Dish Comcast RSN Dispute

[zippyfrog]

Dish's contract for CSN RSN's expires on December 2. This was mentioned deep in the CBS dispute, and I found a link discussing it:

http://www.multichannel.com/news/ca...-sportsnet-services-could-go-dark-dish/385759

This one affects me with CSN Chicago.

"With the upcoming expiration of our agreements, we are growing increasingly concerned that Dish is not willing to work toward mutually acceptable terms for continuing carriage of NBC Sports Group’s portfolio of Comcast SportsNet regional networks"

Very surprised how many disputes have come to light in the last month.

 

[zippyfrog]

This site as well talks about it - http://online.wsj.com/articles/dish-adds-comcast-sports-to-list-of-tense-negotiations-1416528791

Comcast looking for a 20% increase

 

[jrbdmb]

And Dish should not budge until they get CSN-Philly as well. It has been way too long that Comcast has been thumbing their nose at both sat companies by refusing to offer reasonable terms for this channel.

 

[fbara]

I live In Chicago and don't want to lose my Blackhawks but 20% increase? That's crazy! I'm not a fan of Comcast and I'm glad Dish's first instinct is not to buckle and pay. I'll suck it up and go without the RSN for a while if it means keeping my monthly fees down.


Thanks,
Frank

 

[silvanthalas]

Bloody hell. I don't even have satellite service any more and I still have to suffer the matches when trying to watch Blackhawks games on NHL GCL.

I thought about it the other night: if I had to go back to traditional service, would I go back to Dish or DTV? It would probably have been Dish, but seeing how they're going to continue to have nothing but contract dispute after contract dispute, and apparently more of them at the same time, why should I bother?

 

[CubsWin]

These disputes are really getting ridiculous, but as long as they have things sorted out by baseball season I'll get by until then.

Cubs games on CSN are one of the few things keeping me from dropping subscription TV. If I could get OTA + all Cubs games, I could live without all the other subscription channels.

 

[dishcomm]

These disputes are really getting ridiculous, but as long as they have things sorted out by baseball season I'll get by until then.

Cubs games on CSN are one of the few things keeping me from dropping subscription TV. If I could get OTA + all Cubs games, I could live without all the other subscription channels.

Cubs management making some nice deals which may have the Cubs as a contender for at least a wild card in a couple seasons. Good luck!

 

[Scherrman]

Baseball season is a ways off yet so I wouldn't worry about that yet. This only affects the Bulls and Blackhawks right now. There is plenty of time to get a deal done by baseball season.

 

[The Fat Man]

CSN New England went earlier this year to what they called low value, which I can agree. Their only marquee team is the Celtics. I'm an occasional Celtics fan. But it does suck that I can't see any game that isn't on TNT or ESPN. I agree, if they want a 20% increase, then CSN Philly is a must add. Remember, in Chicago this is a bigger deal, as all the sports franchises use CSN Chicago. Washington is more mid importance. Expect to see these go, and for those of us not affected, we should start to demand 24/7 HD on the remaining RSNs. NY is gone, TW-SN is not on in LA, Boston is down it's CSN with NESN only remaining, and Upstate NY can't get their teams. Now remove one net from Washington/Baltimore and the main net from Chicago, I see a changing in the whole limited space for the 24/7 HD.

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[king3pj]

These disputes are really getting ridiculous, but as long as they have things sorted out by baseball season I'll get by until then.

Cubs games on CSN are one of the few things keeping me from dropping subscription TV. If I could get OTA + all Cubs games, I could live without all the other subscription channels.

You can. I did just that with the Tigers and MLB.tv this season. Plus if you are a big baseball fan you get the added bonus of all the out of market baseball games too. Unblock-US let me change my location to avoid local blackouts for $5 a month. It worked very well and doesn't mess with your location data for services it doesn't specifically support. Meaning, I still show up in the correct location for Google Maps, Xbox Live, etc... It also doesn't slow your speed down like some of the more traditional VPN services.

Baseball was the only thing keeping me on pay TV too. I've been an MLB.tv subscriber for years but once I found out that I could get around the local blackouts I no longer needed pay TV. I subscribe to Netflix, Amazon Prime, and MLB.tv. Outside of that I only need a couple season passes from iTunes per year and OTA and I'm all set.

 

[dfergie]

The battle of words and messaging have escalated in the Comcast SportsNet and Dish carriage contretemps.

Comcast SportsNet last night initiated a multimedia campaign warning that four more of its regional sports networks – Bay Area, California, Mid-Atlantic and Chicago -- may become unavailable to the No. 2 DBS provider’s subscribers early next month. The contracts are slated to expire at the end of Dec. 1, with the RSNs potentially going dark at 12:01 a.m. the next day.
On Nov. 20, NBC Sports Group publicly expressed concern that with the expiration of the four RSNs' contracts drawing nigh, Dish has been unwilling to “work toward mutually acceptable terms” for a renewal. In turn, Dish said the RSNs were seeking a 20% increase in monthly license fee for 90% of its customers in the attendant markets, even though the RSNs are only watched by a “small fraction” of the sub bases. The DBS company called this “heavy-handed tactic troubling” in light of Comcast's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable that would give it more power to leverage content in “anticompetitive ways.”

