you did day it was coming to directv soon.
As well as the rest of the internet! The other site has been talking about Swanni's article. I have to agree with them, Swanni completely got this wrong. Just because a channel is up in test does not give the advantage to Pac12, nor did PAC12 ever have the advantage. It's quite clear the Pac12 was banking on ATT and had problems with DirecTV. Once ATT took over, it became apparent that the real problem was with PAC12 and not DirecTV or ATT.
PAC12 got really greedy according to reports funneled through the media and it's very easy so see why the people at DirecTV did not like the people over at PAC12 when the PAC12 was doing everything in their power to screw over DirecTV subs by asking for more. Basically ATT and DirecTV should have offered the same deal as BTN and SEC / Longhorn and nothing more as a final offer deal. If they were able to negotiate a better deal for subs at a lower price due to having more subs, then that's great! If PAC 12 didn't like the deal that the same industry partners such as BTN / Fox, and ESPN / SEC & Longhorn are happy with, then too bad so sad. That's what you get either agree to it or loose ad revenue and eyeballs.
PAC 12 should be much happier having eyeballs than not having them and can make up the difference in advertising revenue or perhaps asking for a bit more on a tiered basis upon hitting contingent marks of viewership and years. If the network can prove that they are a powerhouse network like the SEC and BTN then they can get tiered into that later.
With the PAC12 now missing the opening weekend of Collage football that really puts the pressure on PAC12 and not DirecTV. Pac12 was the one posting on twitter that they had hoped to be live by Sep 3. It appears that DirecTV was willing to meet PAC12 halfway by up linking the channel in a test status. To me this shows that they were working together and then once PAC 12 got word, they decided to ask for more which is totally not in good faith.
Honestly after this whole brewhaha, why would anyone want to negotiate with the PAC12 network. Honestly, We all know that this wont happen, but PAC 12 should have agreed for DirecTV to launch the channel on a gentlemen's handshake and continued negotiations until they could reach an agreement based upon the fact that the contract would have been prorated back to the launch date. I dont see this as any harm for anyone and is a win for consumers and a win for everyone involved.
If that would have happened these conversations would not have been happening and all of the PAC12's dirty laundry would not be open in the air.