Dish HD vs Disney (DISH sort of won...)

[tvropro]

Well it's time for cable & satellite tv providers to just drop ABC / Disney / ESPNand you will see how fast ABC would be willing to renegotiate, with loss of viewers not too mention advertising revenue, sounds like TV providers have really nothing to lose if ABC is playing hardball.

The channels are too popular so they won't drop them. ABC/Disney knows this. If they did drop them all that would happen is the subscriber would get screwed and look for some other option. We went though all this on C band with ABC Family, Disney and ESPN. The program providers refused to pay Disney the high costs and the channels disappeared and that was that. People got cable or DBS to get them. So what happened is the ones that wanted them just shifted the dollars to a different source and ABC/Disney still got payed.

I'm not condoning the price gouging going on, it's ridiculous. The only way it would stop is if 90% or more of everyone with cable & satellite would cut the cord. That won't happen, people need their fix. The only cheaper alternative was c band but now through a bunch of dirty deals they just about have exhausted the options for cable programming there that you can subscribe to. So were stuck as is unless everyone bowed out.

 

[MikeD-C05]

Well it's time for cable & satellite tv providers to just drop ABC / Disney / ESPNand you will see how fast ABC would be willing to renegotiate, with loss of viewers not too mention advertising revenue, sounds like TV providers have really nothing to lose if ABC is playing hardball.

:up:up:up

 

[Nebugeater]

More likly that DirecTV is just on a different renewal cycle.

Disney, ABC Family & the ESPN's SD & HD works fine on DirecTv. I guess DirecTv payed their bill, These others providers that are having issues are trying to get by on the cheap. That just don't cut it, they ask a price for content and don't want a low ball offer.

The same thing happened with National Programming Service and C band. They thought they could dictate to Disney what they would pay. It ended up with no Disney, ABC Family and ESPN on C band for the last few years. The ones that loose out are the subscribers since they loose programming they want. NPS came up with all kind of excuses saying Disney was the Evil one when in fact it was NPS that was, same with Dish TWC etc. The programmers want to provide content to anyone, but the cost is the cost. When the providers go beyond the wiggle room that the programmer allows, it ends up in a stalemate.

 

[nlk10010]

Suggests to me that TW public campaign has been successful.

Why?

I could just as easily speculate that TWC is running scared because of Disney's PR campaign.

When this is settled it's unlikely we'll know who "caved in", if there is even a way to define that.

 

[HDRoberts]

Still no sense in the HD feeds still being out as they are, something needs to be settled and soon!! I'm more than glad to fork over a few extra $$ a month as well for ESPNU in HD if that's what it takes!!!

Speak for yourself. I don't want to pay 1 penny more for a channel I'll never watch.

 

[lparsons21]

Speak for yourself. I don't want to pay 1 penny more for a channel I'll never watch.

I'm with you!

This isn't the first time Disney has tried to jack rates up more than their offerings are worth. But maybe this time will be the right time to have a shift in how things are done. If more cable/sat companies hold firm and just take them off, then Disney will have to either come down or go away.

 

[Doug Moore]

This is just getting ridiculous:

.biz - Time Warner Cable spat with Disney nears climax | newsobserver.com blogs

Looks like TW & Disney will clear the negotiation gate by this Wed, Sept 2nd. Anyone know if that will affect the Dish & Disney negotiation? It'd be great to get our Disney HD back

 

[flyingsquirrel]

Looks like TW & Disney will clear the negotiation gate by this Wed, Sept 2nd. Anyone know if that will affect the Dish & Disney negotiation? It'd be great to get our Disney HD back

Everything affects Everything, but every situation is unique.

My understanding of the TWC case is that the main sticking point is ESPN3.com. TWC does not want to set a precedent of paying for WEB content for it's WEB subscribers. This is a HUGE issue for cable operators who are also Internet ISPs. But obviously does not affect Dish per se.

On the other hand, whatever TWC agrees to pay per network and per subscriber WILL set the standard for whatever everyone else pays going forward.

