OT: Still no NFL Network for Charter

[pats1]

Box already knows how I feel about this issue.

http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060817/COLUMN08/608170684/1009/SPORTS

Thursday, August 17, 2006
No Network for Charter

Bill Doyle Tuning In
[email protected]

Eight months after Charter Communications stopped carrying the NFL Network, the cable company is no closer to bringing it back.

Charter ceased offering the NFL Network and NFL on Demand in December over a contract dispute. The NFL Network had been part of Charter’s digital sports tier, but Dennis Jerome, Charter’s director of marketing in New England, said this week that the NFL Network wanted to be moved to the expanded basic cable package to reach more viewers. Jerome also said the network wanted to increase its rights fee by 350 percent. Charter officials at national headquarters in St. Louis refused and the two parted ways.

“They’re not returning our phone calls,” NFL Network spokesperson Seth Palansky said of Charter’s national office in St. Louis. “It doesn’t look good.”

...

The NFL Network will televise the Patriots’ preseason home opener against Arizona on Saturday night, but Charter Communications won’t miss out because WCVB Channel 5 in Boston will also broadcast the game. The absence of the NFL Network on Charter will become more of an issue when the network televises eight NFL regular-season games in prime time, beginning with the Broncos-Chiefs on Thanksgiving. None of those eight games will involve the Patriots, so no local television station will simulcast them.

...

The three-year-old NFL Network is available in 41 million homes, but not in such NFL cities as New York, St. Louis and Houston. Comcast carries it in Boston and northern Worcester County. Shrewsbury Cable offers it as well. DirecTV and the Dish Network offer the NFL Network via satellite.

...

 

[BelichickFan]

It sucks for those who can't get a dish - for those that can, hit them where it hurts by switching to DirecTV or Dish Network.

 

[pats1]

It sucks for those who can't get a dish - for those that can, hit them where it hurts by switching to DirecTV or Dish Network.

I guess I should move to Shrewsbury (right next door). They have their own cable company as well as electric company.

 

[hyperpat]

I am pi$$ed off that the game is not being shown in the Portland area. Friggin' Time Warner Cable refuses to carry the NFL Network. And NFL Network refuses to release the game to local stations like channel 8 here in Portland who want to carry it. I suspect this is part of pi$$ing match between TW and NFLN. If you live in Maine and have TW Cable,go to the NFLN web site <www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/home> and the TW website <www.timewarnercable.com> and complain!

 

[milwaukeebeers44]

That's just crap. I'm glad I had the ability not to choose Charter. Maybe they'll get their heads out of their asses when they lose customers. . .

 

[pats1]

http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/PatsBlog/archives/2006/08/limited_tv_view.html

August 18, 2006

Limited TV viewing for Pats' game tomorrow

FOXBORO, Mass. -- The New England Patriots' exhibiition game tomorrow night will not be shown on local TV. Instead, the game against the Arizona Cardinals will be carried nationally on the NFL Network.

The 8 p.m. home game will be carried by Boston's Channel 5 in Massachusetts, which the NFL considers the extent of the team's home market.

"This is an NFL decision. We don't like it. But they are pretty much going to do what they are going to do.'' said Jay Howell, president and general manager of WPRI-TV and Fox Providence, Channel 64.

Howell said viewers in Rhode Island may be able to get Channel 5 with an antenna. In addition, he said the NFL Network is available on at least one of the satellite services and on digital Cox Cable.

"The Patriots tried to get us this game,'' said Howell, adding that the team's last two exhibition games will be carried on Channel 64.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 10:54 AM

 

[pats1]

I am pi$$ed off that the game is not being shown in the Portland area. Friggin' Time Warner Cable refuses to carry the NFL Network. And NFL Network refuses to release the game to local stations like channel 8 here in Portland who want to carry it. I suspect this is part of pi$$ing match between TW and NFLN. If you live in Maine and have TW Cable,go to the NFLN web site <www.nfl.com/nflnetwork/home> and the TW website <www.timewarnercable.com> and complain!

Did you see NFLGetReal.com, the website Time Warner started to piss about the NFL Network?

http://nflgetreal.com/

 

[Murphys95]

I just dumped the NFL Network last month. As much as Comcast Cable charges for that package, it wasn't worth it - and frankly I think the NFL Network is a weak-@ss channel anyway.

