Why no Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia??

[Unapologetic Liberal]

Hi Folks,

I'm new to DirecTV satellite (installed a few weeks ago - after a brief 3 week hiatus with Voom....doh!) and so far I am pretty happy with it. I'm from just outside the Philly area in PA, and one of my favorite channels my cable provider offered was Comcast Sportsnet for the Philadelphia region (covering all Eagles, Phillies, Sixers etc...). I noticed that DirecTV offers Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic (covering Washington Sports), CSN Chicago, and CSN West (covering Sacramento sports), but no CSN Philly? Do they not have the licensing to broadcast this channel? Is there a way to get it? Are they planning on adding this channel?

Please help a distressed, die-hard Eagles fan get his fix. It's bad enough we lost the Super Bowl.....now this!

Thanks all.

 

[BFG]

CSN is able to prohibit competitors from carrying their CSN Philly channels because it's not distributed on Satellite.

 

[rcbridge]

You can still watch the Eagles all the games will be on Fox or ESPN or ABC!!!
If you like Flyers, Sixers and or Phillies you are SOL!!!

 

[Beavis]

NFL games are never on RSN's anyways, (well, maybe preseason). The truth of the matter is that D* has tried over and over to get CSN Philly to let them retransmit their signal, and they won't budge at all. For some reason they absolutely do not want D* to carry it, and it's their right.

 

[rmmrph]

Yes as stated above, through a loophole in the broadcasting rules Comcast does not have to share access of CSN with other providers. Because of this Comcrap enjoys a practical monoply in Phila region. There's supposedly legislation aimed at taking away this loophole and to force them to make CSN available to "any willing provider," but I would not hold my breath on this one because I can't see local politicos annoying one of the largest companies in Philadelphia (Comcast's home market) I personally am a Flyers fan, and I have just resigned myself to watching the few games on UPN.

Peace,
Ryan

 

[lzjr]

I contact CSN Phila about this issuse through email this is what they had to say
"

Thank you for your letter regarding Comcast SportsNet, and your concern that our service is not available to you as a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) customer.



As you know, DBS is a strong competitor to the cable industry and other video distributors.

Comcast SportsNet’s decision to sell its service only to other terrestrial competitors, such as cable,

wireless cable and apartment/condo MATV systems – and not to DBS – is a legitimate business decision that reflects the highly competitive nature of this marketplace.



As a DBS customer, you are probably aware that there are a number of specific examples of DBS – provided programming that is exclusive to customers of various DBS systems. For instance, at this time DirecTV has an exclusive arrangement with the NFL to sell its Sunday Ticket game package – which it advertises as not available “on any other mini-dish system, or on cable, either.”



The goal of Comcast SportsNet and its partners is to make its service available to the greatest number of people in the Philadelphia area while permitting video distributors to differentiate themselves from one another.



We regret any inconvenience this may cause and, again, thank you for your interest."

 

[ramcm7]

I still think D* should hold the line when the other Comcast-owned channels come up for renewal. Why do you think Style is still not on D*? That's right, it is owned by Comcast. Style, E!, QVC, CSN - mid Atlantic, Outdoor Life Network, Golf Channel, and G4 (bought TechTV) are all at least majority owned by Comcast. (QVC may pay D* to be aired.) We saw what happened when Viacom and E* negotiations broke down and channels went dark - unhappy E* subs, some switching out of E*. I don't see content that would generate that kind of reaction were D* and Comcast to get into such a standoff. (No Nickelodeon to drive parents crazy by its absence; no MTV to mobilize youth anger by its absence.) Having previously lived in the Philly DMA as a D* sub, I would find that standoff quite interesting and would love to see CSN-Philly available to D* subs.

Does anyone know how the non-sat arrangement will play with Verizon's new FiOS service? That is all land line based, I believe. Eventually, Verizon will want to go it alone on the video distribution business, but I am curious as to possible delivery synerigies for Verizon and D* and the ability to decode both sat and fiber signals in a single STB.

 

[Mr Tony]

I contact CSN Phila about this issuse through email this is what they had to say
"

Thank you for your letter regarding Comcast SportsNet, and your concern that our service is not available to you as a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) customer.



As you know, DBS is a strong competitor to the cable industry and other video distributors.

Comcast SportsNet’s decision to sell its service only to other terrestrial competitors, such as cable,

wireless cable and apartment/condo MATV systems – and not to DBS – is a legitimate business decision that reflects the highly competitive nature of this marketplace.



As a DBS customer, you are probably aware that there are a number of specific examples of DBS – provided programming that is exclusive to customers of various DBS systems. For instance, at this time DirecTV has an exclusive arrangement with the NFL to sell its Sunday Ticket game package – which it advertises as not available “on any other mini-dish system, or on cable, either.”



