Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia and Sports Programming

[Sky Blue]

As Comcast or (Comtrash as I call them) continues becoming a monopolizing gorilla, we should all worry. First off the 1998 decision to allow Comcast not to have satellite systems broadcast their signal is out dated. In reading this decision you can see Comcast had the politicians in their back pocket as they approved FCC's terrestrial loophole.
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/1998/da982151.txt
Comcast started to buid a cell phone giant but got out of the business when the saw there would be open competition. All their efforts were then put into cable, then highspeed internet and last phone.
Comcast has come to an agreement to allow Verizon FIOS to carry its Philadelphia Sportsnet but FIOS is not available in Philadelphia, go figure that deal out as FIOS has no intentions to move into the City of Philadelphia.
Comcast charges their highest rates nationally to customers in the Philadelphia area. Ask your local Philly sports bar what they pay you will gag! They have been increasing their their rates to upgrade their systems to compete with the improving and increasing satellite HD programming and to buy up cable companies and regional sports networks. How about High Speed internet for $57.95 a month.
Much as people say Vegas was not built with winners. The tallest building now being constructed in center city Philadelphia was not built with reasonable cable and internet rates and fair trade laws. The new Comcast Center will tower above all other buildings in Philadelphia. Comcast Center, Philadelphia
Comcast should not be allowed to show MLB extra innings, NBA league pass or NHL center ice packages. The fact that they can black out their programming and still collect from these packages is getting their cake and eating it too!
Comcast tried in 2004 to Buy ABC and ESPN to create regional sports programming to compete againt FOX Sportsnet and make it only available on cable, thank goodness that did not happen.
Comcast now owns Versus, The Golf Channel and E! which are still available on Satellite. Now there are whispers about comcast inquiring into the pruchase of a satellite provider.
Comcast has been buying up local cable systems and regional sports networks at an alarming rate. For many metropolitan areas the politicians let these deals go through as long as the programming stayed available via satellite. The satellite subscribers in those areas were lucky.
I live in Philadelphia and can not see Philadelphia SportsNet yet I can see Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlanic and Chicago Sportsnet in HD!
Comcast spends millions of dollars a year on lobbyists and is full of political nepotism where they hire many of the politicians relatives to work for them in cushy positions.
People in the Philadelphia area have been offered the Kool Aid and drank it all. But they did not have any other choice if they wanted to see their home teams.
John Kerry (Technology, Innovation, and Competitiveness - Chairman) and got MLB extra innnings onto cable this season. John Kerry For Senate :: Home and Arlen Spector (Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights - Ranking Member) .: United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania :: Home :. are two of the best people to complain about this to. Send them email if you are disgusted with Cable or Satellite.
I do not care where you are, how can you be blacked out if you are paying extra for a sports package and all the teams are collecting money from it including the one that is blacked out.

 

[Domf3962]

As Comcast or (Comtrash as I call them) continues becoming a monopolizing gorilla, we should all worry. First off the 1998 decision to allow Comcast not to have satellite systems broadcast their signal is out dated. In reading this decision you can see Comcast had the politicians in their back pocket as they approved FCC's terrestrial loophole.
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Cable/Orders/1998/da982151.txt
Comcast started to buid a cell phone giant but got out of the business when the saw there would be open competition. All their efforts were then put into cable, then highspeed internet and last phone.
Comcast has come to an agreement to allow Verizon FIOS to carry its Philadelphia Sportsnet but FIOS is not available in Philadelphia, go figure that deal out as FIOS has no intentions to move into the City of Philadelphia.
Comcast charges their highest rates nationally to customers in the Philadelphia area. Ask your local Philly sports bar what they pay you will gag! They have been increasing their their rates to upgrade their systems to compete with the improving and increasing satellite HD programming and to buy up cable companies and regional sports networks. How about High Speed internet for $57.95 a month.
Much as people say Vegas was not built with winners. The tallest building now being constructed in center city Philadelphia was not built with reasonable cable and internet rates and fair trade laws. The new Comcast Center will tower above all other buildings in Philadelphia. Comcast Center, Philadelphia
Comcast should not be allowed to show MLB extra innings, NBA league pass or NHL center ice packages. The fact that they can black out their programming and still collect from these packages is getting their cake and eating it too!
Comcast tried in 2004 to Buy ABC and ESPN to create regional sports programming to compete againt FOX Sportsnet and make it only available on cable, thank goodness that did not happen.
Comcast now owns Versus, The Golf Channel and E! which are still available on Satellite. Now there are whispers about comcast inquiring into the pruchase of a satellite provider.
Comcast has been buying up local cable systems and regional sports networks at an alarming rate. For many metropolitan areas the politicians let these deals go through as long as the programming stayed available via satellite. The satellite subscribers in those areas were lucky.
I live in Philadelphia and can not see Philadelphia SportsNet yet I can see Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlanic and Chicago Sportsnet in HD!
Comcast spends millions of dollars a year on lobbyists and is full of political nepotism where they hire many of the politicians relatives to work for them in cushy positions.
People in the Philadelphia area have been offered the Kool Aid and drank it all. But they did not have any other choice if they wanted to see their home teams.
John Kerry (Technology, Innovation, and Competitiveness - Chairman) and got MLB extra innnings onto cable this season. John Kerry For Senate :: Home and Arlen Spector (Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights - Ranking Member) .: United States Senator Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania :: Home :. are two of the best people to complain about this to. Send them email if you are disgusted with Cable or Satellite.
I do not care where you are, how can you be blacked out if you are paying extra for a sports package and all the teams are collecting money from it including the one that is blacked out.

