 | | never watched it? Won't miss that channel. | |
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 |  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Re: never watched it? Mostly junk shows except during hockey season when it carries a lot of NHL games. NHL season doesn't start until Oct 1, so no pressure on DirecTV from hockey fans until then.
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My BLOG .. .. Internet News .. .. My Web Page | |
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| | | | Re: never watched it? said by Romney2012:Mostly junk shows except during hockey season when it carries a lot of NHL games. NHL season doesn't start until Oct 1, so no pressure on DirecTV from hockey fans until then. DirecTV carries the NHL channel now (in HD). Plus you can see your local team on your regional sports channel (like Fox Sports Midwest). No reason at all for Versus anymore.
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The goggles! They do nothing! - McBain | |
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| | | | | Re: never watched it? Footballdude.. You actually can't watch the game on your local sports channel. If your team is playing on Versus that night, your local channel will be either blacked out for that time period or playing some alternate programming. | |
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| | | | said by Romney2012:Mostly junk shows except during hockey season when it carries a lot of NHL games. NHL season doesn't start until Oct 1, so no pressure on DirecTV from hockey fans until then. Versus does carry Big 12, Pac 10, Mountain West, and Ivy League college football, so DirecTV does have to worry about pissing off *a few* college football fans as well... »www.versus.com/nw/article/view/8···icle.tpl | |
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| | | | | Re: never watched it? They also carry World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) fights and content, a smaller sister promotion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), both owned Zuffa. As well as various Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) news.
If you're a fight fan, it's a decent network to have. | |
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| |  Jodokast96Stupid people really piss me off.Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ
kudos:2 | Yeah, they carry a lot of hockey games, but honestly, they have some of the worst coverage I've seen of any sport. The commentators suck, the camera work sucks, just about everything you can think of is bad. Because of it I end up not watching those games anyway. Of all the bad decisions the NHL has made, signing up with this network was probably the worst. I'd take Fox and streaking pucks anyday over this shit. | |
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| | | | | Re: never watched it? The camera work isn't usually done by the channel. In most cases it's done by the areas camera people and then broadcast to the carriers. | |
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| | | | Jodokast96Stupid people really piss me off.Premium
join:2005-11-23
Erial, NJ
kudos:2 | Re: never watched it? I don't know what the deal is, but I can see a definite difference between home games (in my case Flyers) on Vs, CSN Philly, or whatever other channel happens to broadcast them (several others throughout the season). | |
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|  baineschile2600 ways to livePremium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI | Direct TV did the exact same thing to all cable companies with Big Ten Network. Gouged them for money, and held out.
The VS channel is big here in MI, they have a lot of hockey (Red Wings) | |
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| | | | Re: never watched it? said by baineschile:Direct TV did the exact same thing to all cable companies with Big Ten Network. Gouged them for money, and held out. The VS channel is big here in MI, they have a lot of hockey (Red Wings) and comcast is not letting direct tv get some of it's rsn's.
comcast also had that thing with the NFL network as well. | |
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| | | baineschile2600 ways to livePremium
join:2008-05-10
Sterling Heights, MI | Re: never watched it? Thats true, but Fox Broadcasting doesnt own the NFL network; they own Direct TV and the BTN | |
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| | | | weaver
join:2001-12-13
Alexandria, VA | Re: never watched it? said by baineschile:Thats true, but Fox Broadcasting doesnt own the NFL network; they own Direct TV and the BTN Fox doesn't own DirecTV anymore. | |
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| | | | | | | Re: never watched it? said by weaver:said by baineschile:Thats true, but Fox Broadcasting doesnt own the NFL network; they own Direct TV and the BTN Fox doesn't own DirecTV anymore. That's correct. And Fox never owned it. News Corporation did (there's a difference).
News corp sold off the DirecTV shares to Liberty media in 2006 in exchange for the newscorp shares that they held.