The goal of Comcast SportsNet and its partners is to make its service available to the greatest number of people in the Philadelphia area while permitting video distributors to differentiate themselves from one another.



We regret any inconvenience this may cause and, again, thank you for your interest."

Transaltion of the whole thing is
we own the channel
we own part of the teams
we are using a loophole by not transmitting via satellite

you want it? come to Comcast or grin and bear it

in a nutshell
I think all sports channels should be made available to all providers

 

[steviegtv]

I think they are fools because i would pay up to $20 for their service.

 

[Unapologetic Liberal]

I can still watch Eagles games on Fox, but of course not in HDTV (unless it's a nationally televised game and I can catch it on the NY digital broadcast). The reason I like CSN so much is for their "Daily News Live" and "Post Game Live" programs which highlight the Philly sports teams and their seasons. They also broadcast every Phillies home game in HDTV, which UPN does not do. UPN doesn't carry every game and they're rarely on Fox. And the only time the Eagles will be on ESPN or ABC will be for Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football respectively.

I'll just have to deal with it this year until my cable company installs lines for High Def in my area, or a miraculous change happens with CSN and DirecTV.

 

[stevesmall]

no more monday night football on abc

 

[kanyon]

Cox Cable does the same thing here in San Diego with Padres games.

 

[awax]

Too bad D* couldn't just withhold Fox from Comcast Philly. Oh that would be against the rules.

 

[dozerking]

I am in the same boat , I live in the Philly Suburbs and a very dissatisfied CC customer. I am at the point of white hot hatred towards CC. I am stuck with CC because of my love for the Flyers. Every couple of months i'll call up a sat provider to get an update on the CSN Philly channel and it's the same old thing, Sorry we cannot offer that channel at this current time. This just plain sucks a fat one. CC is expensive and their HD programming is well underpar. I am a huge hockey fan in general so i know i would be able to get the sports package for FSN to see plenty of games , but no Flyers. Also, i hear HD net has many HD hockey games as well.

I too love CSN for their coverage of local sports, as anyone would know being from the philly area, we are crazy about our teams. Post Game Live and Daily News Live are great shows.

I recently got Verizon Fios and spoke to a rep that told me , and i am not sure if it's true or not, that Verizon is currently in court about this matter and is trying to find a loophole to feed CSN Philly through their fiber optics lines, along with Directtv . That would be sweet. This is the ONLY reason why I still put up with comcrap is for CSN , and it looks like i'll being putting up for a while longer. BTW, I heard somewhere that OLN ,Hockey Coverage on mon and tues , was dropped from a sat provider recently. Is that true?



Dozerking

one of many millions of flyers,Sixers,Phillies fans screwed by comcast

 

[minorthr]

The thing thats really funny is Comcast latest well D* has Sunday ticket and we cant have it. However they could have had it but baulked at the money. So dont give me this well when D* gives up sunday ticket then we will talk BS.

Of course since I have comcast basic cable for HD locals and since comcast doesn't encrypt Sportsnet in my area I can actually pick it up with my Qam tuner on my TV in addition to my HD locals. I actually called them and told them this and they told me it was impossible.

 

[mikedz4]

I'd rather have comcast sportsnet than fox sports pittsburgh here. They don't have a fully hd channel. They have pittsburgh sports tonight though. I just want to see what comcast does in this area once the sports teams contracts with fox sports runs out, if they'll try to start a comcast sportsnet pittsburgh which would carry penguins (if they're still here) and pirates games.

 

[chewwy420]

Does anyone know if the flyers games are on NHL Center Ice package? if they are why can't we at least see the games there. I didn't get the package because I was told that the flyers games would be blacked out since I am in the viewing area, but that makes no sense to me since it is not a broadcast station and I can not get it OTA...

 

[Greg Bimson]

Does anyone know if the flyers games are on NHL Center Ice package? if they are why can't we at least see the games there. I didn't get the package because I was told that the flyers games would be blacked out since I am in the viewing area, but that makes no sense to me since it is not a broadcast station and I can not get it OTA...

Because Centre Ice is an out-of-market package, giving you games you would not be able to see in your market. Since the Flyers are in your market, it is expected that you watch the Flyers games on your local RSN.

Of course, since the RSN isn't available to you, then you cannot get Flyers games unless you go to a provider that carries those games, which ends up as your local cable company.

 

[minorthr]

Because Centre Ice is an out-of-market package, giving you games you would not be able to see in your market. Since the Flyers are in your market, it is expected that you watch the Flyers games on your local RSN.

Of course, since the RSN isn't available to you, then you cannot get Flyers games unless you go to a provider that carries those games, which ends up as your local cable company.

Same also applies to 76ers and Phillies games that are on the NBA and MLB packages