Direct TV Problem with Preseason Games...

DarrylS said:

In June Cox Cable raised my monthly bill to $216 for cable and internet.. I called retention services and they essentially told me I was lucky as it should have been $238... so I switched to Direct TV..

I live in RI so WBZ is not a choice that I can make..

Last week went to watch the Pats/Packers Game.. was supposed to be carried on the local CBS affiliate, turned that on and Jeopardy was on NFL network was blacked out. Really pissed, called them and ranted and raved to a computer.. eventually wound up speaking with Direct TV customer service rep who told me they have not control over this.. I told them they suck.. asked how much it would be to terminate my direct TV contract and they told me about $440.00.

Today I am checking the TV schedule for tonite's game, and it is apparently not available tonite either.. am so f..ing pissed, prior to last week never missed a game, last week was first as long as I can remember.. do not mind the radio broadcast, but I want to f... ing see the game.

For those of you considering Direct TV don't, unless you know something I don't..

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Preseason games, yeah. But i gotta disagree with you about directv. I live in Nashville now and havent missed a pats game in probably almost 10 years now
If it wasnt for sunday ticket....id have to watch the titans and die a slow death.

PatsfanTN said:

Preseason games, yeah. But i gotta disagree with you about directv. I live in Nashville now and havent missed a pats game in probably almost 10 years now
If it wasnt for sunday ticket....id have to watch the titans and die a slow death.

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I live in the NE and have never had a problem with any game at any time until I switched to Direct TV...

DarrylS said:

I know the black out rules, but thanks for playing..

It is not a blackout issue, but thanks for your rant and rave, it is a broadcast issue.. as they do not provide for carrying one of the CBS affiliates that carries the game.. thus there is no coverage in my area.

My question is why defend any cable carrier??.. I have the right to view a preseason game, as do the rest of us considering the money we pay for all of this..

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You have the RIGHT to watch a preseason game live? What utter nonsense.

You whine because you didn't understand which local stations DirectTV are included in your package.

Direct TV does not provide you with 2 or 3 or 4 CBS affiliates. They provide you with one. That's what you paid for.

DarrylS said:

I know the black out rules, but thanks for playing..

It is not a blackout issue, but thanks for your rant and rave, it is a broadcast issue.. as they do not provide for carrying one of the CBS affiliates that carries the game.. thus there is no coverage in my area.

My question is why defend any cable carrier??.. I have the right to view a preseason game, as do the rest of us considering the money we pay for all of this..

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Sorry, but you are 100% wrong. It is not a DirecTV issue, it IS a blackout isse. Clearly you do not know the blackout rules the way you claim to.

You're *****ing and moaning about DirecTV blacking out NFLN. Guess what. They are required to by the FCC Rules because you live in the Patriots Broadcast area. That is NOT the fault of DirecTV.

DirecTV has no control over what your local affiliates carry. That is CBS and the local affiliate and whatever agreement they have with the NFL. Again, NOT the fault of DirecTV.

I'm not defending DirecTV, per se. I'm attempting to educate you on an issue you clearly do not understand the way you claim to..

mgteich said:

Direct TV does not provide you with 2 or 3 or 4 CBS affiliates. They provide you with one. That's what you paid for.

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The reason that DirecTV only provides you with ONE affiliate is because of the antiquated FCC rules. The FCC prevents you from getting "out of market" broadcasts of related affiliates.. Not any cable company.

Rule will get overturned when it screws over Colts fans.

DarrylS said:

Thanks, but cannot remember the last time I missed a Pats game on TV.. it is what I do and what I wait for.

CBS scene is about 40 miles from my house, and do not feel like driving anywhere to a preseason game..

Really pissed at Direct TV.. and wish there was an angle to break my contract. Have spoken with customer service folks who are all real sorry, but...

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It's not dtv's fault they have no control over the blackout policy. Blame fox 64. They are the ones that are putting it on a sub channel. BTW Sunday ticket will more than make up for it

DaBruinz said:

Sorry, but you are 100% wrong. It is not a DirecTV issue, it IS a blackout isse. Clearly you do not know the blackout rules the way you claim to.

You're *****ing and moaning about DirecTV blacking out NFLN. Guess what. They are required to by the FCC Rules because you live in the Patriots Broadcast area. That is NOT the fault of DirecTV.

DirecTV has no control over what your local affiliates carry. That is CBS and the local affiliate and whatever agreement they have with the NFL. Again, NOT the fault of DirecTV.

I'm not defending DirecTV, per se. I'm attempting to educate you on an issue you clearly do not understand the way you claim to..

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Thanks for the education, but have had three different Cable Providers since 2000 and have never missed a preseason or NFL Game up to this year.. prior to switching to Direct TV the providers made provisions for the "subchannels"..

Direct TV Sucks.. especially customer service on Saturday afternoon was on hold for 13 minutes waiting for a live person. who expressed great sympathy.. also sent an email about this issue and they sent a response that they would get back to me in 24 hours, will get a response about Wednesday.. lousy service provider and lousy customer service.

It is not unreasonable to expect a cable provider to make sure they meet the needs of a local viewing public.. why are does the consumer continually have to downgrade reasonable expectations of a service provider???

DarrylS said:

I have the right to view a preseason game, as do the rest of us considering the money we pay for all of this..

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I wish it worked that way but the system is set up to extract the most possible money from you. It's worse because the NFL is one of the few things people will pay good money to watch these days.

