCI at least you will get the away feed.

 

[dwarren2]

I left Dish for TWC two years ago over not having the Buffalo Games in HD. Now you can't get them at all. You either need to need to switch providers or check the sabres schedule and move to an out of division u.s. based team they only play once or twice and "move", so if you buy NHLCI at least you will get the away feed.

Last season I watched most of the games using a p2p site to get links to streaming video. Am tired of that. I already get the super basic cable at $12/mo plus I pay a $5/mo surcharge on RR since I don't have regular cable. I'm thinking of upping to regular cable that has MSG. I wonder what that would cost per month. I can deal with SD for the games. I'll keep Dish. The wife knows how to use the remote.

 

[AntiMoz]

Last season I watched most of the games using a p2p site to get links to streaming video. Am tired of that. I already get the super basic cable at $12/mo plus I pay a $5/mo surcharge on RR since I don't have regular cable. I'm thinking of upping to regular cable that has MSG. I wonder what that would cost per month. I can deal with SD for the games. I'll keep Dish. The wife knows how to use the remote.

You can get the Sabres games in HD on TWC even if you dont have Digital Cable assuming you have an HDTV. The only problem is that last season they switched up the channel numbers the games were broadcast on often and you have to rescan for digital channels to find the right one.

P.S., in a chat session held by team President Ted Black last week, the question was asked about the FIOS/ MSG HD dispute. Black's answer wasnt encouraging..pushing the questioner to TWC and also adding "I understand that Dish isn't paying MSG". I'm guessing he meant that Dish wont pay what MSG wants them to pay for retransmitting the channel. The full text of the chat is available on sabres.com.