DISH Cries Foul Over DIRECTV/MLB Deal

[jpn]

What MLB and DirecTV are doing is not illegal, but, it does show that MLB cares more about money than the fan.

Last year EI had 300,000 subscribers who did not use DirecTV to view games. They certainly could not have gotten much income, dividing the MLB share of subscription fees among 30 owners.

With a subscriber base that small, MLB has every justification to go for more money through an exclusivce deal. Don't make more of this than there really is. Only a small number of people are affected; only 100,000 DISH subscribers, and only 200,000 cable subscribers. That's it. IMO, that does not justify the attention of the FCC, Congress, the Supreme Court, the CIA, or the sandwich maker at the end of the street.

 

[SNT]

Indians are on via Sportstime Ohio, which DIsh does carry

Yanks/Jays is a valid one

OK, I missed one, but there are others that I did not mention.

You get the point.

-SNT

 

[topcats69]

not if you don't have a LOS. Also, there are apartment complexes (at least where I live) that have 2 dishes on the roof for Dish Network (where I use to live, they had 2 4' dishes..one for 119 and one for 110) so you didn't need to put a dish on the deck.

100% correct.. another exaple I lived on nothside of buld. and also many apts do not have a balcony and LL say no way and that is legal.

 

[Sammy033]

Exclusive deals are all over the place. But was boxing for example an all-or-nothing deal? Or was it event by event? Meaning could one match could be on HBO but another Showtime?

 

[topcats69]

I believe when a bid is up for renewal the previous holder of the contract has a right for first refusal. So D* excepted the offer without it ever having to go out for bid. I don't know for certain if this happened but woudln't be surprised if it did.

I still say if you want MLB switch to D*. If you live in an apartment where you can't put up a dish. Get your development to sign a contract with D* where they wire the entire development. I'm sure they'd be happy to do that for them.

It's just a bunch of whiners who are complaining as far as i'm concerned. Get over it already. You can't run to big government everytime you don't get your way. Kerry , Specter and the rest should stay out of it. It's between D* and MLB what they do. To the best of my knowledge they havent' broken any law. remember no one said life was fair.

Ron

It just don't work that way direct WILL NOT PAY FOR EVERY BULDING TO SWITCH. and what about the tenants who do not want to switch to *D and are happy with what they have??. If you lived in an apt and the management said sorry no E* for you. we have *d and thats what you can get. and (would be legal cause of the new *D system)would you be happy?? Or what if changing would cut your broadband off?

What I'm saying it just not as easy to say ok where switching lots more work than that.

other wise i agree with you.

 

[Mr Tony]

boxing was event by event

 

[ronfelder]

It just don't work that way direct WILL NOT PAY FOR EVERY BULDING TO SWITCH. and what about the tenants who do not want to switch to *D and are happy with what they have??. If you lived in an apt and the management said sorry no E* for you. we have *d and thats what you can get. and (would be legal cause of the new *D system)would you be happy?? Or what if changing would cut your broadband off?

What I'm saying it just not as easy to say ok where switching lots more work than that.

other wise i agree with you.

To be honest with you if my development said no more E* you have to go to D* i'd take it for i'd have no choice in the matter. I don't believe the owners of the development would take it up for a vote. The other choice would be to move and to move just to get a different tv provider I believe is going a bit to far.

If D* won't pay for an apartment install might I ask who pays for the install when a cable company comes through? I'm curious. I know in a single home the sub pays for the install. I suppose it would be the same here.

Somebody said cable companies don't give kick backs to wire an area. As far as i'm concerned a franchise fee, free cable tv to schools, and cable access channels are all forms of kick backs to the local community. Actually i'd call this extortion on the part of the local communities. I'm quite sure that they the cable companies go to apartment complexes and do something similar. Incentives to the land lord for going with them.

In the end I just plain feel that the government should stay out of this controversy. Government is to big and into our lives to much as it is.

Oh and if a customre is happy with what they have then it's their problem and choice for not being able to get a particular channel. People in NYC with E* know that they can't get YES. That if they want it they have to go somewhere else. I know YES isn't exclusive but you still would have to switch providers if you wanted this channel.


Ron

 

[vurbano]

This is just a poor move. It would be one thing if Charlie didn't want to pay for MLB but to have an arrangement that makes it exlusive just isn't right. The anger should be directed at MLB for allowing this deal to happen. D* saw an opportunity to do something that it thinks will help them and they took it. MLB did not have to allow D* exclusive rights. I wonder how much it is going to cost for those that have D*. I am sure it will be more than last year. Only the baseball fan gets hurt in this deal.

