NBC Sports Chicago Upcoming Renewal

zippyfrog · Sep 12, 2019

I mentioned this back in the Fox RSN dispute thread, but I wasn't skeptical about the upcoming NBC Sports Chicago renewal that Dish has at the end of September. Every single providers contract with NBC Sports Chicago ends on Sept 30, and right now many of the providers have re-signed on. Dish, DirecTV, and U-Verse have not.

I have a feeling this will be another chance that Dish will choose to drop an RSN. I can't see Dish coming to a deal with Comcast.

NBC Sports Chicago – Stay in the Game

Riverpilot · Sep 13, 2019

There's not many channels which would make me look at going to another provider, but this is one of them. With basketball and hockey coming up...
Things are definitely getting messy in the world of cable/sat.

HipKat · Sep 13, 2019

Riverpilot said:
There's not many channels which would make me look at going to another provider, but this is one of them. With basketball and hockey coming up...
Things are definitely getting messy in the world of cable/sat.

Be glad you're not a Sabres fan. Their games are carried on MSG of all places and Dish has never carried their games

PortlandChris · Sep 14, 2019

This is going to be telling....it will give us an idea if it is one provider....Fox RSNs, or its all RSNs and what DISH is intending to do here.

Hockey starts beginning of October and basketball end of October...,.of this stuff is not all settled by November 1 then its time to start looking around.

zippyfrog · Sep 14, 2019

PortlandChris said:
This is going to be telling....it will give us an idea if it is one provider....Fox RSNs, or its all RSNs and what DISH is intending to do here. Hockey starts beginning of October and basketball end of October...,.of this stuff is not all settled by November 1 then its time to start looking around.

Exactly. Dish dropped Altitude, but the fact that DirecTV and Comcast also dropped it due to a bad contract makes me think that Altitude had something built-in that no one agreed with. But if Dish drops NBC Sports Chicago at the start of the NBA/NHL season, that could be very telling that they are truly going without the RSN's and as the other RSN contracts come for renewals, they will chose to let them expire.

Tampa8 · Sep 14, 2019

zippyfrog said:
Exactly. Dish dropped Altitude, but the fact that DirecTV and Comcast also dropped it due to a bad contract makes me think that Altitude had something built-in that no one agreed with. But if Dish drops NBC Sports Chicago at the start of the NBA/NHL season, that could be very telling that they are truly going without the RSN's and as the other RSN contracts come for renewals, they will chose to let them expire.

I see zero information that DISH has been or will choose to let RSN contracts expire. What they will not do is no different than the past, they won't pay more than they think they should be paying visa vie how many actually want the channel. But they will and do certainly negotiate to keep them. RSN's have a problem I briefly mentioned in another thread. They are totally dependant on all subscribers paying for their channel or else their cost is too high for many to pay so they are in most all the packages. They are now not in at least three packages from DISH and in addition DISH has fewer subscribers. That means the RSN's need to raise their prices to cover the difference.
Want to bet the current Disney (or whoever owns them) RSN's being blacked out is an HBO situation? Not only are they raising their price but are they also demanding even those not getting an RSN pay? Maybe Altitude the same?

EarDemon · Sep 14, 2019

HipKat said:
Be glad you're not a Sabres fan. Their games are carried on MSG of all places and Dish has never carried their games

While it may seem like never, the Sabres were on Dish until the Fall of 2010 when MSG was dropped and prior to that Empire Sports Network until it was shutdown in 2005. Sabres games were aired on one of the Sports Alt channels on Dish when they were on MSG Zone 3. Three years ago Terry Pegula partnered with MSG to create MSG Western NY which in addition to the Sabres, carries some Rochester American's hockey, a few Bills related shows and during the day has radio on TV simulcasts of WGR 550. DirecTV doesn't carry MSG WNY full time, but some of the non Sabres related programming is carried on the same Alt channel as the Sabres are, 635-1.

zippyfrog · Sep 15, 2019

Tampa8 said:
I see zero information that DISH has been or will choose to let RSN contracts expire. What they will not do is no different than the past, they won't pay more than they think they should be paying visa vie how many actually want the channel. But they will and do certainly negotiate to keep them. RSN's have a problem I briefly mentioned in another thread. They are totally dependant on all subscribers paying for their channel or else their cost is too high for many to pay so they are in most all the packages. They are now not in at least three packages from DISH and in addition DISH has fewer subscribers. That means the RSN's need to raise their prices to cover the difference.
Want to bet the current Disney (or whoever owns them) RSN's being blacked out is an HBO situation? Not only are they raising their price but are they also demanding even those not getting an RSN pay? Maybe Altitude the same?

True - I used some bad terminology in that post. In my thinking, if they "choose" to let it expire, the reason would be because it was unfavorable after negotiations.

Riverpilot · Sep 15, 2019

October 4th is the first regular season game for the Blackhawks. Hopefully DISH DISH Support has this channel renewed by then.

PortlandChris · Sep 16, 2019

The RSN cost model is a problem. We all get it. But DISH can do whatever it wants to do, but unless the rest of the industry follows, DISH customers lose out. It's that simple. Fox knew this problem was coming, and it chose to unload these RSNs. Today the teams take most of the revenue, and the prospect for making money is lower and higher risk.

DISH can take a stand, but others need to follow. Further, DISH should take a stand on some of the other channels too and put those in higher tier.

