NFL Network no longer on Comcast as of May 1?!?!?!?

[PatsWickedPissah]

Believe it or not I can sell it all day long and I still cant get it myself in Quincy. Rural towns were first chosen because its far easier to string lines on poles than it is to run underground, Boston wont have it for a while. But its more than that,each town has the power(or comcast has the influence) to let FIOS in or not. They also are well paid for the privalege. Now that FIOS has shown what a benefit it is alot more towns have jumped on and signed up...but it takes months or longer to wire a town and longer than that to negotiate. Given the economy Verizon has also cut back on its towns, slowed the scheduled open dates etc. But right now we are taking 60-75% of the market and the gap is widening. The commercials are true,lol. Fitchburg and Milford open in the next couple weeks, Westford too. Anyone from these towns or where existing service exists can contact me, I have the best deals in town! Thanks

Please, don't get me going. Here in New Hampster, Gov Lynch and the legislature tried to put the screws to Verizon tax wise and they simply said GFY and left the state. Now we're stuck with 3rd world telecom from Fairpoint and sadly, Comcast.

 

[cavtroop]

Believe it or not I can sell it all day long and I still cant get it myself in Quincy. Rural towns were first chosen because its far easier to string lines on poles than it is to run underground, Boston wont have it for a while. But its more than that,each town has the power(or comcast has the influence) to let FIOS in or not. They also are well paid for the privalege. Now that FIOS has shown what a benefit it is alot more towns have jumped on and signed up...but it takes months or longer to wire a town and longer than that to negotiate. Given the economy Verizon has also cut back on its towns, slowed the scheduled open dates etc. But right now we are taking 60-75% of the market and the gap is widening. The commercials are true,lol. Fitchburg and Milford open in the next couple weeks, Westford too. Anyone from these towns or where existing service exists can contact me, I have the best deals in town! Thanks

Does Verizon publish a list of towns they are trying to work with?

 

[carolinatony]

Can't you get Direct TV up there? It has the NFL channel free.

 

[Gwedd]

How tall are the trees? And how many block the view of the southern sky?

I had to sigh up with cable because, where I live, I have these huge frikkin' steel buildings and cranes from Bath Iron Works that block my view to the south. Heck, with rabbit ears I could only get NBC & PBS.

Maine is treated as a 3rd world nation by most of the telecom industry. Verizon sold out to Fairpoint and those rat b@stards will never be rigging FIOS lines. Heck, I can't even use anything but IE to go online at Fairpoint's website to view and pay my bill. It's taken them 6 months just to get to THAT point. About a third of the state (and perhaps more) still doesn't even have access to broadband. They are stuck with dial-up.

 

[PaulNEPats]

I'm no fan of Comcast, but it's hard to blame them for this one. The only reason the NFL network wants it on the standard cable package is more $$$ for them, since they get paid per subscriber. Instead of having all customers subsidize the channel, they moved it to a sports tier which seems pretty reasonable to me. NFL Network sucks anyways.

Believe it or not I can sell it all day long and I still cant get it myself in Quincy. Rural towns were first chosen because its far easier to string lines on poles than it is to run underground, Boston wont have it for a while. But its more than that,each town has the power(or comcast has the influence) to let FIOS in or not. They also are well paid for the privalege. Now that FIOS has shown what a benefit it is alot more towns have jumped on and signed up...but it takes months or longer to wire a town and longer than that to negotiate. Given the economy Verizon has also cut back on its towns, slowed the scheduled open dates etc. But right now we are taking 60-75% of the market and the gap is widening. The commercials are true,lol. Fitchburg and Milford open in the next couple weeks, Westford too. Anyone from these towns or where existing service exists can contact me, I have the best deals in town! Thanks

I'd sign up for Fios in a heartbeat, but for some reason my road is the only one in my town which doesn't get fios. Lameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

I'm no fan of Comcast, but it's hard to blame them for this one. The only reason the NFL network wants it on the standard cable package is more $$$ for them, since they get paid per subscriber. Instead of having all customers subsidize the channel, they moved it to a sports tier which seems pretty reasonable to me. NFL Network sucks anyways.

I agree. I am a subscriber of Comcast but no big fan of them (not a hater either though), however, Comcast is willing to keep the NFL Network on the sports tier. The NFL counter argument seems to be that they only want a deal that makes it available to the much larger expanded-basic subscriber audience. That would be an argument that would entirely hold water if the NFL was practicing what they preach (which they are not). The DirecTV deal, the NFL has, is the best deal for the NFL, not the best deal for the viewer (and not by a lot). For starters, the many people, like myself, who live in a condo? Or maybe those who live in apartments? The NFL says "too bad, the DirecTV deal is best for us" (that isn't a made up statement either. It ain't too far from what Jerry Jones said about a year ago). Every one of the other big 3 sports packages are available on just about every television service. Only the NFL decides to limit their broadcast to one, why? Because it is the best financial deal for the NFL. You can't hold it against a for profit company to make decisions based on better profit. But, again, that decision makes their argument with Comcast totally and absurdly two faced.

