Philly.com's Inadvertent Commentary on Dish and NBC-SN

[HanoverPretzel]

"The NBC Sports Network, formerly called Versus, can be found on most basic cable subscriptions."

-Source: NBC-SN launches boxing series at South Philly arena | Philadelphia Inquirer | 01/21/2012

Time to move NBC Sports Network into a more affordable programming tier, Dish Network. Come on, you're lagging way behind cable on this one... And I say that as a Dish Network subscriber, not just to knock Dish. Time to give us the same value we'd get from other providers on this front and include NBC-SN in AT120, or at least AT200.

 

[Juan]

or atleast an RSN.......

 

[osu1991]

Personally I think it is fine where it is at. It is not a channel with a lot of viewers or a lot of in demand programming. It is a niche channel and shouldn't be in a basic package.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Personally I think it is fine where it is at. It is not a channel with a lot of viewers or a lot of in demand programming. It is a niche channel and shouldn't be in a basic package.

It has several games of the Stanley Cup Finals (hockey's championship) and a lot of the earlier rounds of the NHL playoffs along with several weekly NHL games during the regular season. The NHL is the 4th largest professional sports league in the country. Also, I think it has some college football, Indy Car Racing, boxing, hunting and fishing, etc.. I'll meet you halfway and agree it's not as basic as ESPN with NFL, MLB, and NBA; but it's certainly mainstream enough to be in a package that includes 120 channels plus- or even 40 or 50 channels (Since I think we can probably agree that a lot of those 120 are filler).

I guess anything is arguable, but it's in most basic cable packages (the rough equivalent of AT120+), and I think Directv has it in it's second package from the bottom (the rough equivalent of Dish's AT200). So, Dish Network is an outlier putting it in AT250. Most providers have it in at least a slightly more basic package.

 

[navychop]

The more packed into the lowest tiers, the more expensive they must be.

Personally, I'd prefer no sports in the lowest. Heck, I'd rather delete sports from my tier and save a few bucks.

And if NBC is supporting this boxing again, maybe people that want it can see it one day on NBC. I really think boxing is MADE for PPV.

 

[osu1991]

The NHL, IndyCars, boxing and hunting / fishing shows, don't bring in viewers. Replays of Notre Dame football don't either. If NBCSp got the new NFL Thursday night package the NFL is thinking of offering or some major college conference's football/basketball games, then it would probably increase viewership enough to justify a possible move to AT200, but I don't think it should be in the base packages.

 

[Tampa8]

Putting in the lower packages to me is going backwards. It along with other sports should be in it's own package, and/OR, in the highest packages where people may be more willing to pay for it. Keep the lower packages affordable. You keep wanting to add all these channels to the lower packages and they become less affordable. Even in the sports world this is pretty much a niche channel most of the time, why strap that cost to someone trying to spend less. You wonder why cable costs more, this is an example.
It isn't in Direct TV's lowest package. (Though it is in the next one up)

 

[Scherrman]

That's funny because I get the complaint from customers all the time about how they wish special channels they want were in the lower packages. Amazing how no one is ever happy.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

The NHL, IndyCars, boxing and hunting / fishing shows, don't bring in viewers. Replays of Notre Dame football don't either. If NBCSp got the new NFL Thursday night package the NFL is thinking of offering or some major college conference's football/basketball games, then it would probably increase viewership enough to justify a possible move to AT200, but I don't think it should be in the base packages.

Well, the NHL Network is in AT200, a tier lower than NBC-SC, even though the NHL Network is less mainstream and more specialized. NBC-SC has a lot of exclusive NHL games, whereas the NHL Network doesn't as far as I'm aware (it just picks up some feeds from regional sports networks around the country, and is blacked out during the game if the team is local to your area). That can make a big difference if you're a fan of a local team- if your local team is on NBC-SC and you don't get NBC-SC, sometimes you just won't get the game, whereas any game on NHL Network involving your local team would also be on your local RSN (So you wouldn't need the NHL Network to watch)

NBC-SC also has many exclusive playoff games, and the NHL Network doesn't. If the NHL Network is mainstream enough to be in AT200, you'd think a network with a better slate of hockey games than it plus a bunch of other sports (versus the NHL Network having just hockey) would be there, too. It'd actually be more logical on the surface of things to have NBC-SC in AT200 and the NHL Network in AT250 (swapping them), if one has to be in the higher tier, though I'd imagine that NBC-SC probably costs Dish more per subscriber than the NHL Network.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

Putting in the lower packages to me is going backwards. It along with other sports should be in it's own package, and/OR, in the highest packages where people may be more willing to pay for it. Keep the lower packages affordable. You keep wanting to add all these channels to the lower packages and they become less affordable.