 

[pats1]

I just dumped the NFL Network last month. As much as Comcast Cable charges for that package, it wasn't worth it - and frankly I think the NFL Network is a weak-@ss channel anyway.

There was no price reduction once Charter dumped the NFL Network. They replaced it with the friggin' Tennis Channel.

Their sports tier is absolutely worthless:

ESPNews (is valuable now since NESN stopped showing it)
ESPNClassic (not that much on it)
Fox Sports Atlantic (Worthless)
Fox Sports Central (Worthless)
Fox Sports Pacific (Worthless)
Fox Sports Espana (Spanish - extremely worthless)
Fox Sports World (World soccer games - extremely worthless)
Fuel (Skateboarding and other crap)
College Sports TV (College rugby and other crap - worthless)
Tennis Channel (Worthless)
TVG (Horse racing - extremely worthless)
Sportsman TV (Worthless)
FitTV (Worthless)
Horse Racing TV (Worthless)

 

[maxhagen]

Damn Pats1, I feel sorry for you... that IS a really crappy Sports Tier...

 

[Gopats!!!]

Living in NC, the Sunday Ticket and NFL Network are the only reason I have Direct TV.

The future is TV on demand where you order what you want.

I can't wait!!!!! :rocker:

 

[Patjew]

Luckily I have season tix so it didn't matter for me, but I find it ridiculous that they didn't show the game in RI. My house in Providence is only 22 miles from the stadium, closer than Boston to the stadium, and they don't show it here because we're not the "home market"? Such bullshot. It also greatly irks me when the Pats sign a player and the pundits say, "player X is coming to Boston."

Plus RI is nicer than MA with better restaurants, less traffic and fewer M*******s.

And no, I don't have an inferiority complex about Providence at all!

 

[pepper03]

OK so that's the deal-on Channel 5 Boston which isn't on my Cox cable in RI, and EIGHT games I can't watch this season because I don't have Cox Digital. That sucks-I'm going to call Cox and complain everyday. Maybe this will get me to finally switch to satellite.

 

[PATSNUTme]

Metrocast does not carry the NFL Network on their basic tear. I refuse to pay more money to go to the next tier that includes 200 goofy channels.

They say we have 78 channels but in reality we don't have close to that. They could easlily fit the NFL Network into their basic tier.

Cable TV is becoming a rip off.

I shouldn't complain because we do get channel 5 here in So.Maine, so I dibn't miss the game.

 

[Murphys95]

I see more of the problem emanating from the NFL. Part of the NFL's success is due to the billion dollar television contracts throughout the years. Yet now the league turns around and airs its own channel (all the while banning sideline coverage from local stations). In a way the league is snubbing its nose at the television networks. To make matters worse, the NFL then charges a high cost for its own network which forces cable companies (who I hate defending, mind you) to raise their rates or not carry the channel at all.

It's old fashioned greed here, pure and simple.

 

[Water Boy]

Box already knows how I feel about this issue.

http://telegram.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060817/COLUMN08/608170684/1009/SPORTS

Thanks for the link. Very informative.

 

[Water Boy]

There was no price reduction once Charter dumped the NFL Network. They replaced it with the friggin' Tennis Channel.

Their sports tier is absolutely worthless:

ESPNews (is valuable now since NESN stopped showing it)
ESPNClassic (not that much on it)
Fox Sports Atlantic (Worthless)
Fox Sports Central (Worthless)
Fox Sports Pacific (Worthless)
Fox Sports Espana (Spanish - extremely worthless)
Fox Sports World (World soccer games - extremely worthless)
Fuel (Skateboarding and other crap)
College Sports TV (College rugby and other crap - worthless)
Tennis Channel (Worthless)
TVG (Horse racing - extremely worthless)
Sportsman TV (Worthless)
FitTV (Worthless)
Horse Racing TV (Worthless)

You are right that the Charter Sports Tier is a Friggin Joke. Without the NFL Channel it is absolutely worthless. Living in Western Mass is hell because they don't carry Channel 5 out of Boston. I couldn't get the Pats New Orleans game last year, but I was able to get every friggin NY Giants game.

 

[pats1]

Of course Charter lied their asses off the day the station went dark. Every customer service rep I talked to twisted the story a new way.

December 19, 2005:

 

[Slagathor]

I'm in Worcester and I hate Charter.

Ever since it was greater media it was always last in the country to get all the great new services it seemed.
I'm not a huge fan of satellite but I think I'm heading that way.