Interestingly enough, when Newscorp "owned" DirecTV, it only owned 39% of the shares, but it was still the largest shareholder. | |
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1 edit | Didn't Fox sell it to Liberty Media?
EDIT: Looks like Eat Me beat me to it. | |
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| | | | Reviews:
 ·WOW Internet and..
| said by baineschile:Thats true, but Fox Broadcasting doesnt own the NFL network; they own Direct TV DirecTV and the BTN | |
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| |  quetwoThat VoIP GuyPremium
join:2004-09-04
East Lansing, MI | There was a lot more back-story with the BTN deal -- it was more about sour grapes than money. In fact, Comcast is paying more now than then the orgional contract stated. | |
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| | | Never watched it myself, but I believe it's somewhere up there in my channel lineup. There's enough cr*p on the other 500 channels, so who needs another.
I just went to the Versus website and they're playing audio telling you that DirecTV may a bad call. I don't think so. I won't be the one missing World Extreme Cagefighting... | |
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| |  espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2
 ·Clear Wireless
| Re: never watched it? said by burgerwars:Never watched it myself, but I believe it's somewhere up there in my channel lineup. There's enough cr*p on the other 500 channels, so who needs another. They have exclusive broadcast rights to the NHL games that they broadcast, including the Stanley Cup playoffs. While there are a vast many channels that are simply a syndication wasteland, this channel actually has unique content that cannot be found anywhere else. | |
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|  NOVA_GuyObamaCare Kills AmericansPremium
join:2002-03-05 | I agree.
As a matter of fact, I think I'll call DirecTV today and congratulate them on their decision to not give in to Comcast's unreasonable demands. As a DirecTV customer I'd prefer they take the course of action that they did, rather than caving in. They are large enough that they should have enough pull with Comcast to force some sort of reasonable negotiation.
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Trusting the Democrats to fix our economy and give us health care is like trusting the fox with keys to the henhouse, a brand new gas stove, and a pantry full of goodies for side dishes. In the end, all will be dead and nothing but lies will be told. | |
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| | | VS. = outdoor living network.
Tour de france anyone? That's a big event in my household, the only reason we have the directv package we do. Time to downgrade to a lower package. I'm not blowing steam, I'm serious folks, it was the only reason I had this level of directv service. | |
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| | | | Re: never watched it? Well look on the bright side. You get to save some money each month until next July when it comes back. | |
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| | | DAKAR rally in January - better be there by then or Speed take it back. | |
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| | | | Re: never watched it? Agreed. That is the only thing I watch on VS. But still, I tivo that | |
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| | | Re: Yawn... said by Mactron:Yet another "Sports" Channel.  Wish they would pull the plug on ESPN too   Amen to that! As far as I'm concerned, they need to move all these channels to a sports tier and charge those who want to get them the high prices. Premium channels are on their own tier, so why shouldn't sports channels also be?
As for Versus, who cares? I've heard of it, but I think it took me several years to realize it was in my channel lineup, and I've never once watched it. | |
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| | | | Re: Yawn... epsn should be like HBO EPSN 1, 2, classic, U should all be in there own pack.
Also trun disney back in to one as well. | |
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| | | As far as I'm concerned their are only two reasons to turn on the TV, sports and cartoons. Versus had Indycar racing, the Tour de France, and Hockey. It will be missed. | |
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| | Who cares? Another crap channel owned by Comcast that I never watched to begin with. | |
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| espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Clear Wireless
| Re: Who cares? said by battleop:Another crap channel owned by Comcast that I never watched to begin with. Great. Thanks for letting us all know. | |
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| | Enjoyed one show on channel I started watching "GunsNGear" a couple of weeks ago but never heard of the channel before that. | |
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| | I have DirecTV..... What the heck is Versus? | |
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| | "Market Price" Excuse me, but what the hell is "market price"? Seems to me that it's a made-up number that Comcast thinks that their channel is worth, certainly not what the consumer would be willing to pay. And since the consumer has no choice and thus is denied legitimate access to the "market", I think they should be bitch slapped on general principle for using this term.
