Why you may not be able to see Cowboys Packers tonight

[BelichickFan]

There are a million channels on the basic tier that I don't want, yet I'm stuck paying for them (e.g. Lifetime). Of course, the channels I do want cost extra.

They should just do a la carte.

It's no different from major sports (read : football and basketball) supporting lesser sport like cross country and all the women's sports; you have to support the stuff you don't want or it'll just disappear - which would be fine with me but it's not how it works; think of at as a tax for lesser popular channels.

 

[SoCalPatsfan90]

Cox has a portion of NFLN, but not the full Sunday Ticket. That is on lockdown by Direct TV, because that's the only thing keeping that satalite company afloat is the fact that they are the only company to offer the sunday ticket.

 

[CTPatsFan]

Good or bad, AT&T U-Verse offers it and I'll be watching.

I think the main sticking point is what is the NFLN going to offer the other 7.5 months or so that their isn't football being played that would justify the expense?

 

[psychoPat]

Kraft's Strategy

.... The NFL is doing the equivalent of taking hostages: "Broadcast our network on OUR terms or I'll shoot the fans!!!" They're using us as pawns, intentionally creating situations where we'll miss big games and be miserable in hopes of forcing a sweetheart business deal.

Sounds like a great business model.
Makes me wish i were an owner.

Speaking of owners ... a few years ago, when the NFL adopted this strategy,
wasn't a certain Mr. Robert Kraft
universally portrayed as Tags' key advisor on tv matters?

Wonder what ever became of that guy?

 

[Fixit]

On any given weekend, the fan with cable is shut out of like eleven football games. Don't like it? Get DirecTV. That's what I did.

I don't understand all of this complaining and indignation about the NFL Network.

 

[BelichickFan]

On any given weekend, the fan with cable is shut out of like eleven football games. Don't like it? Get DirecTV. That's what I did.

I don't understand all of this complaining and indignation about the NFL Network.

I'm with you, I think people just like to complain. Without DirecTV you have pretty much what you had before; with Dish or some cable you get NFLN; with DirecTV you get the greatest gift ever given to football fans.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

The difference between what you're paying now, as opposed to what you paid before NFL Network went premium, would just be spread out among all cable subscribers, not just the ones who want NFL network. Obviously Comcast isn't going to cut into their profits to give you a good deal, the only options are to charge the people who use it, or spread it out to everyone. I'd rather just the people who use it pay for it.

Ok, but if the cable company is charging only the people that use it, then let me as a consumer cherry pick their line up and price accordingly. Don't force me to get 73 channels on knitting, 5 versions of Cspan, etc, if I don't want them. Take those channels away and charge me accordingly. If it works for them, as you postulate, why shouldn't it work for the consumer too?

 

[Seymour93]

I'm with you, I think people just like to complain. Without DirecTV you have pretty much what you had before; with Dish or some cable you get NFLN; with DirecTV you get the greatest gift ever given to football fans.

It's easy for out of town Pats fans these days as even when the Pats aren't on primetime they have a good chance of seeing them now. Only about 4 or 5 of their games this season weren't available to local cable viewers here in North Texas. Four or five is too many for me and I love Sunday Ticket when the Pats aren't playing too, so I'm able to flip around through a host of games. But the first year I got Sunday Ticket was at the beginning of the 2001 season back when out of town fans saw NE once or twice a year. Needless to say I haven't even thought about not renewing.

 

[Halifax_Pats_Fan]

it is being shown up here on TSN I believe

 

[PatsFanInEaglesLand]

Cox has a portion of NFLN, but not the full Sunday Ticket. That is on lockdown by Direct TV, because that's the only thing keeping that satalite company afloat is the fact that they are the only company to offer the sunday ticket.

That and the fact I can get both NESN and CSNE (both in HD) down here in Pennsylvania.

Comcast could of bid on Sunday Ticket, they declined.

 

[Bigdogx]

The only people who have any right to complain with this are people stuck with cable providers who wont carry the channel at all and cant make the switch to dish. It's laughable listening to some people who whine about having to spend a whole i think it cost me a extra 7.95 per month to get. If you cant afford a extra cost of 7.95 per month you have worse issues then not being able to watch a football game!

 

[Fixit]

I tell you what, it would have been much worse if Sunday Ticket went exclusively to cable. The price would be astronomical, and lots of people would have had a legitimate gripe as they physically can't get cable TV where they live.

 

[Horace's Ivories]

I have Cablevision so unfortunately no NFL game for me. Looks like an evening of watching the exciting yardage lines on NFL.com..