Great post. I to live here in philadelphia and am sick and tired of these slugs owning this town. I am a DTV customer. But I also have to have basic cable in order to watch by beloved flyers. So I double dip> i have been doing this since 1999. I bought there stupid triple play and pay 99.00 per month on top of 69.99 for DTV.

DTV just smokes comcast especially now with all there HD channels plus NFL sunday ticket. Comcast or comcrap at this point as far as programming goes could not even be a pimple on there butts. (sorry for the vulgarity just frustrated)

you are right that agreement is outdated. It is over in september 08. I hope DTV tries again to but the comrap channel. I cant understand how I see all the other comcrap stations via DTV and not ours. Its frustrating but i refuse to get rid of my DTV service and add some comcrap DVRs to my account just to watch ONE station in hidef(comcrap sports net) as opposed to over 100 soon.

 

[FlyingJ]

I'm not in Philly, but I feel your pain. Pisses me off that I don't get to see the Phils, Eagles etc...shows during the week, the pre and post game shows etc...

 

[BigJ52]

Being a huge sports fan and a long time subscriber to the sports pack I've always wondered why there was never any station for the Philadelphia market. Well now I know... you guys are definitely getting a raw deal. Hopefully things will change in the future.

 

[shinner]

I'm not in Philly, but I feel your pain. Pisses me off that I don't get to see the Phils, Eagles etc...shows during the week, the pre and post game shows etc...

Another pissed Philly ex-pat chiming in.....glad it's only the Flyers that I'm missing though

 

[ehren]

Makes me mad seeing the HD feed for the NHL Caps in Washington tonight via CSN-MA and I can't see the Flyers in SD!

 

[HDhysteria]

we have had comcast on sat in chicago for as long as i can rememeber and in hd for i think about six months. what is it with the local situation that is so different from the rest of the country that allows a lot of the other comcast rsn's on sat without issue?

 

[311Man]

Comcast is evil!

 

[FlyingJ]

we have had comcast on sat in chicago for as long as i can rememeber and in hd for i think about six months. what is it with the local situation that is so different from the rest of the country that allows a lot of the other comcast rsn's on sat without issue?

Philly is "home" for Comcrap. They have stakes in the Professional teams and as cable cos go they have as tight a hold on Philly as you can get. The bit about Philly Comcast under some contractual reason to not be allowed to go on Sat I don't know if that is real or not. Before this year we never got to see any of the Baseball games from MLB EI off the Comcast feed. This year there were many. So some how they struck a deal to allow those games on, kind of throws the not allowed on Sat deal out the window.

 

[ChrisPC]

Philly is "home" for Comcrap. They have stakes in the Professional teams and as cable cos go they have as tight a hold on Philly as you can get. The bit about Philly Comcast under some contractual reason to not be allowed to go on Sat I don't know if that is real or not.

It's true, I remember when it happened. D* carried Philadelphia SportsNet, but Comcast bought it and made them take it off.

 

[311Man]

Philly is "home" for Comcrap. They have stakes in the Professional teams and as cable cos go they have as tight a hold on Philly as you can get. The bit about Philly Comcast under some contractual reason to not be allowed to go on Sat I don't know if that is real or not. Before this year we never got to see any of the Baseball games from MLB EI off the Comcast feed. This year there were many. So some how they struck a deal to allow those games on, kind of throws the not allowed on Sat deal out the window.

