DIRECTV Applauds FCC Closure of 'Terrestrial Loophole'
- Thread starter Scott Greczkowski
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Now if they would do something about the unfair advantage of neighboring markets. Everyone where I live can get the Colts games on their antennas every week and also everyone with Comcast can see them. I have to buy NFL Sunday ticket to get them with DirecTV. This summer I'm putting up one nice antenna and I'll have them next fall either way but it still isn't fair.
If Comcast is allowed to air them, DirecTV should be allowed to sell them to me. I don't mind paying for them.
ddobson - You are correct. This is the next issue. DBS has to hold to this formulaistic county line based DMA system, while cable offer multiple feeds. This places DBS at a disadvantage in many rural, and some not so rural, area. In my state, I would estimate that over half of the state's residents (everybody not in the core Huntington-Charleston metro area) get multiple markets' affiliates for various historical and practical reasons. The rule simply should be that any signal that has a Grade B, or any signal carried on the local cable, is carriable by DBS.
Main issue - This is a great pro-customer decision. It has been a long time coming. The loophole never should have been permitted by the government, and the sports leagues simply should have never permitted it. The day Comcast denied baseball to potential customers, if Baseball had a real Commissioner, he would have acted under his "best interests of the Game" authority and prohibited the practice. Unfortunatly the last real Commissioner got sacked almost two decades ago.
Second comment - I would love to see the numbers. Say you take otherwise similar markets and contrast these to San Diego and Philadelphia in terms of DBS. The lower %age of DBS customers would be attributable to the RSN issue. Any one have an opinion (or actual info) on what that is?
Main issue - This is a great pro-customer decision. It has been a long time coming. The loophole never should have been permitted by the government, and the sports leagues simply should have never permitted it. The day Comcast denied baseball to potential customers, if Baseball had a real Commissioner, he would have acted under his "best interests of the Game" authority and prohibited the practice. Unfortunatly the last real Commissioner got sacked almost two decades ago.
Second comment - I would love to see the numbers. Say you take otherwise similar markets and contrast these to San Diego and Philadelphia in terms of DBS. The lower %age of DBS customers would be attributable to the RSN issue. Any one have an opinion (or actual info) on what that is?
I am in the same area as you, just in KY. My dad has cable and gets WKYT in Lexington as well as the Huntington/Charleston locals and I would like to get that too, but all I get is the Huntington/Charleston locals on Directv. What happened to being allowed to carry multiple markets? I thought they were allowed to do that now.
This is a email I got from them in 2007..
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 9:12 AM
To: Mail, Viewer
Subject: RE: Satellite comcast
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is a terrestrial cable television station. This means that we are not offered on satellite. You will not be able to receive any of our broadcasts outside of the Philadelphia viewing area. [FONT="][/FONT]
The reason for this dates back to 1993 when Prism, our former station did not sign the FCC regulated satellite agreement. At this time they simply did not have the money. Prism, folded and we took over their airwaves in 1997. We needed an outlet in order to get our station on the airwaves so we signed with the new (at the time) up and coming cable company, Comcast. In this ten-year contract we agreed to only be offered on their Comcast cable carriers (with other cable companies like Blueridge, Adams Cable, Service Electric allowed to provide our station locally). After this contract expires in 2008 then we will renegotiate our options. We are very sorry about this situation and we understand that there are many Philadelphians, outside the area that would like to receive our station. This will be kept in mind when renegotiations come up. Thank you for your question.
Have a wonderful day,
CSN
Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 9:12 AM
To: Mail, Viewer
Subject: RE: Satellite comcast
Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia is a terrestrial cable television station. This means that we are not offered on satellite. You will not be able to receive any of our broadcasts outside of the Philadelphia viewing area. [FONT="][/FONT]
The reason for this dates back to 1993 when Prism, our former station did not sign the FCC regulated satellite agreement. At this time they simply did not have the money. Prism, folded and we took over their airwaves in 1997. We needed an outlet in order to get our station on the airwaves so we signed with the new (at the time) up and coming cable company, Comcast. In this ten-year contract we agreed to only be offered on their Comcast cable carriers (with other cable companies like Blueridge, Adams Cable, Service Electric allowed to provide our station locally). After this contract expires in 2008 then we will renegotiate our options. We are very sorry about this situation and we understand that there are many Philadelphians, outside the area that would like to receive our station. This will be kept in mind when renegotiations come up. Thank you for your question.