I agree with all the others here who have said that it's time the customer base of cable and satellite providers stop subsidizing sports programming. | |
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|  ExitWoundPorsche Snob
join:2001-12-13
State College, PA
 ·Vonage
| Re: "Market Price" Versus viewership is way up since they anchored hockey on their lineup. I think Comcast just wants more money now. It's "market price" should obviously go up! Lame.
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»www.theexitwound.com | |
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 Jwobot
join:2002-08-14
Sterling Heights, MI | TSN If DirecTV wanted to screw Comcast, they should pick up TSN from Canada. | |
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dogo88
join:2001-09-24
Old Bridge, NJ | market price? I thought "market price" was for lobster? | |
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| Reviews:
·Comcast
·Comcast Digital ..
| Re: market price? it will get solved. It will be a long drawn out battle but in the end comcast will get their money, directv will get the right to air ALL comcast rsns and maybe even regional news channels, and directv/comcast will agree to split the costs of nfl sunday ticket and offer it to not just directv but comcast subscribers. Plus with both splitting the costs of sunday ticket they can charge lower rates for it. | |
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| | | | Re: market price? said by mikedz4:and directv/comcast will agree to split the costs of nfl sunday ticket and offer it to not just directv but comcast subscribers. Plus with both splitting the costs of sunday ticket they can charge lower rates for it. Why do people keep saying anytime DirecTV does something there will be some kind of change with Sunday Ticket?
"Oh, AT&T is partnering with DirecTV on their DSL package!! We're now gonna get Sunday Ticket on U-Verse!!!"
"Oh, Comcast and DirecTV are going to be making a deal about Versus. We're now gonna get Sunday Ticket!!!"
IT'S NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!
The first, last, and only deciding factor of Sunday Ticket is the NFL. Even if DirecTV gets bought by any number of suitors, that doesn't mean that company will then have access to Sunday Ticket.
Until the contract is non-exclusive, no one is getting Sunday Ticket except DirecTV. | |
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| | | | said by mikedz4:it will get solved. It will be a long drawn out battle but in the end comcast will get their money, directv will get the right to air ALL comcast rsns and maybe even regional news channels, and directv/comcast will agree to split the costs of nfl sunday ticket and offer it to not just directv but comcast subscribers. Plus with both splitting the costs of sunday ticket they can charge lower rates for it. sounds cool and I want my CLTV on direct tv. But I don't think that comcast has the room for Sunday ticket HD with haveing to trun off channels to fit it in. | |
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| | | comcast would have to drop some hd channels on sunday from 1pm to 830 pm to handle the sunday ticket hd channels. | |
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amungusPremium
join:2004-11-26
America Reviews:
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| good for DirecTV I watched ONE game on that channel once.
To the poster above saying it should be on a "sports" tier - it was in my case on Cox...
Seriously though, ESPN is THE most expensive channel on "Expanded basic" type services... likely even for DirecTV/Dish as well...
Between them and other sports channels, it's a wonder anyone has cable or satellite anymore.
Time for "semi-a-la-carte" channel lineups.
...Cox ALMOST moved ESPN once upon a time, which would've effectively started the ball rolling on a "semi" a-la-carte" type system... (»www.businessweek.com/magazine/co···z016.htm)
If there can already be "sports" tiers, move ALL of them there.
Leave the networks to handle the games they handle (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX), but put 24-hr sports channels on their own space.
I happen to like Sci-Fi (I refuse to call their channel by its new goofy name... it's a genre, you can't just rename it that easily ). Put that in its own space if you have to as well, I don't care. I'd buy that "tier" and others wouldn't. It'd still be a wash, and ESPN's overpriced madness would probably still make tons of money, and maybe even more due to unwitting sports fans "NEEDING" to pay for their fix... Heck, I might even buy into it seasonally, and cancel over the summer, and I'm not even a huge sports fan... I bet they'd STILL make a killing every year...
