Chado said:
Well they lost, paid the $1 fine (the biggest joke ever), but according to the case they "changed their monopolistic practises" and are now supposedly in full compliance. So they are no longer a monopoly according to the law anyway.
"Release NFL Sunday Ticket to cable operator's then we'll talk".
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Well they lost, paid the $1 fine (the biggest joke ever), but according to the case they "changed their monopolistic practises" and are now supposedly in full compliance. So they are no longer a monopoly according to the law anyway.
I typed this over at AVSForums and I'm passing in here now.
To clear some things up I'm telling you the following below which is coming directly from my brother who is a DirecTV exec whom as you would guess I can't name.
First issue is DirecTV is complaining about both access and pricing for RSNs owned by cable companies. One example of this type of channel would be Comcast SportsNet.
The second issue is the deal with the NFL and DirecTV and DirecTV had the first shot at a deal and the NFL only made a threat about a cable bid to force or try and force DirecTV to pay the extra piper which they did. Because DirecTV did pay the piper and worked out a deal other providers never had any chance of even paying more than DirecTV for it. No bids could be made by any provider once DirecTV accepted the deal the NFL offered them. The simple answer is that the other providers never had any chance of getting this package once DirecTV payed the piper.
A third issue which relates to my fourth issue is that the networks including Fox and CBS are losing much more advertising from DVR customers than they would ever lose from even 10 million NFL Sunday Ticket customers. As such they are working on DVR ads among many other things to try and gain advertising revenue from DVR customers. Many areas are offering interactive TV services as a way to squeeze in more customer specific ads that might popup during a TV show in a small window for DVR customers. An ad might popup during fast forwarding that would be interactive. So if the customer is interested in it they can press select to find out more and which time the customers fast foward would be paused until they are done viewing the ad. One example would be a customer can order a product sample which would be delivered to the customers address on file with the cable or satellite company.
Now the reason issue 3 ties in with issue 4 is because of DVR losses DirecTV is looking at selling the NFL Sunday Ticket package to other providers. Because they have exclusive rights they can resell the package to whomever they want as long as they can offset any lost advertising both CBS and Fox would have which it seems they are working on right now. So DirecTV can see their exclusive package to say Time Warner Cable so for every TWC NFL ST customer DirecTV makes money on it. My brother has said that they are kinda getting killed by the high price of ST so if they can make back their investment in other ways that would allow them to lower their prices and keep prices low for the cable companies that would work for them. It seems they don't feel they can pull in more customers just for Sunday Ticket alone anymore so they must do so in other ways as in HD local and HD offerings so if they have the best offerings of those products they will switch to them and order the Sunday ticket with them.
Now again I'm not saying DirecTV will sell Sunday Ticket to other providers but I am saying that they are considering it very much.
To clear some things up I'm telling you the following below which is coming directly from my brother who is a DirecTV exec whom as you would guess I can't name.
First issue is DirecTV is complaining about both access and pricing for RSNs owned by cable companies. One example of this type of channel would be Comcast SportsNet.
The second issue is the deal with the NFL and DirecTV and DirecTV had the first shot at a deal and the NFL only made a threat about a cable bid to force or try and force DirecTV to pay the extra piper which they did. Because DirecTV did pay the piper and worked out a deal other providers never had any chance of even paying more than DirecTV for it. No bids could be made by any provider once DirecTV accepted the deal the NFL offered them. The simple answer is that the other providers never had any chance of getting this package once DirecTV payed the piper.
A third issue which relates to my fourth issue is that the networks including Fox and CBS are losing much more advertising from DVR customers than they would ever lose from even 10 million NFL Sunday Ticket customers. As such they are working on DVR ads among many other things to try and gain advertising revenue from DVR customers. Many areas are offering interactive TV services as a way to squeeze in more customer specific ads that might popup during a TV show in a small window for DVR customers. An ad might popup during fast forwarding that would be interactive. So if the customer is interested in it they can press select to find out more and which time the customers fast foward would be paused until they are done viewing the ad. One example would be a customer can order a product sample which would be delivered to the customers address on file with the cable or satellite company.