 

[cartmen]

WOW its amazing but somehow COX comes out looking pretty good in this
We get it in the basic Digital and the HD premium setup as part of the package

 

[wcda]

This may be of interest to those that can't get game. http://www.nfl.com/live?icampaign=dw6_002

 

[Deus Irae]

NFL Sunday Ticket isn't free, even on satellite television. It costs hundreds of dollars per year, and that's for actual games. The NFL wants cable companies to put that crappy channel on year 'round, getting more money per month than CNN essentially for broadcasting 8 games a year.

The NFL should be ashamed of itself, but it's such a greedy institution that is doesn't actually have any shame about anything.

 

[spacecrime]

My basic cable bill has more than doubled since I first subscribed, and it had nothing to do with NFLN.

Wrong.

Your cable bill goes up because cable companies pay for the programming they get and pass the charge onto you. Some programs cost pennies per subscriber, some cost a buck.

NFLN charges Comcast a buck for every subscriber that gets NFLN.

When a cable company pays a buck per subscriber this gets passed on and every subscriber's bill goes up a buck. What is so hard to understand about that.

In order not to have everyone's bill be $200 a month, cabel companies take programs that are expensive or that very few people watch anyway and put them in a premiumn package rather than make every subscriber pay for it. Onbly hte people who want it pay for it.

NFLN is expensive at a buck per subscriber. Further, sbout 95% of these subscribers don't watch NFL Network.

Yeah, you have to pay to watch it, but 10 million other people who don't watch it don't have to pay.

The biggest problem with the NFLN initiative is the precedent. By forcing cable companies to make a sepific program available to every subscriber and making every subscriber pay, the door is open for HBO and the rest of the premium programs to follow.

If NFLN wants to be in every home, they can damn well drop thier price to subscriber to a few cents, not a buck a head. If they get their way, and the cabel companies are required to give NFLN to every subscriber regardless of cost, what makes you think the NFLN won't raise the price. And if they do, your bill goes up, along with 10 million people who don't even watch NFLN.

Where's the justice in that?

 

[Pujo]

Wrong.

Your cable bill goes up because cable companies pay for the programming they get and pass the charge onto you. Some programs cost pennies per subscriber, some cost a buck.

So in that case, Comcast's profits would remain flat. Why, then, are Comcasts profits skyrocketing?

http://www.cmcsk.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=118591&p=irol-earnings

Believe me, both Comcast and NFLN have their hand in the cookie jar. And we're the cookie jar.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Your cable bill goes up because cable companies pay for the programming they get and pass the charge onto you. Some programs cost pennies per subscriber, some cost a buck.

NFLN charges Comcast a buck for every subscriber that gets NFLN.

The biggest problem with the NFLN initiative is the precedent. By forcing cable companies to make a sepific program available to every subscriber and making every subscriber pay, the door is open for HBO and the rest of the premium programs to follow.

Gawd I hate defending Comcast and their ilk but this is dead on. Once a precedent is set wherein a cable company is forced say by legislation to carry one premium offering, the lawyers for the others will (and should) follow. The consumer would get hosed and would be without recourse. I really object to any legislative intervention here for that reason.

As a cheap, I mean thrifty, person with some Scottish ancestry I was lucky enough to just watch free OTA broadcast TV until 3 years ago when I moved from Metrowest MA to Seacoast NH and started paying for TV. Och!

 

[SoonerPatriot]

Cox has a portion of NFLN, but not the full Sunday Ticket. That is on lockdown by Direct TV, because that's the only thing keeping that satalite company afloat is the fact that they are the only company to offer the sunday ticket.

You bring up a good point. I have Cox as wel. I'm having trouble figuring out the NFL's strategy with some of their moves with broadcasting.

When they re-upped with DirectTV the league talked about it being the best option for their fans. That's patently false. The number of cable subscribers in this country dwarfs that of both Dish and DirectTV.

If they really cared about their fans, they'd make the same product available to their cable companies and let the consumer choose. The NHL and the NBA are both on inDemand, which is basically a consortium of cable companies' answer to the NFL Ticket for those sports. It's not like it hasn't been done.

I go back and forth between keeping my current cable set up and switching to DirectTV. What keeps me from switching is the nickle and diming you get with satellite. THere are advantages to both. DirectTV has more HD, but you have to pay for it. I don't pay for HD with Cox. We have cable in 3 rooms with digital and a DVR in the living room and analog basic in the two bedrooms. Currently i dont have to pay for that, but if I had sat. it would be 5 bucks a month per room extra for essentially the same thing.