From the article:
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"Versus offered DirecTV a fair and reasonable offer to carry the network at the market price. " ---
--Translation, ESPN gets a crap ton of money, we should too...
The article also says just about as much directly after that:
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"DirecTV said it already pays Versus more than any other independent distributor and that the 20% hike it is seeking "for what is basically a paid programming and infomercial channel with occasional sporting events of interest is simply piggish."" ---
Go DirecTV. Maybe this'll be enough to put some people on to the idea that sports programming deserves its own tier entirely and that regular "expanded" packages do NOT need to keep paying these insane price hikes year after year, due almost ENTIRELY by a couple of networks like this that demand more and more money when tons of people simply never watch them, or, if they do, rarely. | |
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| quetwoThat VoIP GuyPremium
join:2004-09-04
East Lansing, MI | Re: good for DirecTV said by amungus:Seriously though, ESPN is THE most expensive channel on "Expanded basic" type services... likely even for DirecTV/Dish as well... Sorry, but current cable rates are a bit outta wack. The latest I have actually put Nikelodean/Comedy Central/MTV at double the cost of ESPN/ESPN2. In fact, the ABC pack, Viacom pack, and CNN packs are all more expensive than ESPN. | |
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| | Versus Versus is the only channel with cycling coverage, including daily coverage of the Tour de France. Without Versus, I'm not sure what the point of my DirecTV subscription is, given that there's movies through XBOX/Netflix and I already get my local HDTV channels OTA. | |
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| | Hockey is the only thing I'll miss Hockey is really the only thing that I ever watch on Versus and since the Pens don't play their first game until October 2nd I won't start sweating it just yet.
Also someone above had mentioned that the games will still be on the local carrier. Around here they aren't, when Versus had a game last year it wasn't shown on Fox Sports Net and vice versa. Not sure why that was but it was the case. I am guessing Versus got exclusive rights to broadcast the game.
If I had it my way every single game would be on Fox Sports though as I like the announcers for the game much more. | |
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| | | Re: Hockey is the only thing I'll miss at least the NHL lets teams have free on line radio feeds. | |
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| | Never watched? They show the Indycar races don't they? | |
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| | Versus is not too bad. Yeah Versus has Indy Car and I think their biggest draw is to MMA. They show all the big MMA fights in HD which actually is pretty cool.
Can't believe I'm praising anything Comcast does but Versus isn't bad so it gets a "pass" this time. | |
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| | Waste of space They should drop it for good and bring something else that is more interesting.
If only my cable provider would drop Versus and bring on something else like Comedy Central HD. | |
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|  DataDocMy avatar looks like me, if I was 2D.Premium
join:2000-05-14
Greenville, NC
·Suddenlink
| Re: Waste of space said by fifty nine:They should drop it for good and bring something else that is more interesting. If only my cable provider would drop Versus and bring on something else like Comedy Central HD. Most of their comedy seems to be feeble attempts to get a laugh by working "blue". I got tired of that years ago.
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When we get time travel, guess who will never have been President? | |
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| | it takes all kinds For me, Versus is one of two channels that I must have.
Versus has Tour de France coverage unavailable elsewhere.
While there is some online video of other races (e.g. Universal Sports has the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana live for free via internet), no one else has the TdF. I will personally leave Direct TV and not look back if they do not regain access to Versus. I am sure that I am in the minority WRT Versus (though they do have exclusive NHL coverage which seems like it might be important to a larger number of viewers than the Tour de France), but everone of the 500 stations that are available probably has a few dedicated viewers. Hope this gets worked out. FWIW, if I drop DirectTV, I won't be going to Comcast--so at least from the very, very narrow perspective of my business, both companies would do better to work this out. | |
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| | | Re: it takes all kinds said by e_identity:For me, Versus is one of two channels that I must have. Versus has Tour de France coverage unavailable elsewhere. While there is some online video of other races (e.g. Universal Sports has the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana live for free via internet), no one else has the TdF. I will personally leave Direct TV and not look back if they do not regain access to Versus. I am sure that I am in the minority WRT Versus (though they do have exclusive NHL coverage which seems like it might be important to a larger number of viewers than the Tour de France), but everone of the 500 stations that are available probably has a few dedicated viewers. Hope this gets worked out. FWIW, if I drop DirectTV, I won't be going to Comcast--so at least from the very, very narrow perspective of my business, both companies would do better to work this out. Then simply make it a premium channel. If it's a channel of very narrow interest why force it down all of our throats?