Now the reason issue 3 ties in with issue 4 is because of DVR losses DirecTV is looking at selling the NFL Sunday Ticket package to other providers. Because they have exclusive rights they can resell the package to whomever they want as long as they can offset any lost advertising both CBS and Fox would have which it seems they are working on right now. So DirecTV can see their exclusive package to say Time Warner Cable so for every TWC NFL ST customer DirecTV makes money on it. My brother has said that they are kinda getting killed by the high price of ST so if they can make back their investment in other ways that would allow them to lower their prices and keep prices low for the cable companies that would work for them. It seems they don't feel they can pull in more customers just for Sunday Ticket alone anymore so they must do so in other ways as in HD local and HD offerings so if they have the best offerings of those products they will switch to them and order the Sunday ticket with them.
Now again I'm not saying DirecTV will sell Sunday Ticket to other providers but I am saying that they are considering it very much.
If DirecTV would quit over bidding for the NFL Sunday TIcket, it would not be so high. StarChoice customers in Canada pays only $99.95 a season convert that to U.S. currency and it's around $85 or so. DirecTV is scared of cable getting it and selling it for a lower price.
cablewithaview said:
You can pretty much guarantee that if cable gets it, they won't offer it at a lower price, as long as D* has the agreement with the NFL. D* would be taking a chance of losing subs if they didn't have some type of agreement like that.
Chado said:
Yes DirecTv could force them to sell Sunday Ticket for no less than 250 bucks for the season but that doesn't stop say Comcast the next day saying to new customers if you order NFL Sunday Ticket for 250 bucks we will give you 3 or 4 months of our best programming package (just as DirecTV does today to get new customers) and that is something DirecTV cannot stop because they cannot make Comcast not offer discounts on services they don't have rights for nor provide.
Right now DirecTV from what I hear is losing big money (way more than the last two years) on Sunday Ticket and I see them getting desperate now. They thought they could make due paying the extra piper but all this HD crap not related to Sunday Ticket is killing them now. Its not just losing the Sunday Ticket subscriber its losing a Sunday Ticket subscriber "and" losing a 100+ per month customer with subsidied expensive hardware. My view of this from what I've been told is that they are losing many more high end NFL ST customers than they would like us to believe. What they don't tell us is that their churn this last quarter had its lowest rate for SD churn. This means that out of their total churn percentage they had a massive amount of them being HD customers versus SD customers.
something else, as far as them losing on the NFL Sunday Ticket, there are people finding out about StarChoice and ways of getting the service here in the U.S. I didn't realize how many people just in my neck of the woods that have gone that route because of the price hike on the NFL Sunday Ticket through DirecTV. If DirecTV wants to quit losing money on the venture then quit bidding so high on it, in order to say they have something no one else has.
Comcast is in business to make money as well as DTV is. DTV pays out the butt for ST which is a money loser to gain new subscribers or retain them while Comcast signs an exclusive deal of their own to gain or retain customers with RSN's. If you want ST then buy DTV. If you want a particular RSN then buy Comcast. If you want both then buy and pay for them both. Nobody is stopping you from receiving both ST and Comcast RSN’s.
cablewithaview said:
The sad thing is that by the time they buy the hardware and get the lower fee NFL ST they end up paying MORE than if they would have just paid the premium price from DirecTV. Assuming they are all doing it LEGALLY.
Roger said:
First Comcast doesn't sign their own exclusive deal for their own channels. They are only allowed to withhold this channel because of a loophole that will be closed in the not too distant future. Also the NFL is also the only sport that also has a little loophole that allows them to even make an exclusive deal for programming offered via satellite. Its funny because the loophole Comcast has is that they don't offer the channel via satellite while the NFLs loopholes allow them to offer it via satellite.
When I'm talking about these two legal loopholes and offering it on satellite I'm talking about the channels being hosted on a satellite not given to consumers via satellite.
People keep on comparing these two issues and they are very different in their foundations and their respective loopholes.
LonghornXP said:
Then as always this is not a true apples to apples comparison nor should it be discussed here if its illegal.
No, you don't have this stated correctly.LonghornXP said:
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is not exclusive. Comcast has offered CSN-Philly to all cablers in the SE Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. Comcast doesn't own all the systems in the region; CSN-Philly appears on others, such as Time-Warner and Adelphia. CSN-Philly is being withheld from DirecTV and Dish Network because of the terrestrially-delivered loophole.