 

[Jackson 2]

I'm no fan of Comcast, but it's hard to blame them for this one. The only reason the NFL network wants it on the standard cable package is more $$$ for them, since they get paid per subscriber. Instead of having all customers subsidize the channel, they moved it to a sports tier which seems pretty reasonable to me. NFL Network sucks anyways.



I'd sign up for Fios in a heartbeat, but for some reason my road is the only one in my town which doesn't get fios. Lameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

I have a situation like yours. My town got Fios last fall. I live in an area which borders another community (I actually pay property taxes to 2 towns). My street is one of only a few which aren't wired for Fios. When I inquired/complained last fall, I was told by my town's cable board that the contractual agreement between the town and Verizon allows the latter to have up to 5 years to wire the entire community. Thus, outlying areas are likely not to have access to Fios for a long time after most others. Not much equity there. I'm having DirecTV installed tomorrow, since my cable provider (Charter) doesn't offer the NFL network, or much else for that matter, and charges me an arm and a leg.

 

[vyrago]

How tall are the trees? And how many block the view of the southern sky?

The trees are about 60-70' and run along the south side of my house, oh and I like them a lot.

My sister got the Dish Network and had nothing but problems with it in terms of reception.
She now has uverse, which she loves. I don't know it she gets nfln. She's not a football fan.

 

[Nunchucks]

I don't understand why Verizon and the Dish can offer NFL Network on their basic package but Comcast cannot. This doesn't pass he sniff test.

 

[supafly]

I have a situation like yours. My town got Fios last fall. I live in an area which borders another community (I actually pay property taxes to 2 towns). My street is one of only a few which aren't wired for Fios. When I inquired/complained last fall, I was told by my town's cable board that the contractual agreement between the town and Verizon allows the latter to have up to 5 years to wire the entire community. Thus, outlying areas are likely not to have access to Fios for a long time after most others. Not much equity there. I'm having DirecTV installed tomorrow, since my cable provider (Charter) doesn't offer the NFL network, or much else for that matter, and charges me an arm and a leg.

Yeah our whole condo community has had FIOS wired underground for at least a full year now, but they claim they're still working out 'red tape' and contractual, paperwork issues, etc. Verizon says it could be another year or 2, and we had everything dug up and wired last freaking summer.

FWIW--I just opened up my letter today from Comcast stating that they're at a standstill in negotiations regarding NFL Network. They claim that after April 30th it will be gone, at least here in Pittsburgh, yet I'd imagine it's 100 % for everywhere else too. They close the letter by claiming "they're not throwing in the towel quite yet." How re-assuring

Since I heard rumors of this happening, plus have yet to experience a full 16 game slate of Pats games without the choppiness and constant buffering of internet feeds, I had Direct TV installed last week. I'm keeping both until the trees finish growing in, because we live directly next to a nasty tree line, but if everything works out and the signal remains OK, I'll be quite happy to finally rid myself of the Comcast problem. If you live in an area where you can readily receive a good signal, I would strongly suggest just switching over to Direct TV. The Sunday Ticket plan is worth its weight in gold alone, you can watch a channel showing every game at once, allowing you to simply switch from game to game. It's pretty cool once you actually see it, I've only seen the MLB Extra Innings so far, but I swear it's addictive.

 

[DefenseRules]

I'm installing Direct TV today. It will be my pleasure to tell Comcast where to go.

 

[E Belichick Unum]

I don't understand why Verizon and the Dish can offer NFL Network on their basic package but Comcast cannot. This doesn't pass he sniff test.

NFL Channels argument is that Comcast is giving preferential tratment to their own properties, Versus and another channel, and screwing the NFL Channel. There is some kind of regulation that states that a cable company has to treat competators offering the same way that they treat their own properties.

Everybody is right, the NFL wants to charge more money for commercials and to do that they have to be able to claim the 150 million households that basic cable offers. Comcast doesn't want to allow NFL Channel on basic cable, I have no idea why except that they are being a little petulant, but Comcast is the 500 pound gorilla in the industry. The FCC is probably a coin flip, but I really don't know enough about the regulations and arguments to talk about them. However, Comcast did the same thing with the SciFi channel for years, even stopped offering it for a couple of years. Eventually this will get resolved and NFL Channel will be on basic cable, it could take a while though.