BTW this really underscores why we need an a la carte pricing solution, stat. | |
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NOVA_GuyObamaCare Kills AmericansPremium
join:2002-03-05 | Time for ala carte channel services If we could all choose our channels individually, Comcast's decision to raise their rates for Versus by 20% wouldn't be such a big deal.
DirecTV could just pass this increased cost along to consumers who choose to make Versus part of their lineup (vs. absorbing the cost), and all would be done. Those customers who do not think that Versus is worth the price increase would drop it from their personal plan. If enough people would drop Versus under this situation, then Versus would get the message and perhaps adjust their "market price" downward-- an example of the markets working the way they should.
Instead providers are forced to take channels in packages, and producers bundle the good along with the bad and force everyone to pay. When will this cable channel welfare system ever end?
--
Trusting the Democrats to fix our economy and give us health care is like trusting the fox with keys to the henhouse, a brand new gas stove, and a pantry full of goodies for side dishes. In the end, all will be dead and nothing but lies will be told. | |
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1 edit | Re: Time for ala carte channel services What you have said is precisely why a-la-carte is opposed by the programmers. With ESPN, for example, Disney knows that most people may not want it, but they want to spread the cost across a very large subscriber base to make the money they do. If it was a-la-carte, then they'd have to get subs to pay a very steep price to maintain their profits, which many folks might balk at. And since a good bit of the money they make is being paid to the pro sports leagues for carriage rights, ESPN would either have to drop coverage or demand the leagues lower their prices. But the leagues have to pay insane amounts of money to the athletes, who have come to expect huge contracts. If the money dried up, they might also have to take a big pay cut.
So, you see, putting sports on a-la-carte could cause the whole house of cards to collapse. Man, I'd LOVE to see that happen!
EDIT: And I almost forgot. If athletes' salaries go down, that'd curtail college sports from being essentially the pro leagues' farm system. That'd derail the college sports "machine", meaning colleges might start to focus more on their original mission: to educate people. I'm liking this idea more and more. | |
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| | | | Re: Time for ala carte channel services quote:
People imagine that an a la carte mandate would mean that if they're currently paying $50 per month for 50 channels, then they should be able to pay $1 per month for one channel. But that doesn't make any sense. Switching a given customer from 50 channels to 1 channel doesn't reduce costs (the other 49 channels would presumably still be produced for other viewers), so why should the customer expect a lower bill? If anything a switch to a la carte actually makes things more expensive because in some cases cable companies have to install new equipment and set up a more complicated ordering and billing system to keep track of who had signed up for which channels. In reality, what would happen is that the cost of each channel would go up a lot. Instead of $1/channel, cable companies might charge something like $8/channel, with each customer choosing 6 channels on average. The result would be that most people would pay about the same for a lot fewer channels.
»www.techdirt.com/articles/200805···68.shtml | |
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| | | | | Re: Time for ala carte channel services While cost per channel would certainly rise, I suspect it won't rise that much. If it did, many people would simply drop cable altogether. Some sort of equilibrium point will be reached, or the cable industry will collapse. | |
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| | Ala Carte Over the Internet? Does anybody have a clue when cable networks will broadcoast over the internet like they do now over tv/cable? I'd be one of the first to drop Directv and go with a pc connected to my tv. | |
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| | | Re: Ala Carte Over the Internet? A few already do, like some religious channels. However, as for the commercial networks, they have no reason to. Many are partially or totally owned by the same companies that own cable systems, so doing anything to move away from cable distribution hurts their parent companies. Also, the programmers are fiercely opposed to a-la-carte.