Only the fans that refuse to subscribe to the provider with the contract. Nothing keeping them from doing that. And incidently it is not anyone's god given right to watch whatever BB or FB game they want. IMO Its like me sueing A foreign car company because they dont have a dealership in the US. Maybe people should sue the local cable company because they wont run a line down their street and cant watch Battlestar Galactica on UHD because they have no line of site for sat. I dont like these exclusive contracts but they are not illegal. In the end it is the NFL and the MLB who are to blame.

 

[lou_do]

It's not in any way shape or form the same thing. Sunday Ticket has always been an exclusive. Never been available on any other platform. Anyone who wanted Sunday Ticket knew they had to go with DirecTv or go without Sunday Ticket.

Not true, we used to get ST on C-Band satellite for less than $100 a year and since D* has monopolized it, over look how much they have increased it.

 

[Sammy033]

Bogus newsflash....

"After much speculation surrounding its announcement of a suite of HD programming NBC/Universal will launch three high definition channels next month beginning with the SciFi-HD channel. Three more are scheduled to follow in mid April. However many cable and direct broadcast satellite customers are upset because the announcement also said that these new channels will only be available on Echostar's Dish Network, which has paid an undisclosed amount for exclusive broadcasting rights. Subscribers of DirecTV and Comcast say the exclusive contract is unfair, especially to those who have signed long term contracts and would have to pay substantial penalties to cancel and switch to Dish. NBC/Universal had no further comment. The Dish Network also had no comment when asked if subscription rates for HD programming would increase as a result."

If I was a CC or DTV customer I would be very unhappy. Yes NBC/Uni would be silly to do it. But then perhaps someone there might come up with a business model that would support such a move... just as Im sure MLB came up with one. Never say never.

 

[Chinatown]

That is not correct............

It's not in any way shape or form the same thing. Sunday Ticket has always been an exclusive. Never been available on any other platform. Anyone who wanted Sunday Ticket knew they had to go with DirecTv or go without Sunday Ticket. EI has been on cable and Dish for the past few years. We've been able to get it. We've had it.



And people in apartments all over the United States.

Apartment & Condo owners do not have the right to preclude the use of Satelite dishes. That is a misnomer, that has been foisted upon the residents of those domicles for years. If challenged in a court of law the resident will win.

 

[vurbano]

It's too bad DirecTV doesn't allow people to just purchase the Sunday Ticket or MLB Package without purchasing anything else. I think that's something that could be enforced by lawmakers. I shouldn't be forced in to buying a service I don't want in order to get a service that I once had before. DirecTV's exclusiveness will not make me switch to them. I've had DirecTV and I will never go back to them. I just want my MLB and that's it!

Ive always thought that the NFL could lower its price for ST and sell it to all providers and inturn make even more money through volume. Makes sense to me but I'm always told Im wrong at AVS?

 

[boston area dtv]

The Roush Racing bullpen, sponsored by Viagra

I can hear Orsillo now, "Now getting up in the Viagra Bullpen ...."

Hey too all the E* fanboys out there who want the MLB EI package...when you switch over the HD LITE SPORTS LEADER please use me as a referral. They must give ya something for referring someone.

Ofcourse the other option could go something like this...

"Dear Mr. Congressman,

I really really like watching my Milwaukee Brewers. See Directv paid MLB lots of money to carry the games and the Dish Network didnt. Thats soooo unfair. Oh and yes its the same Dish that thumbed their nose at the government and illegally offered distants when they shouldnt have but I mean I really really needed to see Matlock and I didnt like cable or D*(they are sooo icky) so I had to choose the law breaking Dish company.

I know you have a budget to balance and our country is at war in Iraq, and Afghanistan. North Korea and Iran are threatening us with Nuclear weapons.
But, could you please squish Directv cuz I dont have them and I really really need to watch the Brewers.

Thank you your constituent and Satelliteguys.us member."

Stop whining and join D*

I have courteously added the referral link below

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=900008&DPSLogout=true&_requestid=30563 :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up :up

Tell them I sent ya!

 

[sobonefnet]

I simply have one request. Make a decision SOON. So I can get a plan together and figure out a way to get out of my 18 month comit with E* and get switched over. I do all of this to watch my teams (Phillies) opposing broadcast because of the nazi CSN in Philly.

Also, here is another thought. I wonder if D* will allow you to subscribe to their family plan and add MLB EI. Or do they force you in to one of their core packages?

 

[Greg Bimson]

Ive always thought that the NFL could lower its price for ST and sell it to all providers and inturn make even more money through volume. Makes sense to me but I'm always told Im wrong at AVS?

Of course you're always wrong, vurbano.

Simply take a look at some of the aggregate numbers that were originally supplied when the news broke about this deal...

Major League Baseball was making about $2 million per club off of Extra Innings. Multiply by 30 teams, and you have an aggregate total of $60 million profit to MLB last year from Extra Innings.