Have a wonderful day,
CSN
Exactly. There is no law that says they can't provide their signal. If it looks, walks & smells like a monopoly, it probably is a monopoly who is inferior to other providers. They basically are saying they cannot compete on a level field.
And while listening to this Comcast stand's to lose 50 million dollars because approximately 500,000 customers are able to get this channel on satellite and forced to have Comcast.
Comcast response was they will "fight this to the bitter end" I have a feeling this is only the beginning and CSN Philly won't be on satellite for awhile.
This will still probably hurt me in the long run. Where I live I am tech a New York Market so I get all the New York News Channels. The thing that isn't so good is that I live in the radius for Philadelphia sports teams. The stores around me sell NY and Philly sports team stuff. So last year I got Extra Innings but could not watch any Phillies games because if I tried watching the away feed it was blacked out. I hope that when we get Comcast Sportsnet Philliy that I will get it because I am within the zip radius but I know I'm still in a New York Market.
But this is def good news overall.
I read on a Flyers board (or it mighta been in comments at philly.com) that a Comcast guy was on WIP today and said not only that they would fight this BUT they'd be happy to make CSN Philly available to satellite if they got rights to distribute Sunday Ticket in exchange. Yeah, like that's gonna happen.
Either way, I think we're a lonnnngggg way off from seeing CSN Philly on satellite.
Oh, and that form email from Comcast cracks me up....they make it sound like they don't have the capability to put the channel on satellite. Anyone with the sports premium packages knows that's a crock of crap.
from what I understand it is not up to directv to allow others to get nfl ticket it is up to the NFL.
I would loved to see a open market for all dish comcast and directv so they are playing on equal playing field that can only help out the costumers.
I would loved to see a open market for all dish comcast and directv so they are playing on equal playing field that can only help out the costumers.
There is a BIG difference between the CSN Philly and NFL Sunday Ticket situations.
With the NFL Sunday Ticket, it is a third-party company (the NFL) offering a product that DirecTV just happens to be the highest bidder for. Even if it is true that DirecTV has "right of first refusal" (meaning they have to pass on the NFL Sunday Ticket contract before anyone else can bid for it), this is is a contract made on the open market.
With CSN Philly, Comcast is simply not allowing DirecTV and DishNet to carry CSN Philly.
The situation would only be comparable if DirecTV owned the NFL package and wouldn't let anyone else carry it.
With the NFL Sunday Ticket, it is a third-party company (the NFL) offering a product that DirecTV just happens to be the highest bidder for. Even if it is true that DirecTV has "right of first refusal" (meaning they have to pass on the NFL Sunday Ticket contract before anyone else can bid for it), this is is a contract made on the open market.
With CSN Philly, Comcast is simply not allowing DirecTV and DishNet to carry CSN Philly.
The situation would only be comparable if DirecTV owned the NFL package and wouldn't let anyone else carry it.
Eskin tells me it was part of the deal for what is coming next for Comcast. By the way, any comment from Comcast comparing this to NFL ST is so ridiculous, I can't stand it when that is brought up, like they have anything to do with eachother. Comcast wants us to believe that the NFL "gave" D* the exclusive, what a joke.
Absolutely....don't shoot the messenger....I was only relaying what I read the Comcast guy was reported to say on WIP. It's a ridiculous thing for anyone from Comcast to say.
Huh? I'm not smart enough to know what that means. Anyone? I've been waiting for this movement for a long time, so I'm hungry for info.
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