Orlando Magic switch to FSN Florida

[iceturkee]

the magic have decided to switch the 35 games that would have been carried of channel 65 to fsn florida for the upcoming season. bhn is still contending it would cost customers more money in the end as they claim they would have to put it on the digital sports tier.

do i smell a bunch of people abandoning ship?

 

[jcarrera]

They would HAVE TO put it on the digital sports tier?

HAVE TO?

Or would choose to?

 

[iceturkee]

bhn is claiming it makes sense to put fsn on the sports tier......so only the people who want it, pay for it. its the same croc excuse they are using for nfl network. put it on the sports tier so all of the other consumers who don't want it, don't have to pay for it!!

i'm actually not surprised the magic did this. and i wouldn't be surprised if the lightning follow suit. they have been threatening for years to put some of their games on fsn to force bright house to add the channel.

i've heard the ``we're in negotiations'' line for three to four years now. now the general manager of fsn/sun sports says, they are going to negotiate.

my question is this: will bhn actually make this happen or will they lose subs to satellite?

 

[stevenl]

Why is it a croc excuse? I dont want to pay an extra 1$ a month for FSN. You want the channel you pay for it not me. I could care less about the magic. Why dont you ask FSN or NFL net why they want allow BHN to put them on a sports tier and charge customers only what FSN of NFL net charges BHN? Why want they do that? Because they know they would get hardly no signups. They want to have 1million subscribers instead of 50k. Whos being greedy? Why should NFL net or FSN get paid for 1 million subs when only 50k want the channel? Because
A. They want to get paid that 50cents or more PER sub (so thats what 500k a month just in channel fees)
B. They want to tell their advertisers we "Have access to 1 million viewers"

So tell the NFL network and FSN Florida to stop being greedy, and let only customers who WANT their channel to order it, instead of forcing everyone to order it.

I hope BHN does not give in to this, id rather lose the 50k subs to dish then piss off the other 950k with a rate increase. And I think BHN sees it the same as well.

 

[iceturkee]

i'm sorry steve but that's the basic problem i have with bhn.....especially the central florida division. they just don't seem to understand they have lots of sports fans who have hated being treated like second class citizens for years.

i've read that bhn central florida is the only cable provider in this state that doesn't have fsn florida. even the tampa division has it and its not on the sports tier, as far as i can tell. truthfully, i would want bhn to show me in print where adding this channel is going to costs subs a rate increase? is sun sports on the sports tier? nope. why should fsn florida?

 

[BFG]

fine put it in the sports tier if that gets it done

ooo a whoping $1.99

 

[stevenl]

i'm sorry steve but that's the basic problem i have with bhn.....especially the central florida division. they just don't seem to understand they have lots of sports fans who have hated being treated like second class citizens for years.

i've read that bhn central florida is the only cable provider in this state that doesn't have fsn florida. even the tampa division has it and its not on the sports tier, as far as i can tell. truthfully, i would want bhn to show me in print where adding this channel is going to costs subs a rate increase? is sun sports on the sports tier? nope. why should fsn florida?

is FSN giving BHN the channel for free? IF so put it on the analog tier.. But FSN is not giving the channel free, If I have the numbers right they are looking for about 50cents a sub. So that would mean EVERY customer would be paying 50cents for the channel. Wheres that money gonna come from? BHN? Their margin is so low as it is, they cant afford that. So of course it will be passed on to the customers.

Their are far more NON sports fan in CFL then sports fans, and the majority of sports fans in CFL are more interested in sports from around the nation not in florida, because they come from other cities. They want more national sports coverage and could care less about the magic, they want yankees baseball or redsox or whatever the case.

If you want FSN would you not be willing to pay the extra 50cents for it? If so, then putting it on a sports tier with NFL network and chargeing you a buck or 2 should be fine.

 

[iceturkee]

i don't pay extra for fsn florida or nfl network with satellite. i pay extra if i want all the additional regional sports networks! the others are included in my basic package.

i repeat my original question. what makes fsn florida so different than sun sports? they are both owned by the same company. i mean i find the argument lame, at best. bhn raises their rates every year. do i hear an outrage from subscribers screaming they don't want sun sports or espn and espn2? why not just put versus, sun sports, espn, espn2, espn classic, espn deportes, espnnews, cstv, nba network, tennis channel, speed network, fuse (or whatever that network is) and fsn florida on a sports tier then? charge ten dollars extra a month and reduce the rates!

 

[stevenl]

If the avg sub knew that their bill would go down about 3 bucks if they didnt have to pay for ESPN and the likes Yea they would scream, but the fact is the avg person does not understand the concept. They assume because the station runs commercials it must be free for BHN to carry.

Sun sports was carried on BHN since it was free to carry, Since then Sun sports has raised the rates over and over again, and because BHN has already been offering it they continue to do so but pass the rate increase on to the customers. Sun Sports was off air on BHN for a bit because they wanted to increase the rates even more, BHN finnaly gave in and gave them a small increase not what they wanted but enough to get the contract back.

You get that channel with dish congrats. They do not have near the overhead a cable company has to operate thus why they can charge customers less. Not to mention the fact they have 20million subs worth of bargaining power for channel prices. BHN has about 3 million. Thus dish getting a better discount, perhaps when the cable companies join together for bargaining power then they can get some good rates to.