The original number of subscribers for last year in the same article was 750,000. The average selling price for Extra Innings was about $160. That translates to $120 million in revenue last year.

So, MLB made $60 million and the cablers and satellite companies made $60 million between all of them.

The exclusive changes the game. Most exclusive sports contracts are money losers for the broadcaster partner. We know for a fact that FOX loses a little money on the NFL contract. We know that CBS may eek out a little profit. We know that DirecTV is probably slightly in the red on Sunday Ticket. All of these are exclusives, and there is a discernable pattern.

The NFL makes $700 million a year from Sunday Ticket, because that is the amount DirecTV pays the NFL for the exclusive. If Sunday Ticket were ever to be opened up to all multichannel providers:

1) The NFL will not make a guaranteed $700 million from Sunday Ticket for DirecTV. Sunday Ticket would then look a lot like last year's Extra Innings, where the multichannel providers keep half of the revenue for each subscriber and pay the other half to the leagues. In order to for the NFL to make $700 million on Sunday Ticket at $229 a pop (average price) on a non-exclusive basis, the package would have to be taken by just over 3 million subscribers (which it has never done). However, that only provides $700 million in revenue for the entire package, but the multichannel providers get to keep half. Therefore, to get to $700 million profit, the numbers need to be doubled, and that means Sunday Ticket would need 6 million subscribers for the NFL to make their $700 million. That could be an issue, but it bumps into the next issue...

2) Network contracts. There is a reason why either only FOX or CBS have a doubleheader each week. It provides the broadcast network an exclusive. Take the first Sunday afternoon game in the 2006 season. FOX received a 17 rating for the 4:00 Jacksonville at Dallas game. One rating point equates to 1.1 million households, so that is 18.7 million households. One can assume that just over 2 million households have access to Sunday Ticket. Increase that number to just over 6 million, and take a look at the numbers against that first game last year.

The NFL does not want to devalue their CBS and FOX contracts, even though the NFL now receives more money yearly from DirecTV than either CBS or FOX. It is CBS and FOX that have to pay for production of all of those games. Each of those networks will be rotating the Super Bowl along with NBC.

That is why opening up Sunday Ticket to all multichannel providers would force the NFL to take less than their current $700 million a year. As matter of fact, when Senator Arlen Specter held his hearing about the issue after Election Day, 2006, Sen. Spector suggested the NFL take less money and open up Sunday Ticket to all. This coming from the man that represents Comcast, who also will not open up Comcast Sports Network Philadelphia to either DirecTV or Dish Network.

 

[jpn]

boxing was event by event

Boxing was event-by-event, but it started before HBO/Showtime had enough money to bid. Initially they called it "closed-circuit TV". Later it was among the first PPV events.

Eventually HBO and Showtime started bidding. If I understand correctly, HBO and Showtime often align themselves with certain top promoters & top boxers, and write contracts for a set number of fights for a specific boxer.

 

[jpn]

Also, here is another thought. I wonder if D* will allow you to subscribe to their family plan and add MLB EI. Or do they force you in to one of their core packages?

The website has a good amount of fine-print on each sports subscription page, describing requirements and limitations. None of them state anything about a minimum package requirement. I have been told by many that a base subscription package is required; however, I know of people who canceled their base programming over 5 years ago, and still their NFL ST renewed automatically (including last season).

For new subscribers they will not activate equipment without a base subscription commitment (1 or 2 years depending on the specific equipment).

 

[sobonefnet]

I have existing D* equipment... I am going to call and see what I can get done.

 

[Jim5506]

I am a baseball fan. When we vacation we go to nearby ballparks. We have been to Shea Stadium, Turner Field, Chavez Ravine, Busch Stadium, etc.

I would not buy the Extra Innings pack with dish, because it was too expensive, and I certainly will not switch to DirecTV and pay an outrageous amount just to watch baseball. I might consider $10 per month for MLB, and I know there are many others who would too, but not twice that and all in one slug.

I feel that MLB is cutting off it's nose to spite it's face by lowering its viewership even while the money skyrockets. How long will DirecTV be willing to bleed for something that relatively few people watch.

They should be increasing revenue by increasing viewers, not soaking the few who REALLY love baseball. I don't know exactly what the term of the contract with DirecTV is, but I think it will not be renewed because baseball will be near death by the time it is up for renewal.

 

[Sammy033]

Both think they are going to make money on the deal. I cant see how they will, but Im not in the media or sports business. It would be interesting to know how much the teams themselves will make out of it, if any, and whether it would be the same for all of them or some kind of scale.

As for boxing. Now I understand better how it works, thanks. But if they are package deals by various promoters, it would be similar to the idea of the teams themselves working out their own contracts... if they could. Or perhaps a group of teams could get together and do it. Then again, MLB itself could simply sign exclusive contracts by league. Sounds familiar to me. ;-)