It won't be similar to CSN at all, at least in terms of the depth. They're cutting back nearly 3/4 of the staff. You'll get the local professional games, a couple of pre-/post-game shows, and that'll be it. I completely disagree that the average sports fan would pay an extra $10/month for the channel. Either that, or there simply aren't many sports fans here. Direct TV did the math and decided that even an extra $1.00-to-$1.50 per subscriber (I'm guessing that was the gap) would be detrimental to their bottom line, so they chose not to add it. There wasn't a conspiracy to avoid Direct TV or any other provider. Those providers simply decided that demand was not there to justify making a carriage deal, even at an extra dollar or two per subscriber. So with them not in charge, they're approaching this from a much lower cost structure, which will mean the product isn't that close to what CSN was. At least in terms of the depth. I'm sure the games themselves will be just fine.
There's nothing to say they can't add new programming over time if viewership and ad revenue warrant it.
Haven't read all the posts. This is all I want to know. Will Rockets games still be shown on the CSN channel 39 if you have comcast? If yes to above, who will be the in studio pre-game and post-game analysts?
Sure. But given how tough those negotiations were the past two years, it's going to take some time. They're going to want a reasonable sample. But yes, if people watch in big volumes, there's some hope.
Fox is a content provider. AT&T and Dish are not. We will see. I would keep my expectations low. Maybe they will "hire" a high school intern or a UofH student to produce pre/post game coverage.
Lol read the last few pages...random aside but who is this houactuar person? Troll is hard in this one...but I suppose entertaining to some degree
I'm really surprised by this reaction? Where is the tolerance for a diversity of opinion? Do we need censorship and a Spanish Inquisition to protect the one true faith or point of view of the majority? Do we need to purge libraries of non-PC thoughts? Fahrenheit 451? Lighten up Francis. Feel free to agree to disagree with my point of view. But censorship and banning should be reserved for obscenity or insulting rudeness going beyond acceptable trash talking. I find I am guilty of neither. I have the utmost respect for your right to disagree with me. In America, we generally value free speech, even if we may disagree with the message and fight for the right for people to speak their minds.
Should a board or poster not attempt to be entertaining? I may exaggerate from time to time, or sprinkle in some irony or satire. I can't understand why that creates such a negative reaction at times. Haters gonna hate I suppose. Can't win with the haters. I liked my CSN. It's sad to me that AT&T played hard ball against their competitor and refused to agree to a reasonable carriage fee. But they were able to win simply because not enough consumers demanded that their provider carry Astros and Rockets games. Providers determine the value of content based on consumer demand and there was simply not enough consumer demand to force AT&T to come to the table to negotiate. That is why they won, and Houston sports fans lost the last couple years and into the future by having a worse channel.
All I care about now is when is it going to be on Direct TV and what channel? Even though ballstream was not bad last year...nothing beats watching it on HD TV!
I'm confused. I just got off the line with Dish, and the CSR there told me they would be showing all the Rockets games if I ordered the Fox Sports SW package. However, I am not confident that what he was telling me is accurate, particularly since he did not know where the Rockets play nor that Yao Ming is retired. Does anybody know for sure whether Dish will carry all the Rockets games via a Fox Sports SW channel?
The channel could literally just show me the Rockets and Astros and I could be as happy as can be. Sucks for you guys that had Comcast and were able to watch the channel (and also to the people that lost their jobs) but for those of us that have had to be stuck with streams the past two years this is great news.