What is the problem with offering FSN on its own tier? Make only the people who want it pay for it. Its a simple concept.


I agree completely with your last statement, Im sure the 800k people who dont watch ESPN or ESPN classic or whtever would love the 3 dallor rate decrease bye having those channels put on a special tier, but ESPN would never let that happen. Because they would go broke. When they realize how many people would accutly willing pay more for their channels. Perhaps not broke but there 3 million a month they get from BHN would be reduced by quite a bit... Fact of the matter is everyone bashs the cable companies for being greedy, when they are doing nothing more then trying to save the majority of their customers money.. Its the channel operators who are being the greedy bunch.

 

[iceturkee]

if bhn put fsn florida on the sports tier and kept it at $1.99, i'd probably pay it. however, under any circumstance, would i be happy about that.

i guess my problem is that i still believe its discrimination against the sports fan. see i have no problem paying extra for directv's sports package because i receive all the regional sports networks and their alternates. its like i would be willing to pay if they offered a package to receive say superstations or out-of-area networks in hd.

but there's a huge difference here. these are networks that would not be otherwise available to me as a viewer unless i lived in that region. it isn't a regional sports network that should be part of local programming without paying extra. understand what i'm saying here steven?

 

[stevenl]

Because Dish invests millions and millions for their sports, Thats their only "Niche" They have against cable. They would rather lose money in an area to gain subs. In hopes their sports attracts you to order other services from them. Most sports fans houses I goto have both Dish and Cable. They have only the sports tiers on the dish rather it be NFL ticket or whatever. And cable for their normal viewing. Dish does not tell you they charge your for FSN because its built into the cost of the package.

I understand exactly what your saying but rather they charge you extra or not, your still going to have to pay for the channel. I think its 50cents per sub, FSN is looking for. So regardless of if BHN puts it on the sports tier or on regular cable, your bill will be adjusted accordingly at the next increase. The problem with putting it on the standard package is then it forces EVERY customers bill to go up, not just the ones who want the channel. The MAJORITY of the cable viewers are not interested in sports. Its a small segment even saying 30% may be a bit generous. Hell I think our sports programming package only gets about 20% or less in digital penetration. When sunshine was off air for like a month during contract disputes, it was but a very small portion of customers who complained and we lost hardly any to shake a stick at. So why force the majority to pay for something only the minority want? I feel the same way about all channels who charge outrageous programming fees. Specially ESPN. 2.50 a SUB!! So they make near 2million 500k a month just from CFL BHN... PER MONTH! and barely have a rating share. So why are a million people forced to pay 2.50 a month for a channel only 100k of them watch constantly? Its ridiculous if you ask me, Its just ESPN being greedy and now FSN is doing the same thing. ESPN has commercials. If their network was so good, the commercials would pay for the channel. But their advertiseing dallors are relativly low they make their profits off channel fees. Not only do they force you to watch their ads during their programming they also rob you every month of 2.50cents Thats a gallon of gas a month!

 

[iceturkee]

hmm, i heard you lost quite a few customers when bhn was having that contract dispute with sun sports.

bottom line, this is one of the few but major problems i have with bhn. and the main reason why i will probably never have cable with them again. on the whole, i really like the company. but their are a few nit picky things like this that leave a very bad taste in my mouth as a customer.

in the meanwhile, i continue to enjoy watching the marlins and drays in hd. and i will certainly enjoy the fsnhd college football game of the week starting september 1. i continue to enjoy the nfl network, the hd games and the fact in a few weeks directv will have the hd version of the channel.

 

[iceturkee]

great story by tim povtak in saturday's orlando sentinel. its a must read if you are pissed off by this situation!

 

[cueman98]

For what it's worth, I dropped BHN and got directv specifically because they don't carry fsn florida here. It is completely stupid that they don't carry it here in central florida.

I will be moving to the tampa area in december, and they carry fsn florida in the standard cable package, I checked. So BHN central florida HAS to put it in the sports tier? I doubt that.

 

[iceturkee]

i read in the sentinel last week that the number of angry bhn customers is growing. that's partly because most of the magic's first 20 games will be broadcast on fsn.

officially, both sides are saying they are still talking. unofficially, i heard this was going to happen but i don't know when or what programming tier it would be on. stay tuned.

 

[skottey]

We have FSN over here in Tampa on BHN. It is on channel 69, not the digital tier. I watch a lot of Lightning, but they are on Sun. Just over the last year they (Sun) have been referring to FSN as their sister station. So somebody bought out somebody, but the Lightning games remain on Sun. I couldn't care less about the Magic games so unless they put some of the Lightning games on FSN I could give or take it. FSN airs Devil Rays games too but I don't give a rat's ass about them either.

 

[stevenl]

I mentioned in other threads about the channel being added. it will and to he standard tiers, So all 900k+ BHN central florida customers will soon be paying for a channel that less then 20-30% could give to gripes about.

 

[iceturkee]

hey steven, just out of idle curiosity, do you read the sentinel? and do you read it online?

 

[stevenl]

No I dont read it, not often at least.

 

[iceturkee]

ah, but they had an online poll last week about the fsn - bhn situation. and the majority of people who participated weren't happy about the whole thing. i mention this because i think more than 2 or 3 percent of central floridians who subscribe to bhn, care about sports.