NBCUniversal returned fire saying its asking price is in line with contracted market rates for its RSNs: “We are seeking to license our regional sports networks to Dish on the same terms that other distributors have accepted for this programming.

multichannel.com

 

[Deadlocked]

This is going to be interesting if both CBSSN and the CSNs are gone, no major CBK league but some top quality high and mid majors.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[ChadT41]

I got the scroll on USA during modern family. I live in Az. I couldn't give a damn

 

[dishcomm]

CSN New England went earlier this year to what they called low value, which I can agree. Their only marquee team is the Celtics. I'm an occasional Celtics fan. But it does suck that I can't see any game that isn't on TNT or ESPN. I agree, if they want a 20% increase, then CSN Philly is a must add. Remember, in Chicago this is a bigger deal, as all the sports franchises use CSN Chicago. Washington is more mid importance. Expect to see these go, and for those of us not affected, we should start to demand 24/7 HD on the remaining RSNs. NY is gone, TW-SN is not on in LA, Boston is down it's CSN with NESN only remaining, and Upstate NY can't get their teams. Now remove one net from Washington/Baltimore and the main net from Chicago, I see a changing in the whole limited space for the 24/7 HD.

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I think the two issues are mutually exclusive.

 

[dishcomm]

The battle of words and messaging have escalated in the Comcast SportsNet and Dish carriage contretemps.

Comcast SportsNet last night initiated a multimedia campaign warning that four more of its regional sports networks – Bay Area, California, Mid-Atlantic and Chicago -- may become unavailable to the No. 2 DBS provider’s subscribers early next month. The contracts are slated to expire at the end of Dec. 1, with the RSNs potentially going dark at 12:01 a.m. the next day.
On Nov. 20, NBC Sports Group publicly expressed concern that with the expiration of the four RSNs' contracts drawing nigh, Dish has been unwilling to “work toward mutually acceptable terms” for a renewal. In turn, Dish said the RSNs were seeking a 20% increase in monthly license fee for 90% of its customers in the attendant markets, even though the RSNs are only watched by a “small fraction” of the sub bases. The DBS company called this “heavy-handed tactic troubling” in light of Comcast's proposed merger with Time Warner Cable that would give it more power to leverage content in “anticompetitive ways.”

NBCUniversal returned fire saying its asking price is in line with contracted market rates for its RSNs: “We are seeking to license our regional sports networks to Dish on the same terms that other distributors have accepted for this programming.

multichannel.com

As witnessed by the permanent loss of RSN's from Dish's lineup, it would come as no surprise if these CSN RSN's also disappeared for good.

 

[Deadlocked]

As witnessed by the permanent loss of RSN's from Dish's lineup, it would come as no surprise if these CSN RSN's also disappeared for good.

Not a big lost, they suck outside of CBK.


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[zippyfrog]

As witnessed by the permanent loss of RSN's from Dish's lineup, it would come as no surprise if these CSN RSN's also disappeared for good.

That is definitely a concern for me being a Bulls and Cubs fan - CSN is on every day there is a game. After seeing what happened to CSN NE, it wouldn't surprise me to see them all dropped. But at the same time, I look at CSN Chicago, and since they have the Bears Pre and Post Game shows, over half of the White Soz, Bulls, Cubs, and Blackhawks, there seems to be a lot of value in CSN Chicago. Plus isn't CSN Chicago considered a base RSN in almost all of Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa, and aren't the Cubs/Sox available to watch in all those states? I know the Bulls/Blackhawks are blacked out in certain areas but baseball seems to be available more widely. So to me, CSN Chicago has a lot of value due to more professional sports teams on the single RSN to more people. I don't know the other RSN's as well, maybe there is another RSN that has that much content that was dropped.

I don't know how much the other RSN's reach in terms of number of people, but I am guessing that these RSN's are an all or nothing proposition. Would Comcast want Dish to drop them or would they prefer they stay on? I don't know the business model or the legal side of things, but couldn't Comcast want Dish (and other future providers as contracts run out) to not pick it up so that those die-hard people would have to get Comcast TV? Or are the number of eyeballs more important to them from an advertising revenue side of things?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I got the scroll on USA during modern family. I live in Az. I couldn't give a damn

Which basically shows that DISH is correct that only a small portion of people watch the RSN's... if a lot of people watched the RSN's they would have put the scroll on the RSN's themselves instead of on the nations #1 cable cable channel which has nothing to do with the RSN's except being owned by the same company.

 

[kennya]

I don't think anyone brought this up, but what will happen to us NHL Center Ice subscribers? I get to watch all of the Capitals games through CI and 99% of them are shown on Comcast. Will those be blocked as well? Or since I paid a separate fee outside of my normal Dish subscription, those Comcast stations won't be blocked through CI. If they are blocked through CI, that's going to be a big waste of money and there should be some restitution.

 

[zippyfrog]

I don't think anyone brought this up, but what will happen to us NHL Center Ice subscribers? I get to watch all of the Capitals games through CI and 99% of them are shown on Comcast. Will those be blocked as well? Or since I paid a separate fee outside of my normal Dish subscription, those Comcast stations won't be blocked through CI. If they are blocked through CI, that's going to be a big waste of money and there should be some restitution.

I would think you would still get them. I don't know for sure on CI, but when NBA League Pass was on free preview the first week of the NBA season, they had one of the Celtics game using the CSN NE feed even though Dish doesn't have that anymore, and one of the Knicks games was the MSG feed.