Tampa8 said:
I see zero information that DISH has been or will choose to let RSN contracts expire. What they will not do is no different than the past, they won't pay more than they think they should be paying visa vie how many actually want the channel. But they will and do certainly negotiate to keep them. RSN's have a problem I briefly mentioned in another thread. They are totally dependant on all subscribers paying for their channel or else their cost is too high for many to pay so they are in most all the packages. They are now not in at least three packages from DISH and in addition DISH has fewer subscribers. That means the RSN's need to raise their prices to cover the difference.
Want to bet the current Disney (or whoever owns them) RSN's being blacked out is an HBO situation? Not only are they raising their price but are they also demanding even those not getting an RSN pay? Maybe Altitude the same?

Tampa8 · Sep 16, 2019

PortlandChris said:
The RSN cost model is a problem. We all get it. But DISH can do whatever it wants to do, but unless the rest of the industry follows, DISH customers lose out. It's that simple. Fox knew this problem was coming, and it chose to unload these RSNs. Today the teams take most of the revenue, and the prospect for making money is lower and higher risk.

DISH can take a stand, but others need to follow. Further, DISH should take a stand on some of the other channels too and put those in higher tier.

Nope. This says it all right from your post. "Fox knew this problem was coming, and it chose to unload these RSNs." So you want DISH to pay premium prices for something someone else unloaded seeing what is coming. Sometimes you follow and sometimes you lead and DISH is taking a stand and leading. If they get a favorable agreement the RSN's will return.

HipKat · Sep 16, 2019

Remember once a time when stations made money their from their advertisers?

Tampa8 · Sep 16, 2019

HipKat said:
Remember once a time when stations made money their from their advertisers?

Yes. To be fair with the proliferation of channels, some free streaming etc the eyes watching each channel have become greatly divided. It's why Networks who still are the most watched can demand higher advertising fees than a cable channel with few exceptions like Fox News will get less. Sports channels like RSN's and ESPN pay exorbitant prices to carry games, teams, leagues because the teams pay so much to athletes and other reasons. In some markets like Boston advertising is expensive because the teams are so successful and popular. Not so much in some other markets and/or smaller markets where they can't demand the same cost to advertise. So that's where it comes in that costs are high to carry the RSN or ESPN.
To bring that full circle, to soften the cost they insist on being in packages, take them out of packages and few RSN's if any could survive needing to charge so much for the few who would subscribe, and then would want month to month and avoid that cost when their team(s) are not playing.

RSN's have exasperated the problem by now having so many of them. No one is going to pay what would be need to be charged for the RSN in Boston that only carries the Celtics. There is no real programming otherwise save for a couple of sports news programs at night, maybe in the morning that literally a handful watch. No one will pay year round for that if they don't have to, and I say that is typical of many other RSN's that would never make it if people paid separately for it. Does DISH or Directv to this day carry the Dodgers RSN that was created a few years ago? (I'm not sure)

PortlandChris · Sep 16, 2019

Stop manipulating. If DISH takes a stand and the rest of the industry does not, we lose, period. I can tell you if the trend continues I have to leave. I will be left with a bunch of BS channels I do not watch, why pay the $130 a month when there's really nothing I want?

DISH needs to take this stand on all these other crap channels as well....Viacom channels, Fox News, etc. They all add cost. They all need the same scrutiny.

Tampa8 said:
Nope. This says it all right from your post. "Fox knew this problem was coming, and it chose to unload these RSNs." So you want DISH to pay premium prices for something someone else unloaded seeing what is coming. Sometimes you follow and sometimes you lead and DISH is taking a stand and leading. If they get a favorable agreement the RSN's will return.

Tampa8 · Sep 16, 2019

Promise?

zippyfrog · Oct 1, 2019

And, this morning we lost NBC Sports Chicago...down to only 8 RSN's left that Dish now carries.

Riverpilot · Oct 6, 2019

Alright Dish. You got FS1, FS2 and the Big Ten back on... now get Sports Chicago back on! Blackhawks home opener is this week. Bulls upcoming... Let's go, go go!

Foxbat · Oct 7, 2019

Cubs won't be on the NBC Sports Chicago, so buh-bye… Sorry other Chicago Sports teams' fans.

Joe h · Oct 7, 2019

Our bill hasn’t dropped a penny, so they owe us. Even if you don’t watch these channels, you’re still owed for the loss. Everybody needs to call them and at the very least get a package, a movie channel, or pay per view certificate for free. Otherwise they’ll continue charging you the same rate, and have zero motivation to get a deal done. So keep pushing them!

Riverpilot · Oct 10, 2019

I signed up for a free Hulu TV try... looks pretty clunky right now, but I'm sure it's because I'm not used to where everything is located, etc...

I called into Dish.. at first they denied having any kind of dispute with Sports Chicago. Several minutes later (15) they finally found the outage... offered me $3 off because of the dispute. I declined, and got the offer for a "new customer" price for a 2 year price lock. I declined to think about that.

My choices now are, stick with Dish in hopes they come to an agreement and subscribe to Hulu TV during this time.. if I did this, I'd get the price lock for new customers, which would technically off-set the price for Hulu, but... I kind of don't want to get into a new contract because we are getting a new fiber service, Metronet, in the area.. should be live in my neighborhood next summer. Metronet has all the channels I want, but... I dunno.

2) Go to Mediacom... they have all the channels I want, at the moment, but they've had numerous disputes as well. They don't have contracts, so that would be good... and I could bundle with internet for a good price overall.

I'll give Dish another week while I test Hulu...

NBC Sports Chicago Upcoming Renewal

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