The Dish-Disney dispute won't come to a head until either the contract to carry ESPN and ESPN2 comes up, or the contract to carry ABC owned-and-operated stations comes up, whichever comes first.

Then you are talking bloodbath. And Dish MUST have ESPN and ESPN2. If they ever dropped them, especially over the fall winter, you could kiss about 33% of your subscribers goodbye over the course of a few weeks. Dish would be in Bankruptcy within a year.

 

[TNGTony]

I dispute that 33% number. It will be significant, but (regular season) sports TV, even football, doesn't accounts for 1/3 of the TV viewers. The average SHARE (percentage of households watching a program out of the total number of households watching TV) for football games is 7 to 9. The highest was 11 last year. Is it significant? yes. The question then becomes, out of that 11% of households that were watching the game, how many had it on just because "it was there"? That is a harder number to calculate. ESPN's average RATINGS (the number of households watching vs the number of total households with a TV whether it's on or off) is in the lower single digits. Yes they spike but on average are they below 3. The Yankees-Red Sox games got a rating of 2.6. That means that 97.4% of TV households WEREN'T watching the game.

Monday night football last week drew 2.3 rating (yes it was pre-season) but compare that to History Channel at 10:30pm the same night which also drew a 2.3 rating for a new episode of "Pawn Stars".

The point is that it would hurt Dish quite a bit to lose ESPN, but Dish wouldn't fold up and crumble away. Plenty of people out there (like me) who do not even watch ESPN on a regular basis and probably wouldn't even notice ESPN was missing for weeks! And I'll remind you that I am an AVID sports fan. I am a season ticket holder for the Bengals (so I guess I REALLY don't care about football)

 

[KAB]

I dispute that 33% number.

Yes, that's way high. No more than 20%. And I would not be part of it.

 

[Tampa8]

I dispute that 33% number. It will be significant, but (regular season) sports TV, even football, doesn't accounts for 1/3 of the TV viewers. The average SHARE (percentage of households watching a program out of the total number of households watching TV) for football games is 7 to 9. The highest was 11 last year. Is it significant? yes. The question then becomes, out of that 11% of households that were watching the game, how many had it on just because "it was there"? That is a harder number to calculate. ESPN's average RATINGS (the number of households watching vs the number of total households with a TV whether it's on or off) is in the lower single digits. Yes they spike but on average are they below 3. The Yankees-Red Sox games got a rating of 2.6. That means that 97.4% of TV households WEREN'T watching the game.

Monday night football last week drew 2.3 rating (yes it was pre-season) but compare that to History Channel at 10:30pm the same night which also drew a 2.3 rating for a new episode of "Pawn Stars".

The point is that it would hurt Dish quite a bit to lose ESPN, but Dish wouldn't fold up and crumble away. Plenty of people out there (like me) who do not even watch ESPN on a regular basis and probably wouldn't even notice ESPN was missing for weeks!

I watch ESPN often, even watch "Around the Horn" and "PTI." But I agree with the above statement. It would be a hit, but not as much as you might think. I have supported Dish in these disputes and continue to. If Disney wants too much (and I admit I'm not sure what too much would be) I want Dish to fight back. I can live without ESPN if it means keeping rates lower. I believe Disney needs Dish just like Dish needs Disney.

If you're family that watch Disney alot and wants all their channels, I do want you to get them. But for our family, you could take all away other than ABC.

 

[wolfjc]

From "Swanni"

Report: Time Warner, Disney Reach Carriage Deal
TVPredictions.com

Washington, D.C. (August 30, 2010) -- Time Warner and Disney have reached an agreement to enable the cable operator to keep carrying ABC and ESPN, the New York Post reports.

The agreement comes less than two weeks before the NFL season (ESPN has the broadcast rights to Monday Night Football) and less than a month before the start of ABC's new fall season.

 

[reddice]

Great for TWC they still get Disney in HD yet it has been nearly three months and Dish still does not have them in HD. I started to watch Disney in SD but it is just plain brutal and ended up changing the channel most of the time. A 480i 4:3 picture on a 32" 1080p looks terrible. I can't believe Camp Rock 2 is premiering this Friday and I still won't be able to watch it in HD.

