I still somewhat think the rebuild is serious and we will keep the better ones together. When crane bought the team I really liked what I was hearing about the rebuild. Everytime he opens his mouth though, it becomes clearer and clearer that he does not give a crap about the fan base and the city. What we can hope for now is that HE personally really wants to own a great team that HE can watch
I think Altuve, Dominguez, Carter all have a great chance to be here on some good teams. Maxwell could be a really good 4th OF in my opinion. Castro is obviously off to a horrible start, I still think he has the ability to be a good (not great) mlb catcher. And i'm not saying I think JD Martinez is going to be a great mlb player, or even a good one . . .but why the heck is a guy like Ankiel playing when Martinez, our youngest OF, sits??
That was actually tongue in cheek. I have been an Astros fan since going to my first game in 1979. We got HSE when it first was available so we could watch the home games. Prior to that, we would listen on the radio. The stories go on and on. The team has made it so I cannot watch the games. For now, I will use MLB Extra Innings to follow my second favorite team...the Seattle Mariners.
Oh, cool . . .i'm the same way, HSE was the best thing since . .well, the best thing ever at the time!
I have been following them since 2004...long before we got moved into the same division. All I can say right now is I am thankful that the Astros will not face Felix Hernandez during the upcoming series in Seattle.
I have a love for two great cities. Houston and Seattle are easily my two favorite places. Unfortunately, both have come with some pretty bad baseball recently. Unlike the Astros, the Mariners upgraded their lineup this year by adding Morse and Morales. Last night, I found myself watching the Seattle game while keeping p with the Astros via ESPN Scorecenter. Regardless of how bad the Astros are, I miss watching the games.
'CSN Houston declines offer by Suddenlink' Suddenlink Communications made a new offer Monday to pick up Comcast SportsNet Houston for its Houston-area subscribers, but its limited terms prompted network officials to decline the deal. Monday’s exchange of statements was a rare public moment in the ongoing talks between the network, owned by the Rockets, Astros and NBC Sports Group, and major providers, including Suddenlink, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, Dish Network and AT&T U-verse, that have been unable to reach terms on carriage agreements. “We’re committed to providing the best service and programming to our customers, and this includes providing access to home team sporting events,” officials with Suddenlink, which services the Kingwood area in Houston and dozens of markets across the state, said in a statement. “For that reason, we’ve offered to make Comcast SportsNet (CSN) Houston available to customers in and around the Houston area, on a dedicated package of sports channels, at the per-customer price established by CSN Houston’s owners.” As expected, CSN Houston officials declined the offer late Monday afternoon. “While we are pleased to see that Suddenlink is responding to the demand for CSN Houston, an offer to be placed on a limited tier that would restrict the channel’s availability among Houston area fans of the Astros, Rockets and Dynamo is not consistent with Suddenlink’s treatment of other regional sports networks, including Fox Sports Southwest,” CSN Houston president and general manager Matt Hutchings said in a statement. “This offer is also not consistent with the high demand for live event programming, especially for a channel that offers three Houston-based professional teams.” No major regional sports network is offered on a dedicated sports tier in its home market, so CSNH’s rejection of the Suddenlink offer was expected. Sports tiers are available at an extra fee and generally are subscribed to by a small fraction of a provider’s total audience. CSN Houston is seeking distribution similar to those that carriers have with all other RSNs, including Fox Sports Southwest, which call for carriage on basic or expanded basic service.
Yep. They want it on basic tier (highest possible number of subscribers) but at their nosebleed fee ($3.40-3.50, higher than almost any other cable channel but ESPN). Longhorn Network the Sequel.
Right you are and that is how the "TV game" is played these days. CSN & Crane have to get on the basic tier so that the non-sports subscribers will end up paying for something they will never use (CSN). ESPN charges $5 per subscriber and, as I posted earlier, the other regional sports networks are also approaching the $5 threshold so what CSN is asking is not really out of line in that respect. But, from the carriers' POV, there is simply no incentive to make this deal because they don't see any money to be made here. It's not as if there exists a huge untapped advertising market among Rockets, Dynamo & Alastros fans so why would they (carriers) agree to something that will raise their costs (which will have to be passed on their subscriber base) that does not appear to provide much revenue in return? CSN does not possess additional programming like a Fox that can be used as leverage so they really have no choice but to take the position they are taking. The end result is looking more and more that Alastros games won't get televised this season in their home market and around the state. That sound you hear is the Texas Rangers laughing all the way to the bank.
Heck, by then we may be moving toward an a la carte model, and this whole thing will have been fruitless.
As a Suddenlink customer in a town where they would be my only chance to see the Astros without switching providers, this saddens me. Why couldnt they agree to a short term deal like this? Most sports fans with suddenlink already have the extra sports package. Is it not possible to do a 1-2 year deal like this and then renegotiate once the demand shows it needs to be on the regular package?
Me too. Oh well, I'm about to cancel my cable with suddenlink anyways. I watch shows and movies on HBO GO and MAX GO so I don't need it. Can't watch the stros or Rockets anyways, and Texans are on CBS the majority of the time. I also have free access to all the ESPN channels in HD via watchespn....so no point really.
I totally get why CSN would refuse any offer that puts the channel on a premium tier. They have a total number in mind which is how they get their $3.40 number. But that's based on everybody with cable paying that fee. If you drastically reduce the number of subscribers, then they're not going to get anywhere close to the total revenue they have in mind. Most of us would be fine paying $3.40 a la carte for the channel. But CSN is never going to reach their revenue goal that way (won't even get close to what FS-Houston is getting) which is why it will never happen. If they offered the channel as part of a premium tier or a la carte, they'd have to jack up the price further to reach their goals. Revenue goal/subscribers = per subscriber fee. Fewer subscribers = larger per subscriber fee in order to reach revenue goal. So I'm with CSN as far as wanting the channel on the standard tier. And when a deal gets done, it'll likely be better for those of us that would watch the channel anyway than. That's about the only thing I agree with. I'm kind of hoping that this is a negotiating tactic from DirectTV and Suddenlink. They're saying "Hey, $3.40 is a high number. We'll give you it if we can put the channel on a premium tier. But if you want it on the standard tier, your price is going to have to come down. You can either have the price you want or the tier you want to be on but you can't have both."
The cable and satellite providers' positions will improve by the day with only a handful of regular season Rockets games left and an Astros team that may challenge modern day records in futility. High prices for bad content does not reflect what the market will bear. Someone should do the math to find out if it would be cheaper for the providers to buy tickets to the Astros' games for the few fans that are actually going to want to watch rather than overpay for a poor product. Game, set, match, DirecTV, et. al.
Agreed. I have no desire to watch the LAstro's anymore. The American league move made me mad and the way Crane is screwing Rocket's fans in this CSN fiasco, I could care less to ever watch them again. I definitely do not want my Direct TV bill to go up because of his greed.