In short, it ain't gonna happen, at least not as far as the established players are concerned. | |
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| espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Clear Wireless
| said by mrbiggz :
Does anybody have a clue when cable networks will broadcoast over the internet like they do now over tv/cable? I'd be one of the first to drop Directv and go with a pc connected to my tv. When people are willing to pony up the cash to get it done. For mass broadcast it's still significantly more cost effective to use existing cable/satellite distribution instead of using the Internet for delivery.
For things like Netflix it makes sense because they are shipping physical media today. Same thing with software distribution -- either you ship media or pay to deliver it over the network. TV distribution gets sticky because you're already getting a signal digitally delivered to your house a half dozen different ways, so the Internet simply represents a more expensive option to achieve the same goal. | |
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| | | a lot people don't the bandwidth for that and cable internet caps will also get in the way as well. | |
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| | Comcast is doing the same with with MTN Comcast also own the MTN channel, which carries all the Mountain West games, and they won't deal with Dish network. | |
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| Reviews:
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: Comcast is doing the same with with MTN These regional college networks are exactly the kind of thing that are ripe for al a carte. I dont particularly want to pay extra for the Big 10 network, The MTN or the soon to arrive SEC network. Let the rabid sports fans pay separately for them and keep it off my lineup and bill please. | |
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ackman
join:2000-10-04
Acworth, GA | interesting So this is what media might result in? The media carriers become the content owners, where you must subscribe to their service in order to get specific channels that aren't anywhere else? Wow, free market capitalism is great, isn't it? | |
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| | | Re: interesting This has been an issue for years. Congress tried to remedy it by passing a law that said that any channel transmitted by satellite has to be offered to competing video delivery systems. It was an attempt to keep channels from making exclusive deals with cable companies and not offering their signal to satellite dish owners. There was a fear that the cable companies would strong-arm the channels into making exclusive deals with cable companies, thereby freezing out satellite.
When the cable companies themselves got into the programming business, they got around this law by simply distributing their channels using fiber instead of satellites. That's why you won't find the Comcast RSN's on satellite or other cable operators: they aren't distributed on satellites. | |
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| | | | Re: interesting quote:
That's why you won't find the Comcast RSN's on satellite or other cable operators: they aren't distributed on satellites.
That is completely false. Lay off the Comcast Hatorade and get your facts straight! That only applies to CSN Philly and only satellite. All of the other Comcast regional sports networks are on DirecTV, except for Northwest which they can't come to terms with. CSN California, CSN Bay Area, CSN Mid Atlantic, CSN New England, CSN Chicago and SNY are all on DirecTV and I think they're all on Dish Network as well. And FYI other cable systems that cover territory where Comcast owned RSNs are home RSN carry them as well. Including Verizon. Yes in the Philadelphia area, Verizon Fios carries Comcast Sports Net Philly and has carried it for 3 years now.
And FYI - The terrestrial loophole predates Comcast Sports Net Philly, CSN Philly is grandfathered in from when the channel was Prism.
With a total of 7 Sabres games exclusive to Versus this year, I can see many DirecTV dishes being taken down, and if we make it to the playoffs, DirecTV might as well forget this area exists. I Love it. Screw DirecTV!
--
Don't Blame Me, I Voted For McCain
Welcome to The SSA, The Socialist States of Amerika, Lead By Your Dictator, Hussein Obama
Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein, B. Hussein Obama
Obama = Terrorist | |
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| | | | said by ISurfTooMuch: Comcast RSN's on satellite or other cable operators: they aren't distributed on satellites. CSN Chicago, CSN Chicago HD, CSN Chicago + , CSN Chicago + HD, and CSN Chicago Alt #2 are all on direct tv.
and comcast only owns 20%-25% of it. | |
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