So much fail in this post. Everything has a value and CSN vastly overvalued their product. ATT would certainly want to broadcast the games and reap the benefits of having local sports teams be shown on their lineup as long as the price matches the value.
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/news/2014/09/root_sports_houston.php if someone else already posted this, sorry.
But they may be bundled along with the fox channels in a sports package, and the price for that package may go up.
LOL! This guy is a typical cable/Satellite Clerk. It's best to just do your own research these days. These people don't know anything about local sports markets. To answer you question, no FSSW will not be carrying the Rockets games. There will be a new channel with ROOT sports that will handle the local sports team. All that I have seen is that it will be available to AT&T, Directv, and Comcast. No word on Dish network yet. I suspect that if the carriage fees are reasonable that Dish will carry the channel as well. They don't want to lose customers, and if you have a satellite already, what's to say you wont just switch to Directv. Hope this helps.
Yeah that guy is just stating BS. I've had reps with both Uverse and Comcast do the same when I renegotiated my cable a few weeks ago. They said things that were unquestionably false with such certainty. I think I almost made the Uverse rep cry when I explained to him why he was full of crap. That is a good read. Thanks for sharing. This part will be useful for some who've been asking:
Thanks. I am waiting to see what happens before switching. However, I had an intense feeling that this CSR operated in never-never land. I should have hung up when he first tried to tell me that NBA-TV would carry all the Rockets games.
It seems the fee was reasonable compared to other fees paid in other markets. I'm not going to bother to look up the exact fees but the Lakers carriage fee is supposed to be about $3.50. Now you may say that LA is a bigger market than Houston. True. But the Lakers are not the only game in town either. In fact, the Clippers are a more popular team right now. So even if you allow for half of LA to be lakers fans (I'm guessing it's more like 60/40 in favor of clippers, but I'll be generous) half of LA market is fairly comparable to all of Houston market. The Dodgers carriage fee is more than $5. So if you added Lakers and Dodgers you would be around $9. Now clearly today's Astros can't comand Dodger pricing, but they are worth something. We have McClain to blame for that. Terrible owner who left the cupboard dry, and Crane who wants to build cheap with one of the lowest payrolls in baseball. So the original price was in the $3.75 range, but AT&T wasn't willing to pay what the going price is in other markets. And consumers didn't raise enough of a stink about not getting games. So I guess there are not enough real sports fans in Houston as there are in other markets. I think Comcast has regional sports networks in the Bay Area, Philly, Baltimore,... so I don't think they just made up a number that was not competitive in other markets.
I was reading an older article about what went wrong. Sounds to me like it was mostly the Astros and Crane. Sounds like Comcast was more than willing to lower the carriage fees. But the Astros were an owner too and refused to make deals. The Astros were being paid about $50M per year. Meanwhile the rangers get $80M per year from Fox. It sounds like the fees to the teams are reasonable, but Crane wanted the partnership or network to be profitable as well which it would not be if they accepted lower carriage fees. So part of the blame belongs to the Astros owners, McClane and Crane for running a crappy franchise. McClane totally destroyed a good team when he fired the GM who built a championship contender, Gerry Hunsicker, and replaced him with Tim Purpura who did nothing, and then Ed Wade. Of course, if McClane had replaced some bats lost from the 2004 team (Beltran, Kent, Bagwell,...) they probably could have won the World Series in 2005 instead of just getting there and then swept. The pitching of Pettitte, Clemens and Oswalt got them there but they were worn out with lack of run support. After 2005, Purpura, Ed Wade and McClane let the team go to hell. The product on the field today is crap. No one is at the games, and no one wants to watch on TV. I think even Rockets fan demand is not that high. So bad timing all around. It was probably an uptick when they landed Dwight for sure. But, they still had a first round exit in the playoffs. Too many disappointing years of promise with McGrady and Yao. Lots of talent, generally getting hurt. And before that it was Stevie Franchise and Cat Mobley. It's been a long time since Olajuwon and having a real contender in the NBA. So Houston sports fans are too many band wagon fans. The Astros stink and the Rockets haven't had playoff success in a very long time. Bad timing to negotiate a TV deal. Casual sports fans didn't care to fight for the quality network. We all lose.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/spo...t-wrong-with-Comcast-SportsNet-4929307.php#/0 Here's a link to article from last October: Sounds like Comcast wanted to end the hold out and accept lower carriage fees, but the Astros as majority owner said no: So the Astros needed more carriage fees to pay off for overpaying to buy the team. Given the product they put on the field, a minor league team the last several years, the team was not worth the purchase price or the carriage fees they wanted. McClane and Crane are the root of the problem. They sold out the fans and 50 years of National League history all to make a few more bucks.