That is a far cry from the NFL's packages. All the NFL broadcast packages are exclusive. Starting next year:
CBS has the Sunday AFC package, with a few guaranteed super bowls
Fox has the Sunday NFC package, with a few guaranteed super bowls
NBC has the Sunday Night package, with a few guaranteed super bowls
ESPN has the Monday Night package
DirecTV has the Sunday Ticket package
Comcast is playing stupid. Their stance about Sunday Ticket is akin to me complaining that Super Bowl XL should be on both CBS and ABC next year, only because ABC shouldn't have an exclusive lock on Super Bowl XL in 2006.
Comcast Corporation owns nearly 25% of Time Warner Cable and together they both purchased all of Adelphia Communications for $17.6B back in April of this year so they are all of the same "cloth".
Part of the Comcast/Time-Warner/Adelphia deal is to remove Comcast's 25% ownership of Time-Warner.
Besides, Comcast offers CSN-Philly to Time-Warner, which is still a separate entity. The point is that CSN-Philly isn't exclusive. Comcast just doesn't offer CSN-Philly to the DBS companies.
Besides, Comcast offers CSN-Philly to Time-Warner, which is still a separate entity. The point is that CSN-Philly isn't exclusive. Comcast just doesn't offer CSN-Philly to the DBS companies.
I don't understand why they have 3 Comcast SportsNets, but not the Philly one. So I won't be able to watch Flyers games. It's very frustrating. Did the FCC force Comcast to make the other 3 Comcast SportsNet channels available?
The comment about sharing NFL ST is moronic. The NFL likes it this way so it's exclusive, and they can get more money for it.
I contacted D* about this issue, and this was there response.
*****
Thanks for asking about Comcast SportsNet. We would like to be able to offer this service to our customers. Unfortunately, despite our requests, Comcast Corporation (which owns the distribution rights for this regional sports network) won't allow us access to their broadcasts, so we can't broadcast Comcast Sports Net to our customers who in the Philadelphia area. We're sorry for any inconvenience.
If you'd like to register your opinion, you can do so by contacting the Pennsylvania Attorney General, your representatives in Congress or by contacting the FCC at:
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th St. S.W.
Washington, DC 20054
(888) 225-5322 or (888) CALL FCC
*****
I think they want us to complain to the PA Attorney General and the FCC for them.
The comment about sharing NFL ST is moronic. The NFL likes it this way so it's exclusive, and they can get more money for it.
I contacted D* about this issue, and this was there response.
*****
Thanks for asking about Comcast SportsNet. We would like to be able to offer this service to our customers. Unfortunately, despite our requests, Comcast Corporation (which owns the distribution rights for this regional sports network) won't allow us access to their broadcasts, so we can't broadcast Comcast Sports Net to our customers who in the Philadelphia area. We're sorry for any inconvenience.
If you'd like to register your opinion, you can do so by contacting the Pennsylvania Attorney General, your representatives in Congress or by contacting the FCC at:
Federal Communications Commission
445 12th St. S.W.
Washington, DC 20054
(888) 225-5322 or (888) CALL FCC
*****
I think they want us to complain to the PA Attorney General and the FCC for them.
sgordon77 said:
It's because the other Comcast Sportsnets are satellite fed & the Philadelphia one isn't. The FCC didn't force them to carry it, it simply says they can't keep them away from satellite carriers. Then, they reached an agreement for carriage. Remeber, E* had an agreement last December to carry Comcast Sportsnet Chicago, but not to start until 4/1, so they could save $$$ by not p[aying during the winter with a NHL lockout & a Bukks team they thought would suck. Then the Bulls became a playoff team & they lost alot of subscribers in the Chicago are to D* & Comcast just to get the Bulls, (& in my case to get CSN HD, which neither satellite company carries).
sgordon77 said:
contacting the attorney general office, FCC and congress, it's really non of there business. also it is not a satellite feed neither, it is a fiber feed so by law they don't have to share. I will side with Comcast on this issue. I feel if DirecTV can have an exclusive on NFL Sunday Ticket then there is no reason why Comcast can't have an exclusive regional sports channel. the NFL probably does like there arrangement with DirecTV because they are stupid enough to excessively over bid for the thing then charge you what $60 per month now for four months. (note: StarChoice is roughly $100 for the season).
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