DaBruinz said:

The FCC prevents you from getting "out of market" broadcasts of related affiliates..

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Yes, it's a FCC rule but it's bought and paid for by content providers such as the NFL who want to extract the most possible money from you.

DarrylS said:

Thanks for the education, but have had three different Cable Providers since 2000 and have never missed a preseason or NFL Game up to this year.. prior to switching to Direct TV the providers made provisions for the "subchannels"..

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Satellite and cable are two different things both legally and technically. It's much easier for the cable companies to inject programming at their various offices to meet local needs. It's much harder for direct tv since each satellite covers 1/3rd or more of the US. The first satellites didn't have ANY local tv. The fact that it has some now is a legal and technical compromise.

As others have said this whole space is undergoing rapid change. Cable just isn't getting the uptake it used to get which puts more pressure on them to try to extract even more from the existing customer base which makes even more customers leave and so on. It got to the point for me where I became a cord cutter, but that means it's up to me to find alternate ways to get my entertainment.

Bill Lee said:

I wish it worked that way but the system is set up to extract the most possible money from you. It's worse because the NFL is one of the few things people will pay good money to watch these days.

Yes, it's a FCC rule but it's bought and paid for by content providers such as the NFL who want to extract the most possible money from you.

Satellite and cable are two different things both legally and technically. It's much easier for the cable companies to inject programming at their various offices to meet local needs. It's much harder for direct tv since each satellite covers 1/3rd or more of the US. The first satellites didn't have ANY local tv. The fact that it has some now is a legal and technical compromise.

As others have said this whole space is undergoing rapid change. Cable just isn't getting the uptake it used to get which puts more pressure on them to try to extract even more from the existing customer base which makes even more customers leave and so on. It got to the point for me where I became a cord cutter, but that means it's up to me to find alternate ways to get my entertainment.

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I have had Cox(RI), TDSTELME(Maine), Dish(Me.), Cox(RI) and Direct TV(RI).. this is the first time I have not been able to enjoy a preseason football game.. IMO it is reasonable to expect to receive preseason football for the amount of money I pay..

I am an analog guy who does not get the whole digital thing, if I did really understand it, I would probably do something different..

I though Ed Markey was going to be the champion for the little guy vs the cable companies, but then he decided to become a millionaire instead.

I would simply add one note. I have had a local cable company that gave us two local stations for some of the networks, because both were available over the air. Of course, blackout rules were never broken.

So, while I agree that blackout rules must be obeyed, I believe that perhaps Direct TV could choose a more expansive list when giving folks Boston locals.

I was in this situation here in SC. At first, I had the local cable with lots of locals from Savannah and Charleston. When I got Direct TV, my local area was declared to be Savannah. I live between the two cities, closer to Savannah. On a given weekend, the two CBS affiliates might chose different games, and often did.

DaBruinz said:

Sorry, but you are 100% wrong. It is not a DirecTV issue, it IS a blackout isse. Clearly you do not know the blackout rules the way you claim to.

You're *****ing and moaning about DirecTV blacking out NFLN. Guess what. They are required to by the FCC Rules because you live in the Patriots Broadcast area. That is NOT the fault of DirecTV.

DirecTV has no control over what your local affiliates carry. That is CBS and the local affiliate and whatever agreement they have with the NFL. Again, NOT the fault of DirecTV.

I'm not defending DirecTV, per se. I'm attempting to educate you on an issue you clearly do not understand the way you claim to..

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DarrylS said:

Thanks for the education, but have had three different Cable Providers since 2000 and have never missed a preseason or NFL Game up to this year.. prior to switching to Direct TV the providers made provisions for the "subchannels"..

Direct TV Sucks.. especially customer service on Saturday afternoon was on hold for 13 minutes waiting for a live person. who expressed great sympathy.. also sent an email about this issue and they sent a response that they would get back to me in 24 hours, will get a response about Wednesday.. lousy service provider and lousy customer service.

It is not unreasonable to expect a cable provider to make sure they meet the needs of a local viewing public.. why are does the consumer continually have to downgrade reasonable expectations of a service provider???

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No, DirecTV doesn't suck and their customer service is some of the best in the industry. Better than all of the Cable Companies. That's why they've gotten numerous awards from JD Power for their Customer Service. Oh, and as a reference, I typically wait 20+ minutes for FIOS technical help.. And forget about weekend / help after 9 pm..

It is not DirecTV's fault that you did not know about what would be your local viewing station prior to signing. It's not DirecTV's fault that your local viewing station didn't bother to actually provide the Pats pre-season game. Furthermore, DirecTV makes plenty of mention about adding an HD antenna for viewing if they are off-line or for sub-channels. And Yes, I'm speaking as someone who was a DirecTV customer for 20+ years. I only changed to FIOS because I got a better deal, in the long run, and I don't have any outages.. The only down-side is that I don't get Sunday Ticket.. Not even through Sunday Ticket's new LiveStream option.

As for what DirecTV can offer regarding the local channels, they are limited by the FCC on what they can provide. This is thanks to many antiquated rules from the 60's and 70's. The only way these rules will be changed is by writing them and your Congressmen to get them changed..

As for A la Carte', it's a combination of the Broadcasting companies and the FCC preventing that from happening. The Broadcasting companies want certain things forced down the throats of consumers ( 4 home shopping networks, a bazillion useless channels) and force the Cable/Satellite companies to pay for them even if they know their viewership doesn't want them..