 

[tvropro]

Great for TWC they still get Disney in HD yet it has been nearly three months and Dish still does not have them in HD. I started to watch Disney in SD but it is just plain brutal and ended up changing the channel most of the time. A 480i 4:3 picture on a 32" 1080p looks terrible. I can't believe Camp Rock 2 is premiering this Friday and I still won't be able to watch it in HD.

Dish is in no hurry to solve this, you should be glad they didn't pull the SD channels too. Dish keeps playing with the subscribers money... typical.

My 480i SD picture on DirecTv's SD feed of Disney look pretty good for SD on my 32" 1080p Sharp Aquos running in smart stretch mode. Direct's SD always looked better than Dish.

 

[Ghpr13]

From "Swanni"

Report: Time Warner, Disney Reach Carriage Deal
TVPredictions.com

Washington, D.C. (August 30, 2010) -- Time Warner and Disney have reached an agreement to enable the cable operator to keep carrying ABC and ESPN, the New York Post reports.

The agreement comes less than two weeks before the NFL season (ESPN has the broadcast rights to Monday Night Football) and less than a month before the start of ABC's new fall season.

The two sides have been bickering in public over the new carriage agreement. If a new agreement was not reached by September 1, Time Warner subscribers could have lost the SD and HD signals to the Disney-owned channels.
The New York Post writes that the agreement must still be approved by the companies' legal departments, but "no fireworks" are expected.

Unfortunately, in today's world, everyone is out for themselves. If TWC and E* and other providers that will follow, would have just banded together and told Disney "No Dice!", Disney would have had to rethink the charges for the HD feed. Instead, TWC looks only at today dollar signs, instead of long range, and makes a deal.
As much as some people might want these channels that Disney has, it's not as easy for the "average Joe" to just cancel and get a new provider...there's ET fees, new equipment fees, deciding on a new package, a lot that in this economy is not that easy to overlook.

Ghpr13

 

[ronfelder]

Great for TWC they still get Disney in HD yet it has been nearly three months and Dish still does not have them in HD. I started to watch Disney in SD but it is just plain brutal and ended up changing the channel most of the time. A 480i 4:3 picture on a 32" 1080p looks terrible. I can't believe Camp Rock 2 is premiering this Friday and I still won't be able to watch it in HD.

Aren't you a bit old to be watching Disney on your own? sounds like you aren't watching with your kids but on your own. I don't know about you but when I did look ay Disney in hd things weren't that impressive in pq. As of disney is ok on my 42" led LG. Not as good as what hd can be but as i just said for what Disney hd was the sd version isn't that bad.

 

[am7crew]

judging from your avatar I wouldnt question anyone being "old".

 

[KAB]

judging from your avatar I wouldnt question anyone being "old".

Should we judge you by your avatar? I mean, we could have real fun with that one!!!

 

[tvropro]

I don't know about you but when I did look ay Disney in hd things weren't that impressive in pq. As of disney is ok on my 42" led LG. Not as good as what hd can be but as i just said for what Disney hd was the sd version isn't that bad.

If you guys saw the SD master feed on C band you would be blown away. It looks better than any HD lite feed on pizza looks. I for one enjoy seeing the excellent picture quality when it runs ITC. Disney puts out a fantastic master feed in SD & HD, what happens to it as a second generation is a travesty.

 

[Greg Bimson]

Unfortunately, in today's world, everyone is out for themselves. If TWC and E* and other providers that will follow, would have just banded together and told Disney "No Dice!", Disney would have had to rethink the charges for the HD feed.

You do realize that even with "HD for Life", you still pay Dish Network extra for the HD feeds. So I don't understand why there is a complaint.

There is also this other little problem: if Time Warner, Dish Network, and other providers discussed amongst themselves how they would declare war on Disney by refusing to sign any carriage agreements with Disney, then Disney can sue the other providers for violating the law. It is highly illegal for more than one company to collude with another to control the marketplace.

And realize that "Swanni" simply repackaged the report given by the New York Post. Swanni certainly didn't break any news. I'm still waiting for him to have an original thought.