Probably better to read the judge's comments on negotiations...and the Rockets letter to the judge regarding their efforts to negotiate on behalf of CSN-H, where they said there simply isn't a deal out there, and that short of Comcast buying them all out there would be no solution to reorganize around. One offer was presented by Comcast to the Rockets and Astros to consider. By one carrier. That's it. One.
Astros (46 percent), Rockets (32 percent) and Comcast/NBC (22 percent). It was a three headed monster. Comcast can't agree to a deal with AT&T unless the Astros and Rockets agree. The Astros did not want to agree to a lower carriage fee. So the only option was to buy out the Astros or sell the network. The Astros would not agree to sell to comcast (for a reasonable amount, just like they would not agree to more reasonable carriage fee - given their piss poor product on field) so that is why the network was sold instead of reorganized under comcast which would have resulted in a better product.
Another issue is that the Astros have a coverage area to the west in San Antonio and to the east in Louisiana whereas the Rockets are precluded from those markets by Spurs and Pels. Its hard to negotiate deals when owners are divided and have competing interests. AT&T certainly did not want the network to succeed. It was sabotaged by disunity from within and shrewd business from without and too much consumer apathy because of the Rockets lack of playoff success and the Astros not having a major league product on the field.
Again..one offer in a year or so was presented by Comast to the Rockets and Astros for consideration. One offer from one carrier. One. And it was one that the judge ultimately said was so low that they were wise to reject it, because it would have caused the network to bleed cash for nearly a decade.
So, AT&T never made a reasonable offer. Interesting. AT&T starred down the competition to make sure the network would fail. Not many AT&T customers complained or left, so why should they agree to pay a fee? Well done.
Who is to say the offer wasn't reasonable? Price is where supply meets demand. Just because the offer was rejected doesn't necessarily mean the offer was unreasonable. And this same battle is playing out throughout the country. It's not unique to Houston. LA fans haven't been able to watch their first place Dodgers all year. Portland has gone for years without having full coverage of the only pro sports team they have in that town. There's a larger war happening over RSN's...Houston was just one of the battles.
I guess I'm a bit confused as to who gets this new Root Sports Houston network and rockets/astros games. I understand Houston will get it if they have DirecTV for example. But, will I get it up here in D/FW on DirecTV? Or, do I need to buy NBA League Pass again? I used to get games on FSSW way back when...but not every Rockets game...only home games I think. I seem to recall the Rockets road games were usually aired on a different network/channel that was only local. I guess I'm going to cancel NBA League Pass and see how this plays out. I can always sign back up if I don't end up getting the games. I don't see why I wouldn't get the games. I assume this new channel will just be another 600-something channel on DirecTV with all the other sports channels.
One must be careful of NBA League Pass. If you live in Houston, all the home games are blacked out, although you can catch the game on replay. Just don't listen or read anything that gives current scores so you can enjoy the game as if it were "live." For $150 to $200 that is the compromise -- or bow to the pressure and switch providers.
I don't understand why you want to be such a bully. If you don't want to have a conversation, fine. But are you going to bully everyone who wants to discuss things? Is your name Richie Incognito?