Funny, that's how I feel about the Oprah Network and the Disney Channel (and so on and so forth).

To me sports (and to a lesser extent wrestling) are what I really want on the lower tiers, plus a bunch of news channels (MSNBC on a lower tier than AT200 would be nice), and the local OTA channels. Beyond that, almost any combo would do, because there are a lot of different channels that air old sitcoms and whatever and I just need a few of those (and not any one in particular). Like do I care about FX in particular? Not really- I may watch FX occasionally, but there are other channels that offer essentially the same thing.

 

[Tampa8]

That's funny because I get the complaint from customers all the time about how they wish special channels they want were in the lower packages. Amazing how no one is ever happy.

No one said people don't want more channels in their package, you're not understanding.... they want more channels, they don't want to pay for it. Add the channels, raise the price and see how many posts you will see about making packages affordable.

 

[osu1991]

Well, the NHL Network is in AT200, a tier lower than NBC-SC, even though the NHL Network is less mainstream and more specialized. NBC-SC has a lot of exclusive NHL games, whereas the NHL Network doesn't as far as I'm aware (it just picks up some feeds from regional sports networks around the country, and is blacked out during the game if the team is local to your area). That can make a big difference if you're a fan of a local team- if your local team is on NBC-SC and you don't get NBC-SC, sometimes you just won't get the game, whereas any game on NHL Network involving your local team would also be on your local RSN (So you wouldn't need the NHL Network to watch)

NBC-SC also has many exclusive playoff games, and the NHL Network doesn't. If the NHL Network is mainstream enough to be in AT200, you'd think a network with a better slate of hockey games than it plus a bunch of other sports (versus the NHL Network having just hockey) would be there, too. It'd actually be more logical on the surface of things to have NBC-SC in AT200 and the NHL Network in AT250 (swapping them), if one has to be in the higher tier, though I'd imagine that NBC-SC probably costs Dish more per subscriber than the NHL Network.

Like I said, the NHL doesn't bring in viewers. If it did, it wouldn't have been dumped by network after network, before Versus bailed it out. I'm an Indy Car fan, but the same goes for them. Dish did OLN a favor by adding them to their service when it was a fledgling network, with nothing but the Tour de France and some hunting shows. That is why it was put in the top package. At this time, it is still nothing more than a niche channel. I agree NHL Net and NBA tv should be in the Multisport, Top 250 package or both, there is really nothing special about their lineup. At least NFL net and MLB net show some exclusive games, but I don't think either of them should be in a base package on any service provider either.

 

[HanoverPretzel]

No one said people don't want more channels in their package, you're not understanding.... they want more channels, they don't want to pay for it. Add the channels, raise the price and see how many posts you will see about making packages affordable.

Why can't we keep it affordable by dumping some of the children's and women's programming and replacing them with NBC Sports Network? Cable carries it in their basic packages. Directv carries it in their second to most basic.

Like I said, the NHL doesn't bring in viewers. If it did, it wouldn't have been dumped by network after network, before Versus bailed it out.

Just to be factually accurate here, my understanding is that ESPN did make a bid to retain the NHL before the NHL signed with OLN/Versus. So, it wasn't dumped. OLN/Versus simply offered more than ABC/Disney/ESPN and the NHL went with the higher offer.

I'll acknowledge your point that hockey doesn't do as well in the ratings as football, baseball, and basketball, though. What I always grew up hearing about as a sports fan, though, is the "big four" major sports, which hockey is considered to be one of. I don't hear many people referring to the "big three". So, the NHL is in that group of the top tier of American sports, but the first three games of it's championship are not in the regular Dish Network package, or even the next one up. I think that's a significant hole in their programming lineup, at least in my view.

Hockey is also very regionally popular. It may be invisible in Georgia and Mississippi, but it's really big in Michigan and Pennsylvania. I'd say you can probably get away with not carrying NBC Sports Network in a lower package if you're a small cable carrier in the rural south (or Dish in the rural south for that matter), but in certain northern states, not carrying NBC Sports Network is a significant disadvantage when competing for the dollars of sports fans.