Comcast utilizes a "terrestrial loophole" rule - meaning because they do not transmit the CSN feed via satellite they do not have to provide the channel to the satellite companies. All channel that are transmitted via satellite must be provided to companies such as Dish and Directv. So conveniently Comast uses their fiber infrastructure to get CSN to other cable companies in the area.

The FCC is again looking into closing the "terrestrial loophole" but I wouldn't hold your breath on this one.

Here is more info on this issue
Comcast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Domf3962]

Comcast utilizes a "terrestrial loophole" rule - meaning because they do not transmit the CSN feed via satellite they do not have to provide the channel to the satellite companies. All channel that are transmitted via satellite must be provided to companies such as Dish and Directv. So conveniently Comast uses their fiber infrastructure to get CSN to other cable companies in the area.

The FCC is again looking into closing the "terrestrial loophole" but I wouldn't hold your breath on this one.

Here is more info on this issue
Comcast - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well I hope the FCC looks hard at that "LOOP Hole". What they get a away with is unreal. Like I said in my earlier reply. That loop hole is up in 08.

Last nigh I watched the FLyers Oilers game on comcast. THats the only time I ever view that station(Product). THe rest of my time when I watch TV I do it through DTV. I guess its little satisfaction.

 

[obxflyers]

The FCC is again looking into closing the "terrestrial loophole" but I wouldn't hold your breath on this one.

You got that right. I still can't believe the FCC actually granted CSN Philly an EXCEPTION when they approved the Adelphia merger last year
FCC Approves Adelphia Breakup - 7/17/2006 - Multichannel News
"Comcast and Time Warner are barred from using terrestrial delivery of a regional sports network to maintain legal exclusivity. Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia alone is exempt, meaning Comcast may continue to withhold it from DirecTV Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp"
Sure sounds like a backroom deal, in other words, we'll agree to the others but let us hold onto our precious home turf and the FCC agrees (hmmm, I wonder why??)

Throw in the fact that both the Flyers and Sixers are owned by Comcast so it's not like they'll ever threaten to leave and start a new network with national distribution (and the Phils wouldn't start one on their own).

 

[ChrisPC]

I remember FX also used this rule, but E* sued them and won. FX soon appeared on E* and D*.

 

[phillysfinest311]

Where do you see that the loophole is to be revisited in 2008? I thought the ruling in July of 2006 on the Adelphia/TW case they uphelp the loophole by ruling:

Comcast and Time Warner are barred from using terrestrial delivery of a regional sports network to maintain legal exclusivity. Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia alone is exempt, meaning Comcast may continue to withhold it from DirecTV Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp. But Comcast cannot withhold it from pay-TV distributors with existing contracts, such as RCN Corp. Verizon Communications Inc. may not demand access to the channel.

I hope you are right because I am a philly fan that is stuck out of state with Direct TV and I miss having access to Philly related stuff. I had all but given up ever seeing CSN Philly on satellite.

 

[stunnerkline]

Before this year we never got to see any of the Baseball games from MLB EI off the Comcast feed. This year there were many. So some how they struck a deal to allow those games on, kind of throws the not allowed on Sat deal out the window.

The reason we got to see Philly home feeds on MLBEI this year is because of the "exclusive" deal MLB signed with D*.

Remember how all the cable co. freaked out about that deal? Well, then D* and MLB decided to allow the cable co.'s to again have MLBEI but only if they paid the same price D* did AND......

only if the Cable Co.'s agreed to provide ALL HOME TEAM FEEDS! So, D* got the ability to show Comcast Philly, SD4 in San Diego and some other local feeds that they could never get before.


And to the other poster that mentioned FIOS not being in Philly.....it depends where you are. They are in the Philly market, that's for sure: Pennsylvania Fios Availability - Fios Pennsylvania - Verizon Fios PA

 

[FlyingJ]

The reason we got to see Philly home feeds on MLBEI this year is because of the "exclusive" deal MLB signed with D*.

Remember how all the cable co. freaked out about that deal? Well, then D* and MLB decided to allow the cable co.'s to again have MLBEI but only if they paid the same price D* did AND......

only if the Cable Co.'s agreed to provide ALL HOME TEAM FEEDS! So, D* got the ability to show Comcast Philly, SD4 in San Diego and some other local feeds that they could never get before.


And to the other poster that mentioned FIOS not being in Philly.....it depends where you are. They are in the Philly market, that's for sure: Pennsylvania Fios Availability - Fios Pennsylvania - Verizon Fios PA

I assumed that this was part of the deal but I never ever saw anything written or heard anything about it. I was just glad that they showed up. Nothing like Harry Kalas doing the ball game, "Its outta here!"