"We understand and appreciate the fans passion but this happens all the time. The best advice I can give it to call your provider and visit we want Comcast dot com blah blah blah blah....."
Well from my understanding Comcast wants their channel to be free so that they can get money from every satellite customer. I'm sure the satellite companies would be happy to work out an a-la carte deal (where we specifically buy that one channel), and of course many of us would be willing to pay that, but in all honesty its not in Comcast's best interest to give a rat's ass about the fans right now. They want to get as many people to sign onto Comcast now and worry about rating and ad revenue later.
Guessing there's something in Comcast's agreements with the Rockets and Astros that this channel, by Date X, has to be on Y number of televisions within the Houston market. Does not serve either franchise well to have games go missed...to have games being televised to only 40% of the TV's in Houston. That blows. Their ratings are going to be terrible. That's why I don't believe this will last long.
From Carl's link--Tad Brown: We just had a caller call in and say he was mad at the Rockets about the TV deal. It's your station, all your money, and you're asking us to go and get our providers to change over and get Comcast. What do you say? I completely understand. I'm mad at the Rockets too. I don't have the station either. Did you pound your provider? I'm killing my provider right now! I completely understand the frustrations. It's not an out but these are very normal courses negotiations between the carriage companies and the network. Comcast is doing the best job they can in controlling the process. You may see there are similar things going on out in LA. Their carriage is limited as well. It comes down to the last minute, often times. If it were as easy as the team saying "OK, let's just go in and make this happen", some of these things would happen quicker but it's not that easy. These things are very complicated & very integrated relationships between ourselves, our partners, the Astros & Comcast. And Comcast is running the point. They're the experts. We're trying to work with them to make sure we get our carriage as quickly as possible. All of our fans, we appreciate your patience and appreciate your passion. Best thing is to do is fire up the carriage providers right now. IwantCSNHouston.com, call in your carriage provider and put the pressure on that you can, just as we're doing, just as Comcast is doing. Active negotiations with every single carriage provider going on right now, we've had multiple calls in the last couple days, and I know Comcast is on the phone in the morning, all through the day. We're hopeful we get something done very soon. In 1997, when there was disputes between our previous network provider and the team, that didn't get done until really about 15 minutes before game time. It's not uncommon for these things to fall all at once. Once one falls, they kinda start to steamroll. That's what we're pushing our partners at Comcast to get done. Right now we totally sympathize with the fans, ask for a little bit of patience, and help us push those providers to get our network on the air. Any clarity on where league pass fits in with this whole thing? My understanding is not locally, no. The blackout restrictions would take place locally. As we understand, if you get it done at 5:30 today, they just flip the switch and we'll see it huh? That's the plan. We're pushing as hard as we can too. We're for, whether good or bad, we're in the same position. Not only me but Mr. Alexander, our staff, our organization, we want this to get done as quickly as possible. We feel the pain that our fans do. These things happen all the time across the networks. They happen all the time between the cable operators. Once a deal is struck, it's live immediately. Then the paperwork follows. We'll be pushing for that as much as we can.
Yes, but... When the cable provider pays more for content, they either have to settle for thinner margins or pass the cost to their customers. When CSN receives less for the content they are selling, they accept thinnner margins or pay less to the Rockets (if their contract allows it). CSN can't pass the cost to us, only the cable provider can. So, unless you want to pay more for TV, the pressure should go on CSN for charging so much, not the cable provider for their unwillingness to pay. Forget fair; anyone who pressures a cable company to pay CSN more is potentially taking money out of their own pockets to do it. Ideally, CSN would charge nothing and cable companies would have more room to compete with one another on price. Put another way, cable companies operate in a semi-competitive market whereas CSN is a monopolist. Why the hell would a consumer side with a monopolist?
Wouldn't it be ironic (dont cha think) if this was all settled 30 minutes before tipoff tonight? To tell you the truth, it wouldn't surprise me one bit.
Agreed, eventually (I hope, but the Portland situation scares me) but certainly right now their best interest is to get as many customers to Comcast (be it die hards who can't miss a game or every sports bar in Houston-locking them in for at least a year long contract) After a period of time most of the customers who are going to switch will have done so and they will hopefully lower their asking price to the other major providers, but when that will be? Who knows?
Tonight, season ticket holders are invited to trick or treat in the suites. They're also going to show the game on the new tax funded indoor arena scoreboard. If your kids and you want to go trick or treating with me, I think you guys should go. Bam. Problem solved.
You're looking at this in a vacuum. There are plenty of adjustments cable providers can make to mitigate costs to customers. Fox Sports Southwest, for example, is now worthless to most Houston sports fans. There's no local sports content. Most shows are either Dallas-based or poker. Yet the Houston cable providers are still paying money to Fox for that channel that could instead go to CSN. It has nothing to do with being locked into a contract, either. They've known about the switch for two years, and instead chose to be lazy and greedy, sticking with what they know. When folks sign up for cable, one of the primary motivations for many is the ability to watch the games of local professional sports teams. This should absolutely be a priority for the providers. If they have to drop other less-relevant networks to fit CSN within their price range, they can and should do that.
There's no way your understanding is correct. Never in the history of major television deals has there been a network that was in demand that offered its rights to a distributor for FREE and got turned down. The issues ALWAYS come from the network wanting more money in fees from the carrier and/or wanting it on certain levels of programming packages. So example, they may want x dollars per subscriber AND want it to be on the lowest tier of programming (meaning cheapest).
not sure if anybody has said this yet but u can just download a ip blocker and use the nba league pass broadband. I live in college station and just downloaded one and my rocket game went from just audio on league pass to a watch option so i am guessing this should work for tonight with free trail.
Just called Direct TV and they gave me a $20 credit for 12 months(I just have one reciever). I'd much rather watch the games though.
DirecTV can't just drop Fox Sports Southwest in Houston and get out of any contractual agreements they owe them. When the carriers sign deals with networks they include length of contract AND they include requirements for what package they can be in. Fox Sports has established deals with the carriers throughout the country and requires DTV to offer all of them as part of their 2nd cheapest package. (I think it's 2nd, might be 3rd) DTV can't just drop it in Houston and save a bunch of money and then add CSN. These fights happen in every city where a regional network gets established with exclusivity. They want a ton of money because they think they know they can get it. Heck, NY didn't even get full coverage of the Knicks until the carriers caved to the network demands because they wanted Jeremy Lin's ratings!
but the contract with FSNSW should have been written with a contingency of carrying broadcasting for Astros and Rockets. If it didn't, the providers were idiots when negotiating the contract.
