Heard on 790 (The Rockets flagship) today that the rockets TV ratings were down 60% from last year. They said it was the largest drop from one year to the next in league history. Sorry, but I had to laugh and feel good when they said that
Gee...I wonder why that is. More importantly, I wonder what, if any, impact this will have on the team.
RSNs and antitrust (apologies if this reference has been posted previously): I am nowhere near Houston (or the United States for that matter), and I'm not that familiar with the dispute going on with CSN-Houston/Comcast and other distributors. I just want to make the following observations for general interest and thought: 1) From an antitrust perspective, there have continually been concerns about the ownership of regional sports networks by cable system operators with the idea being that the Comcasts and Time Warners of the world would raise costs or foreclose access by rival programming distributors (e.g. satellite). http://www.weil.com/news/pubdetail.aspx?pub=9015 2) There is an interesting case going on right now in which someone has sued all the leagues and all the providers (including the satellite guys) for conspiring to limit access to games. Specifically, the idea is that local RSNs, leagues and providers shouldn't be able to get together to black out out of market games and then force a viewer to buy the entire league. http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/end-of-the-dark-ages-lawsuits-put-spor-81591/ I have to think about this one and understand better what's going on in Houston. My initial reaction is that it's not applicable but it's interesting nonetheless and may (in the long run) have consequences for actual consumers. Not much help for 2012-2013 but food for though.
You know, shame on me for just now thinking of this, and frankly I would be stunned if nobody else mentioned this yet, but.. Seems to me, the real target for these protests and for the complaints should be directed at the ADVERTISERS on CSN. If people start to seriously send letters and complain to the advertisers on CSN, and I mean some real genuine pressure, then THAT is when CSN starts feeling the heat, and consequently so do the Rockets and Astros. Has anyone happened to have compiled a list of the (major) advertisers on CSN, and particularly the Rockets broadcasts? I would happily jump on the wagon of sending furious letters to those advertisers.
Ad revenues have been mentioned, but I dont think anyone has brought up the idea of putting pressure on the advertisers themselves. Not really sure what good that would do, advertisers react to ratings and I'm sure they are already well aware of the lack of eyeballs on the channel by now. All it does for them is allow the advertisers to negotiate for lower costs and allow them to put the money saved to buy more time on channels with better ratings. The only advertisers that *might* have a stake in the ratings of the Rockets broadcasts would be the major sponsors that have partnerships with the Rockets. It would be a waste of time to complain to the ones that arent directly connected to the Rockets
The advertisers pay by the amount of eyeballs, they get less viewers they pay less for the ads. They choose to spend or not spend by the effect of the money spent. You can bet Comcast has done calculations on the best possible returns over the term of their contract. I assume they can lose money for this year (or more) but make it up and more over the following years by holding out for the terms they want. So I wouldn't get too emotional about protests, boycotts or signing petitions. The cold hard bottom line is all that matters to them or Uverse. you are pawn in game of life Mongo
A Majority of the people on this thread have certainly not compiled a list of advertisers on csn, as most of us can't watch csn
If you're relatively tech savvy (bolded to prevent sarcastic comments, and so that you know that if you're not tech savvy STOP READING )and subscribe to NBA League Pass Broadband you can watch every game this season (except NBA TV televised games but I can get to that later) Get league pass via your cable or satellite provider. (you can also just pay for nba league pass broadband outright but it'll be more expensive) Once you are signed up, go to http://nba.com/leaguepass and click activate league pass. You'll need your account number. Once it is activated, call your provider and CANCEL NBA League pass. You'll get prorated charges but your satellite/cable provider will NOT report to the NBA that you no longer are subscribed. (I did this) I then clear all my cookies using CCleaner, use a VPN service (You can use Hotspot Shield) , and go to the league pas broadband website and guess what? The Rockets game isn't blacked out as the VPN service (OF YOUR CHOICE) will mask your Houston I.P address. I then connect my laptop to my TV via HDMI and watch in HD. Now if you happen to have an Android device (unfortunately has to be Android, no iphone or iPad) AND have a DirecTV receiver that is connected to the Internet you can download the DirecTV Android app and use the "LIVE TV" option. NBATV is featured and WILL NOT be blacked out on the Android version. I have tried on the iPad and iPhone and it is blacked out. You then may be asking, "I don't want to watch the NBATV games on my phone" Simple... buy a microhdmi adapter for your android device, hook it up to your HDMI port on your televison. Want to watch games while you're away from home but happen to be in the Houston area and have an Android device? Download FakeGPS https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lexa.fakegps&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5sZXhhLmZha2VncHMiXQ.. set your location to Oklahoma city, uninstall NBA GameTime, go to your phone settings and under location settings remove the checkmark under "USE WIRELESS NETWORKs" AND/OR "use google location service" , then re-install NBA GameTime, log into your nba league pass account, and VOILA... The Rockets games are NOT blacked out . I've been doing this for the past two weeks since I switched to DirecTV and have not missed a single game and have been able to watch in HD.
Ok sorry if this has already been explained but God knows I don't have time to read through a 101 Page thread lol... My situation is that I had Comcast but I moved into a new home in a more rural area and comcast is saying that their service is not available in my area. So up went the DirecTv dish and WildBlue internet :/ ... My question, being that I have never had it before is, if I get league pass will I be able to see every game? I appreciate the input in advance.
Remember the good old days when you could just turn on channel 20 and tape the game if you had to? Yeah, progress is so cool.
I remember the TV51 days too. Yeah, unfortunately the stuff I do is rather tedious but it's worth it for my Rockets lol
I remember Channel 20, the picture looked like it was being beamed from the moon and they forgot to pay the light bill at the Summit.
Yeah. Though I appreciate all the information posted by Scionxa, I shouldn't have to a) break the law and b) download a bunch of questionable software c) screw over someone else (the cable companies) to watch my Rockets. I should be able to come home, grab a beer from the fridge, and turn on my tv to see the Rockets. This is the way sports are done all across the country. Also, it just had to happen in maybe the most exciting Rockets season in the past decade. Why couldn't this crap happen last season. What I wouldn't give to have that ****ty feed again.
I watched more Rockets games this season legally when I lived in DFW and had Uverse400 than now living in Houston with the same service. My dad has Comcast tho, so I go watch games with occassionally, but usually its firstrow. Hopefully in the playoffs they highlight this on the broadcasts. JVG will say something.
It's not easy, but it works. You guys can take it or leave it but if you're desperate enough to watch your Rockets and don't want to deal with the crap streams well now you know. As far as someone commenting on the fact that they don't want to use sketchy software, you can use any VPN service you want. If you don't know what a VPN is, google it.
I don't have time to look back at each page, so I apologize if this has been posted already. http://www.kakibara.com/ Enjoy!
